Founded in 2006, Agorateca is a project of the Divisione Eventi e Congressi that aims to be a place for sharing – like the ancient and lively Greek square, Agorà. Agorateca is a bibliomedia library which collects and makes available for loan and consultation more than 50’000 cultural titles (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS, CDs, books and magazines), and at the same time a programme that proposes events centred on the dimension of discovery: conferences at the Foce with writers, poets, photographers, journalists, illustrators, musicians, directors, but also a selection of film screenings that pays as much attention to niche productions as to major titles.
The new Agorateca season features 17 cultural events. What inspired the programming?
The Agorateca is a place where DVDs and books come to life. During the day, the bibliomediateca where thousands of DVDs can be borrowed, and in the evenings and at weekends, it hosts conferences and film screenings. The common denominator is curiosity, continuous research, and the desire to approach beauty.
The season will begin on 12 February with a Club Cult film selection. What films are to be screened?
The first part of the autumn season was well received by the public. In the spring season we propose 2 French films: we start with “Maigret” from 2022, an adaptation of Simenon directed by Patrice Leconte with the timeless Depardieu. The other French film from 2020 directed by Grégory Magne, “Les Parfums”, which we are proposing in April, will take us into the fascinating world of luxury perfumes. In March, it will be the turn of “Die Herbstzeitslosen” from 2006, a delightful all-female Swiss comedy set in the Bernese countryside.
Eight Cinema in Tasca films will be screened at the Palazzo dei Congressi.
Cinema in Tasca will be a potpourri of genres, stories and settings: the programming aims to offer the audience a glimpse of cinema across genres and production countries. In addition, we try to give audiences the chance to see films that may have had a short theatrical stay, thus recovering the experience on the big screen. This is the case with some award-winning films such as “Full Time – One Hundred Percent”, “C’mon C’mon”, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “A Winning Family – King Richard”. We have a special eye for local productions and distributions, such as the beautiful “Ariaferma” by Leonardo Di Costanzo or “3/19 – The King’s Garden” by a director very close to Italian-speaking Switzerland such as Silvio Soldini.
Let’s not overlook entertainment films such as “Murder on the Nile”, which has many interesting and insightful aspects on the figure of Hercule Poirot, or a film that is also suitable for children such as “Ghostbusters: Legacy”.
Studio Foce will host five conferences. Who will be your guests?
The common thread here too is discovery and curiosity about more or less well-known worlds.
We will continue to offer the much-appreciated conferences in collaboration with Artphilein, which will continue to accompany the public into the world of artists’ books with the meetings “Estate italiana – immagini dalla riviera adriatica” and “Print out loud: libri d’artista ed editoria underground”. We will then host Tom Alemanno and Luca Crivelli, authors of the book “Pancia mia fatti capanna”, a journey into the beauty of the canton of Ticino, which will also be the protagonist in the evening dedicated to the projection of two segments of the “Futura!” project, namely “Le più lunghe antenne” and “Veverice” directed by two Ticino artists.
To conclude the programme a much-loved classic: the Poetry Slam evening with presenter Marko Miladinovic and the special opening of the Agorateca on the occasion of the Biblioweekend.
The new Agorateca season opens on 12.02 at the Studio Foce with a screening of the film “Maigret”.
More information: agorateca.ch
