The series of meetings of the Ammajare OFF Festival, the autumn section of the Ammajare Festival promoted by the Intrecci Culturali association, kicks off with Franciscu Sedda. The first event was held yesterday afternoon in Sassari, at the Municipal Library – Palazzo d’Usini, where the full professor of Semiotics at the University of Cagliari presented his book The Unpredictable Happens (Bompiani), offering the audience a clear-eyed and passionate reflection on our present.
Sedda invited people to question the kind of world we live in, a world dominated by speed, individualism and a loss of trust in social mediators. He stressed the importance of “taking a step to the side”, of learning to “stay calm so as not to risk going under”, reminding us that the unexpected is not only what we fear, but also what makes life worth living. “I don’t have a recipe,” he said, “we must come to terms with the unpredictable, learning to interact with chance.”
Among the topics touched on were the relationship between science, technology and artificial intelligence, the age of individualism and dromocracy, the rule of speed in contemporary society. Sedda also spoke of the link between capitalism, money and desire, pointing out how desire has now remained the only thing to long for. Sedda also highlighted the many contradictions of the present, recalling that we live in “the best era mankind has ever lived”, provided we can face it with awareness and restraint.
The Ammajare OFF Festival continues today, Wednesday 12 November, in Porto Torres, with the presentation of the book The Price to Pay by Cristiano Idini (Il Maestrale). The meeting, scheduled for 6.30 pm at the Koinè Ubik Bookshop (Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, no. 40), will see the author in conversation with Giampaolo Cassitta in a new event in the “The Other Festival” section, dedicated to contemporary languages and new narratives.
The series will then continue in Sassari with three more meetings: Thursday 13 November with a reading on Emilio Lussu, featuring Gianluca Medas; Tuesday 18 November it will be Giampaolo Cassitta’s turn, who will present The Law of Donna Matilde (Arkadia Editore); the last Sassari event is scheduled for Thursday 20 November, when Rita Nappi will offer a historical-social overview of the Sardinian Healers between medicine, magic and the Inquisition.
The Ammajare OFF Festival is promoted by the Intrecci Culturali association, with the patronage of the Municipality of Sassari, the Autonomous Region of Sardinia and the Municipal Library System, and with the collaboration of the Fondazione di Sardegna, the Sassari Chamber of Commerce, the Witches’ Network – City of Siligo and the Koinè International Bookshop.
