The School of Fireflies

Free School

In 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini published an article about the disappearance of fireflies, once abundant in the Italian countryside. He lamented that modernity, driven by consumerism and authoritarianism, had extinguished these delicate lights—the vulnerable elements of society. Fifty years later, the festival opens The School of Fireflies. What is at risk of disappearing today? What forces threaten life in cities or present landscapes? The Selvagem project makes us reflect on the extinction of knowledge and nature. Musicians Enrico Malatesta and Attila Faravelli, and researcher Juan José López Díez, together with a group of participants, record the inaudible vibrations of leaves that insects use to communicate. The collective Archivo de la Memoria Trans focuses on archiving as a form of protest against forgetting; Revive Gaza’s Farmland employs, among other things, film as resistance to the destruction and occupation of land; artist Jordi Colomer leads a working group, and we present a curated series of talks. Our Free School also inspired Cecilia Vicuña’s poetry and drawings in this brochure. The School of Fireflies facilitates a collective study of active resistance to disappearance, echoing Pasolini's words: “They will teach you not to shine. And you will shine instead.”

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