On Wednesday, 10 July 2024, a cultural event took place in the Open-Air Museum Ravelnik near Bovec, organised by the Vicino-Lontano Association and co-organised by the Soča Valley Development Centre and the Walk of Peace in the Soča Region Foundation, as part of the WALKofPEACE+ project, Interreg Italy-Slovenia 2021-2027 Programme.
The evening was centred on a guest multimedia performance, On the Paths of Europe, by Italian artists Mattia Casona and Alessandro Conte, in collaboration with Mohamed 'Abd al-Mun'im, Syrian poet, writer and editor. The performance is at the heart of the "e" project, carried out by the non-profit cultural association Vicino-Lontano from Udine, with the support of the Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the regional tourism authority PromoturismoFVG and the European Capital of Culture 2025 (GO!2025) project. It opens up a discourse on the Europe we want to create and asks where Europe ends and "elsewhere" begins. It encourages reflection, the desire for cooperation and dialogue, and the hope that a better Europe is possible; a Europe so united that it transcends the concept of nation and so open that it transcends the concept of West.
Throughout On the Paths of Europe, two completely different stories by two different authors are intertwined, but it is really one. The first story is a 15th century Syriac manuscript describing the adventures of Alexander the Great in Africa and Asia. The second story is a contemporary novel by a Syrian refugee, Muhammad 'Abd al-Mun'im, who recounts his perilous journey from Aleppo to Ljubljana. The performance translates the two stories into a language of theatre, dance and film, which, while being distinctly multilingual, weaves together different time scales, from contemporary to ancient history, to share with the audience a discourse on the central role of migration in the history of Europe and, above all, on the need to see in contemporary migration the key to a more united Europe, a more Afro-Asian Europe, a more european Europe.
With the support of local co-organisers, performances and guided tours linked to local historical heritage have been and will continue to be held in many other places in the border area, from Carinthia, Primorska, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Istria. Yesterday's evening programme was thus complemented by an organised guided tour. Visitors were accompanied by a guide on a guided tour of the Ravelnik Open-Air Museum, the former first Austro-Hungarian line of defence on the Soča front, which is now part of the Walk of Peace from the Alps to the Adriatic. To make the experience even more authentic, members of the 1313 Association dressed in the uniforms of Austro-Hungarian soldiers and a dinner from the military cauldron helped to refresh the participants before the performance.
The second performance and guided tour on the Walk of Peace will take place next week, on 21 July 2024 in Kobarid.
Link to the project website and calendar of events: https://eforeurope.eu/en
The event at Ravelnik was also co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund as part of the activities of the WALKofPEACE+ project, Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia 2021-2027 Programme.
Project website: https://www.ita-slo.eu/en/walk-of-peace
