At the Frankfurt Book Fair taking place these days, GO! 2025 is also among the protagonists, in one of the halls overlooking the main square of the Italian Pavilion. In the room dedicated to the European Capital of Culture, Piazza Transalpina/Trg Evrope, the common square, has indeed come to life. On the walls, the documentary Spovednica tihotapcev/Confessionale dei contrabbandieri by Anja Medved (Kinoatelje), an immersive video with images of the two cities of Gorizia made by videomaker Davide Bernardis using Point Cloud technology, and the trailers of the short films of the Corti senza confine competition. The set-up is the result of a collaboration: the design is by Studio Butmaybe, coordinated by Creaa for GECT GO in dialogue with Stefano Boeri Architetti, who curated the entire Italian pavilion.

‘In this space, the video suggestions linked to the border, and to its overcoming, will intertwine with the words of the writers, to restore those two ‘halves of a circle, divided, but united’, Gorizia and Nova Gorica, two cities located where the easternmost corner of the Latin world meets the Slavic world. Gorizia, a thousand-year-old city; Nova Gorica (literally the ‘new Gorizia’), a futuristic city born after the First World War. Two souls, the Latin and the Slavic, that have mingled and clashed and that today, after the tumultuous 20th century, together will become the first cross-border European Capital of Culture, proving that the border that has long been an emblem of division has become a concrete opportunity for development,’ says Romina Kocina, director of EGTC GO.

In the coming days, Director Kocina will meet several authors in this space. The writer and poet Gian Mario Villalta, artistic director of the Pordenonelegge Festival, will visit Frankfurt's Piazza Transalpina, followed by the Slovenian writer and screenwriter Miha Kosovel, editor of the magazine Razpotja, and on Saturday morning by the writer Diego Marani, winner of the 5th Friuli Venezia Giulia Literary Prize ‘Il racconto dei luoghi e del tempo’. On Saturday afternoon, at 5.30 p.m., Diego Marani will also participate in the round table Friuli Venezia Giulia, a place of words and stories, promoted by Friuli Venezia Giulia with representatives of the Friulian publishing industry.

GO! 2025 and intercultural relations will be the focus of a meeting on Sunday, 20 October at 10 a.m., when the mayor of Gorizia, Rodolfo Ziberna, will talk with the regional councillor for culture, Mario Anzil. The mayor of Nova Gorica, Samo Turel, had also announced his presence at the meeting, but he will have to remain in Nova Gorica due to an exceptional event, namely the defusing of the bomb and the evacuation, following the discovery of the unexploded ordnance during the construction site of the Nova Gorica railway station.