“1988-2024, Italy in Frankfurt: roots and future”. This is the title of the panel organized in SalTo by Italia Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024. A comparison between past and future in the wake of the ‘Roots in the future’ chosen as the motto of Italian participation in the 76th edition of the Buchmesse.
“’88 is a very important year in the life of Europe – recalls Stefano Rolando, former head of the Department for Information and Publishing of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Three years after the Milan summit which decides the market single, which will then decide the euro, and one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a moment in which Europe opens up not only to the economy, but also to culture: The economy is no longer the only glue, culture, languages, entertainment count for the new revaluations of internal relationships. Italy is chosen as guest of honor at the Frankfurt Fair, the most important book fair in the world. We accept the challenge, a wonderful pavilion is created in which 100 authors, 200 events throughout the city, men and women of Italian entertainment and culture participate. And it is a great success: above all of relations between two countries that did not speak vehicular languages, German and Italian, and which had great respect for each other’s cultural history.”
“Today we remember ’88 as ‘the other time’ – concludes Rolando – I wish Italy the same luck, the same success and the same possibility of having the respect in Europe that our history deserves”.