FESTIVAL DEL MEDITERRANEO – FONDAZIONE TRECCANI CULTURA
10–11 July 2025 | Ex Convento degli Agostiniani, Lecce
Fondazione Treccani Explores Voices, Memories, and Visions at Armonie del Mediterraneo
Two days to listen, remember, and imagine. On 10 and 11 July 2025, Fondazione Treccani Cultura brings its spotlight to the evocative spaces of the Ex Convento degli Agostiniani in Lecce with the Festival del Mediterraneo. This is a poetic and musical journey through a sea that has always been threshold and womb, boundary and embrace, division and bridge. Far more than a festival, it is an authentic gathering of voices, languages, and stories—a living dialogue between memories that endure and visions that cross the present.
The Festival del Mediterraneo is one of the highlights of Armonie del Mediterraneo, the summer series promoted by the Municipality of Lecce with the scientific and organizational support of the Agenzia per il Patrimonio Culturale Euromediterraneo and the contribution of TAP – Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the lead supporter of the initiative.
From 4 to 20 July, Lecce becomes a microcosm of the Mediterranean, transforming into a crossroads of arts, knowledge, and human connections, reaffirming its role as a place of encounter, listening, and coexistence. This initiative is part of the official program of summer events promoted by the Municipality of Lecce for 2025, highlighting the cultural and landscape heritage of the area with high-profile proposals accessible to the public, fostering the sharing of knowledge and dialogue between cultures.
Within this context, Fondazione Treccani Cultura offers two intensive evenings, conceived as a single continuum: words become passageways, sounds become roots and sails. A collective and intimate reflection on who we are and what we can still preserve, protect, and imagine.
The festival opens at 7:00 PM on Thursday, 10 July, within the historic walls of the Ex Convento degli Agostiniani. The first act of a shared journey of words, sounds, and Mediterranean visions begins. The audience is welcomed not with ceremony, but with a gesture of connection: Adriana Poli Bortone, Mayor of Lecce, and Massimo Bray, Director General of the Istituto della Enciclopedia Giovanni Treccani, inaugurate the experience—not merely as institutional figures, but as custodians of a project that carries the flavor of memory and the force of the future. Their remarks set the course for the evening.
At 7:30 PM, the cloister becomes a space for attentive listening: Poetry as a Tool to Narrate the Mediterranean, a dialogue between Albanian poet Gëzim Hajdari and writer and essayist Angela Bubba. Together, they explore the Mediterranean as a space of memory, conflict, migration, and resilience. Through poetic language, the Mare Nostrum emerges not just as a geographic space but as a cultural and human horizon, where languages mix and identities are redefined—a moment to reflect on poetry’s power to preserve stories, wounds, and visions for the future.
At 9:00 PM, words give way to music. Stefano Saletti, Fabia Salvucci, and Giovanni Lo Cascio perform a concert honoring the ancient language of Sabir, once a bridge between diverse peoples—fishermen, merchants, travelers, soldiers, lovers. The performance is a sonic exploration of past and present, where melodies intertwine with the deep roots of Mediterranean identity.
The second evening, Friday 11 July, begins at 7:00 PM with new waves, routes, and sounds. Being a Poet of the Eastern Mediterranean: Rhetoric of the Universal Hymn features Syrian poet Nouri Al-Jarrah, whose verses become instruments of memory and testimony, giving voice to those who have lost it, traversing pain, exile, and hope. He is joined by scholar and sensitive interpreter Monica Ruocco in a dialogue that opens new paths, addressing war, flight, and the possibility of resilience. Translation is provided by Fatima Sai, conveying both the sound and meaning of a language that becomes a bridge. Together, they create a profound encounter where poetry becomes living testimony.
Next, Teresa De Sio takes the stage for a reading accompanied by music, performing three essential and powerful pieces. Accompanied by guitarist Sasà Flauto, she narrates the Mediterranean through a language that blends tradition and contemporary experience: stories of women, migrations, love, and rebellion. Her voice combines song and storytelling, returning popular music to its original purpose: sharing memory, building connections, and inviting attentive listening.
The Festival del Mediterraneo, promoted by Fondazione Treccani Cultura within Armonie del Mediterraneo, confirms its status as a high-profile cultural event, placing poetic language, critical thinking, and music at the center as tools for dialogue between the shores of the Mare Nostrum.
These two days offer not only a meeting point for artistic and cultural experiences but also the creation of a genuine community of vision and intent, rooted in valuing intangible heritage and promoting the Mediterranean as a space of relation, listening, and cooperation.
Lecce, with its remarkable heritage and strong cultural institutions, once again proves to be a fertile ground for shared reflection, new horizons of meaning, and stronger bonds between different cultures. Fondazione Treccani Cultura, the Municipality of Lecce, and the Agenzia per il Patrimonio Culturale Euromediterraneo are committed to continuing this work, convinced that culture is a strategic resource for building a more open, aware, and supportive future.
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