Trieste, “Return to the Balkans”: three events to reflect on war and peace

A journey between past and present, between architecture, history and literature. This is the theme of the series of meetings “Return to the Balkans,” organized at the Ubik bookstore in Trieste by the Meridiano 13 Cultural Association in cooperation with the Trieste Film Festival, dedicated to recent Yugoslav and European history. It begins on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. with the presentation of “Traveling in the Footsteps of the Spomenik” (Bottega Errante), the latest book by Gianni Galleri, already the author of works such as Balkan Football Club (Bottega Errante) and This is My Place (Urbone Publishing). In dialogue with the author will be Martina Napolitano, professor at the University of Trieste and president of Meridiano 13.

On Saturday, November 15, at the same time, the second event will be held, “Thirty Years since the Dayton Accords: yesterday, today, tomorrow,” a multi-voice reflection on the results of a fragile peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Protagonists of the talk will be Bosnian journalist Azra Nuhefendić, former cultural officer of the Italian Embassy in Sarajevo Gianluca Paciucci and Meridiano 13 journalist and author Marco Siragusa.

The cycle will conclude on Saturday, Nov. 22, also at 6 p.m., with the meeting “Bosnia and the Balkans, Thirty Years Later,” with Elvira Mujčić, translator and author of The Season That Wasn’t There (Guanda), in dialogue with Martina Napolitano.
The review aims to stimulate reflection, not only on the recent history of the Balkans but on the lessons that can be drawn from it to escape the condemnation of a present made up of wars and armed peace.