Promoted by the City of Bellinzona, the festival brings together intellectuals, artists, musicians and performers from the international cultural scene every autumn, in the heart of the city’s historic centre, to reflect on the theme of the borders that cross our society.
SCONFINARE IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CULTURAL FESTIVAL
THE FESTIVAL
Launched in 2019 thanks to the work of the Education, Culture, Youth and Social Affairs Department of the City of Bellinzona (TI – Switzerland), Sconfinare Festival immediately emerged as a cultural event capable of attracting a heterogeneous audience. Articulated around a varied programme, involving prominent personalities from the international cultural scene, each year the Festival is distinguished by its interest in the theme of walls, barriers and borders (physical but also abstract and symbolic), which cross contemporary society. Boundaries that, each year, are combined with a specific ‘macro-theme’ (science, time, otherness and cultural hybridities, etc.), and are then analysed through the eyes of experts from different disciplinary fields. Boundaries which, however, at the same time, as the title of the event suggests, also serve as a starting point for trespassing into the language of the arts, of music, of poetry. A fascinating combination that contributes to making Sconfinare Festival a valuable element in enhancing the cultural profile of the City of Bellinzona in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
THE INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
A distinctive feature of Sconfinare Festival is the desire to bring together apparently distant disciplines, breaking down the boundaries that traditionally separate them. From neuroscience that dialogues with literature to cinema that interacts with art, from music that questions biomedical research to poetry that reflects on the metaverse, the trespasses proposed in the context of the Festival gives rise to unprecedented and engaging cultural experiences.
What is a boundary? What does the ambivalence of this term, which we use every day to define ourselves and the world we live in, consist of – and depend on?
THE VALUE OF COLLABORATIONS
Since the beginning, Sconfinare Festival has aimed to profile itself as a platform for exchange and networking in the cultural sphere. A central role, in this perspective, has been played by the partnerships signed with established cultural and scientific actors in Switzerland and abroad, who contribute to enriching and diversifying the cultural offer promoted by the Festival.
INTERACTION WITH URBAN SPACE
An event dedicated to trespassing requires, by nature, a setting that differs from those traditionally provided for cultural festivals of this kind: instead of a conference hall, a theatre or a cinema, Sconfinare Festival therefore chooses to locate itself in the heart of Bellinzona’s historic centre, on the Piazza del Sole. A public and convivial meeting place, which wishes to promote and foster dialogue between culture and urban space.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
A central aim of the Sconfinare Festival is the ever-increasing involvement of young audiences: from the meetings organised in collaboration with the region’s high schools – which bring together more than 200 students each year on the Piazza del Sole – to the ateliers and workshops for children that characterise the SconfinareYoung section, the Festival wants to make young people one of its main audience, in the conviction that being able to enthuse and involve children and young people is the key to cultivating the audience of the future.
Il team
SCONFINARE FESTIVAL
sconfinarefestival@bellinzona.ch
Dicastero educazione,
cultura, giovani e socialità
Vicolo Muggiasca 1a
6500 Bellinzona
T. +41 (0)58 203 17 00
