Natalia Di Iorio to the Directorate General and Elena Di Gioia to the Artistic Directorate of Ert / Teatro Nazionale Modena
On the anniversary of the massacre at the Bologna station of 2 August 1980, Emilia Romagna Teatro offers on Friday 1 August from 20.30 in the cloister of the Arena del Sole in Bologna A public and collective reading that traces the 45 years spent since the day of the attack Until the recent sentence of the Court of Cassation, conclusion of one of the darkest and most painful chapters of our democratic life.
85 of August time to say to say – the title was donated with great generosity by Alessandro Bergonzoni – is A choral reading created by Ert in agreement with the association between the family members of the victims of the massacre at the Bologna station of 2 August 1980 and entrusted to towns and citizens, actresses and actors, representatives of institutions and associations. Significant steps of the sentence will be read, speeches, biographies and testimonies, selected thanks to the contribution of the historic Cinzia Venturoli. The direction of public reading is curated by Davide Iodice, with live music performed by Guido Sodo.
“The initiative of 1 August”, declares President Giuliano Barbolini “is a civil and choral gesture that Emilia Romagna Teatro promotes with a profound sense of public responsibility, In the year of the final sentence which confirmed principals and executors of the massacre of 2 August. An initiative that was born in Bologna but which involves, in a full and convinced way, all the cities in which the Foundation Opera – Modena, Cesena, Vignola and Castelfranco Emilia -, in a single and cohesive adhesion. The wound of the massacre concerns the entire democratic community of our country, it is a wound that appeals each of us ».
An artistic and civil rite, open, shared and also the first public signal of the new direction of Emilia Romagna Teatro, recently appointed in the figures of Natalia Di Iorio, general director and Elena Di Gioia, artistic director.
“To give personal and collective voice is the first symbolic and concrete act that we wanted to compose – underline Natalia Di Iorio and Elena Di Gioia – to join the wound of August 2 who has torn live lives and destinies and of democracy. We are close to the re -entitled association association, of composing memory today. Bond between 2 August and the language of theater, which was the first to be called to give voice to the pain with the unforgettable Lecture Dantis of Carmelo Bene by the Torre degli Asinelli, up to Antigone in the cities of Marco Baliani.
With a full thanks to the staff of Ert, to the many artists and artists, institutions, citizens and towns who, despite the short preparation times, have accepted this new beginning with extraordinary participation and this invitation “.
“It is an important step for the full realization of that right to the truth that belongs not only to the victims and their families but to all the Italian people on a fact that he represented The most serious terrorist act in the history of the Italian Republic»” Thus expressed the deputy attorney general of the Cassation, Antonio Balsamo, on the occasion of the Final sentence that on 1 July 2025 condemned the former national avant -garde terrorist Paolo Bellini to life imprisonment, recognized as one of the material executors of the massacre in which 85 people lost their lives and over 200 were injured. The sentence also confirmed – with names and acronyms – the reconstruction on instigators, financiers and organizers.
An artistic and civil ritual to which they have already joined – and other adhesions continue to arrive – over 90 between artistic personalities, civil society and citizens.
Between artists, artists and companies: Zeta Archive, Pietro Babina, Tamara Balducci, Simona Bertozzi, Mariano Dammacco and Serena Balivo, Marco D’Agostin, Michele Di Giacomo, Vittorio Franceschi, Nanni Garella, Mariangela Gualtieri, Kepler-452, Marco Manchisi, Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari, Fiorenza Menni, Eva Robin’s, theater of the Airgine. Winds, theater of the ariette; Among writers and journalists Marcello Fois, Milena Gabanelli, Paolo Nori, Valeria Parrella, Alessandra Sarchi.
Among the exponents of the institutions the mayors: Bologna – Matteo Lepore, Vignola – Emilia Muratori, Castelfranco Emilia – Giovanni Gargano; Councilor -I to Culture: Emilia -Romagna Region – Gessica Allies, Modena – Andrea Bortolamasi, Cesena – Camillo Acerbi; Councilor of Cesena: at the school – Maria Elena Baredi and youth policies and universities – Giorgia Macrelli.
The representatives of civil society: Paolo Bolognesi and Paolo Lambertini of the Association among the family members of the victims of the massacre, Daria Bonfietti president of the Parenti Association of the victims of the massacre of Ustica and Alberto Capolungo President Association Victims of the Uno Bianca.
Among the directions of cultural institutions: Cineteca di Bologna, Academy of Fine Arts, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, University of Bologna, Festival and regional reviews.
The choir of voices crosses 45 years, telling the biographies of the victims – of people killed and of those wounds – the testimonies of those present, the speech pronounced at the station in 1981 by Torquato Secci, the first president of the association, the one held last year by Paolo Bolognesi and the fundamental steps of the sentence of 1 July 2025. A story that fully returns the value of a constant and tenacious commitment: without the activity: Tireless of the Association, the truth would have been buried by the many sidetracks.
Reading will also be an opportunity to remember the immediate reaction of the city, expressed during the funeral in Piazza Maggiore by the mayor Renato Zangheri, with the then President of the Republic Sandro Pertini, at his side in a compound silence. His words are engraved in collective memory: “But we Bolognese a commitment to the country, to the memories of the resistance, to the future, to the young people, to those who once again await our response – and who have sent us words of pity, friendship and incitement from many foreign countries – a severe and firm commitment we want to take it. We will not arise on the line that divides democracy from the subversion. “
Even the external bulletin board of the Arena del Sole will express a message of proximity and adhesion of Ert to the Victims Travele Association of 2 August 1980, whose struggle is today an example to look at to build a horizon of awareness and civil liability.
