WAM! Festival from JULY 2 to 6 and JULY 20, 2025
COULD HAVE
Dance, performance, music, talks, philosophy
Here we are again, after two years. Nothing has changed, everything has changed.
For this edition, we were inspired by the title of a poem by Wislawa Szymborska, and we reflected on our role as cultural operators during and after yet another flood, yet another emergency, ongoing wars.
Chance, luck, who controls it, can it be controlled? How do we manage the present and the future, to what extent do we human beings change the course of events and how? How do we plan a future, when constant upheaval is the only certainty? Luck is a blindfolded goddess, what senses must we cultivate to live in this present?
Uncertainty has become constant, so we decide to trust and rely on chance, to remain brave and be ready. We organized past editions of WAM! Festival during a health emergency, during a flood. In a state of perpetual resilience, in the presence of chaos, our home is our body and the care of other people’s bodies, our emotions and the attention paid to others.
What does fate bring us? The answer is what we do, how we respond to what happens to us. Let us think about what a wonder is to Be and let us tell with words and bodies, every possible life, every possible experience. In a wheel of fortune in constant motion, art can save us. It makes us imagine worlds, it makes us feel emotions, it makes us question, it makes us profoundly human.
Lucidly, with faith and madness, could have.
Could have – Wislawa Szymborska
Could have
It could have happened.
It had to happen.
It happened earlier. Later.
Nearer. Farther off.
It happened, but not to you.
You were saved because you were the first.
You were saved because you were the last.
Alone. With others.
On the right. The left.
Because it was raining. Because of the shade.
Because the day was sunny.
You were in luck — there was a forest.
You were in luck — there were no trees.
You were in luck — a rake, a hook, a beam, a brake,
A jamb, a turn, a quarter inch, an instant.
You were in luck — just then a straw went floating by.
As a result, because, although, despite.
What would have happened if a hand, a foot,
within an inch, a hairsbreadth from
an unfortunate coincidence.
So you’re here? Still dizzy from another dodge,
close shave, reprieve?
One hole in the net and you slipped through?
I couldn’t be more shocked or speechless.
Listen, how your heart pounds inside me.
Wislawa Szymborska
Patronage and contribution
Comune di Faenza e Unione della Romagna Faentina
Comune di Castel Bolognese
Comune di Brisighella
With the support of
Regione Emilia-Romagna
Paolo Castellari Notaio
La BCC ravennate, forlivese e Imolese
Technical sponsors
Litografia Fabbri
Flatmind
Digialta
In collaboration with
Gemos
Clan Destino
Tibé
Associazione Torre di Oriolo
Aula 21
Viaggi Erbacci
Museo Zauli
Museo Malmerendi