The Buk Festival returns to Modena on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th May

At today’s presentation, the awarding of the BUK 2026 Special Prize to the Pordenone writer Odette Copat was announced «for her ability to intertwine personal and professional experience linked to the world of disability with ironic and profound writing, and for the awareness-raising activity that has transformed personal experience into a collective resource for the understanding of neurodiversity», writes the artistic director Francesco Zarzana in the motivation. The 2026 recognition is delivered in a special year, that of Modena, the Italian Capital of Volunteering. On Saturday 9 May at 10am in the Sala del Leccio the festival opens with the inaugural conference Beyond inclusion, a focus that draws inspiration from the monograph New frontiers for support teachers (Armando Editore) by the pedagogist and researcher Patrizia Belloi. Eleonora Ambrosi of Alda, the European Association for Local Democracy which co-promotes the event, will speak with the author. Introduces the Rector’s Delegate for inclusion of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Giacomo Guaraldi, leads Gianni Ricci, Delegate of the Mayor of Modena on disability issues, among the Founders of Telefono Azzurro. Among the protagonists of the rich program are the Campiello Junior winner Angelo Petrosino, the former volleyball player Barbara Fontanesi, the great Dante expert Alberto Cristofari and Taylor Blackfyre, pseudonym of a cult author of the new trends between science fiction, ethics and philosophy. And again, Daniel di Schuler, Marta Gasparini, Alessandro Noseda, Alessandra Farinella, Ivana Sica, Mario Ventura, Isa Grassano, Giliola Colari, Gianluca Bota, Giuseppe Bonavina, Stefano Mazzacurati, Chiara Domeniconi, Marinella Brandinali, Antonio Scommegna, Daniele Marzeddu, Sara Codarin. And in a very special dialogue on the Praise of Arrogance, the latest work by the journalist and essayist Giuseppe Leonelli, the mayor of Modena, Mayor Massimo Mezzetti, will also be involved in BUK as an interviewer.

We have fun at BUK! Let’s build a book, a dual proposal for children and adults, on the weekend of the festival, created in close synergy with Hera, curated by the artist Elisa Pellacani. Info and program: bukfestival.it