The French writer Mathias Enard will be the protagonist of the Dedica 2022 festival

The French Mathias Enard, one of the most acclaimed and innovative contemporary writers, awarded Gouncort 2015 for “Bussola” (Edizioni e / o), a novel defined by critics as a “masterpiece”, the protagonist of the 28th edition of the Dedica festival, scheduled in Pordenone from 5 to 12 March 2022. The festival, organized by the cultural association Thesis, therefore returns to its traditional spring location after the 2021 edition which, following the emergency for the Covid pandemic, was unusually held in the last month of October. Enard is a very successful author (who does not, however, love literary salons and television stages) and whom Dedica has also chosen to continue his journey among writers who weave the thread of dialogue between different cultures, peoples and civilizations. His work, his poetics and his world will be explored for eight days and, “thanks to this figure that distinguishes us and remains unique in Italy – says Antonino Frusteri, president of the Thesis association – the protagonist of the festival is able to establish a close relationship with the public and with the city that hosts it. As stated by Paolo Rumiz, recent protagonist of Dedica, the author, in addition to feeling palpable attention and affection, takes leave with the clear perception of being in front of to a long and meticulous work that has formed a generation of readers, including young people: a compliment that makes us proud and repays for so much effort. “Born in 1972, Enard has a rich and eclectic biography. Graduated in art history, he then studied Arabic and Persian, lived for a long time in the Middle East and for more than twenty years has resided in Barcelona, ​​where he combines the teaching of Arabic literature at the University with as a translator. A great art lover, he is also the author of graphic novels.Since 2009 he has published a dozen books that tell adventurous stories, in scenarios ranging from the sunny Middle East to the misty landscapes of the Niort area (where he was born) , not far from the Bay of Biscay. Novels that contain an endless amount of notions, characters and places, works that, starting from a tiny detail, can connect a forgotten village to the Great History. “That of Enard – explains Claudio Cattaruzza, curator of Dedica – is a complex writing, full of citations, references to other authors, works and books. Often it forces the reader to read up, to deepen, peculiarities that in addition to bearing witness to an extraordinary intellectual and cultural depth, in some ways I would say that he approaches him to the narrator Umberto Eco. style is particular, very often he uses little punctuation and the final result is that of a narration that, like a river in flood, envelops and overwhelms. What is striking – continues Cattaruzza – is also his formidable ability to identify, often and willingly in situations that can be uncomfortable. In this regard, one of his emblematic books is La perfection del shooting, which tells the story of a young sniper of uring a civil war (which critics have established as Lebanon). Enard focuses deeply on this man who shows a total anesthesia of feelings, absence of morals and an unprecedented and raw violence, bringing the reader on the one hand into the psychology of the character, on the other by exposing the enormous damage that the it causes war on people by demeaning their humanity. Another feature of his is the fact that all his novels are set in different places and situations, from Italy in the Zone, his most complex and powerful book, to the circumnavigation of the East between Europe and Syria, in Bussola, then the leap into Russia and the long crossing of Siberia starting from Moscow in Alcohol and nostalgia up to Constantinople by Tell me about battles, kings and elephants, in which Enard imagines a Michelangelo at the court not of the Pope, but of the Sultan to attempt the a feat that Leonardo failed to do, that is, to build the bridge over the Bosphorus “. His latest novel,” The annual banquet of the brotherhood of gravediggers “(Edizioni e / o), is set in a tiny village, Saint-Christophe, in ‘West of France, not far from Poitiers, where Carlo Martello clashed with the Arabs of the Caliphate of Spain. dialogue elements and osmosis between them “. Bio-bibliography – Born in Niort, France, on 11 January 1972, after having trained in Art History at the École du Louvre, Enard studied Arabic and Persian. After long stays in the Middle East, in 2000 he settled in Barcelona, ​​where he collaborated with various cultural magazines. In addition to his activity as a professor of Arabic at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​he works as a translator. Among his works published in Italy we remember Breviary for aspiring terrorists (Nutrimenti, 2009), Zona (Rizzoli, 2011), Via dei ladri (Rizzoli, 2014), Bussola (Edizioni e / o, 2016), Alcohol and nostalgia (Edizioni e / o, 2017), The perfection of shooting (Edizioni e / o, 2018), Last speech to the Proustian society of Barcelona (Edizioni e / o, 2020), Tell me about battles, kings and elephants (Edizioni e / o, 2021) and The annual banquet of the brotherhood of gravediggers (Edizioni e / o, 2021) For his works Enard has received numerous prizes and awards including the Goncourt Prize (2015), the von Rezzori Prize (2017), the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Award (2018). He was a finalist at the Man Booker International Prize and at the European Strega Prize. THE ‘DEDICATES’ OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS Now in its 28th edition, the event debuted with protagonists of the research theater (in 1995 the Laboratorio Teatro Settimo, in 1996 Cesare Lievi, in 1997 the Compagnia Teatrale I Magazzini) and then in 1998 to Moni Ovadia, in 1999 to Claudio Magris, in 2000 to Dacia Maraini, in 2001 to Antonio Tabucchi, in 2002 to Amin Maalouf, in 2003 to Vassilis Vassilikos, in 2004 to Assia Djebar , in 2005 to Paco Ignacio Taibo II, in 2006 to Anita Desai, in 2007 to Amos Oz, in 2008 to Nadine Gordimer, in 2009 to Paul Auster, in 2010 to Hans Magnus Enzensberger, in 2011 to Cees Nooteboom, in 2102 to Wole Soyinka, in 2013 to Javier Cercas, in 2014 to Tahar Ben Jelloun, in 2015 to Luis Sepúlveda, in 2016 to Yasmina Khadra, in 2017 to Björn Larsson, in 2018 to Atiq Rahimi, in 2019 to Gioconda Belli, in 2020 to Hisham Matar , in 2021 to Paolo Rumiz.