The Border Stories / Storie di confine series opens in Gorizia with its first event, #ConfinePolitico, as part of the Nova Gorica–Gorizia European Capital of Culture programme. The initiative is promoted by the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation in collaboration with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Government and the EGTC GO.

The event will take place on Monday, 17 February at 6:30 p.m. at the Auditorium of Friulian Culture, bringing together scholars and journalists to reflect on the contemporary meaning of political borders. Moving away from the traditional idea of borders as rigid barriers, the discussion will explore them as spaces of connection, coexistence and innovation.

Opening remarks will be delivered by Mario Anzil, Vice President and Regional Councillor for Culture and Sport of Friuli Venezia Giulia, and by Massimiliano Tarantino, Director of the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation. The debate aims to reframe borders in a global context marked by identity tensions and renewed closures, proposing them instead as laboratories for democratic experimentation and transnational cooperation.

Speakers include Stefano Bartolini, Professor Emeritus at the European University Institute in Florence; Angela Mauro, Brussels correspondent for HuffPost Italia; and historian Raoul Pupo, former professor at the University of Trieste and member of several Italian-Slovenian and Italian-Croatian historical commissions. The discussion will focus on political models capable of moving beyond the “us versus them” divide, contributing to a renewed European project based on solidarity, shared responsibility and inclusion.