Bookolino festival invites children to explore memory

The Bookolino festival will bring children and families to Graz’s Literaturhaus for two weeks of theatre, readings and workshops focused on memory, ORF reports. The festival runs from November 5 to 18.

Festival organiser Irene Hetzenauer said the theme would explore how people relate to the world, how they influence it and how it shapes them, while also looking at the past. The motto is “Light-footed and bold: Think. Act. Remember.”

School classes will have a programme during the week, while families can attend workshops, picture-book cinema and theatre performances at weekends. A reading performance will focus on Barbara Frischmuth’s work The Princess in the Spool. Theatre Grundberg will present The Visit, which looks at Earth from the perspective of aliens. Workshops by Michael Rohr and Armin Eichberger will explore creative approaches to literature.

The festival will host 34 guests from literature, theatre and education. They include Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Heinz Janisch, who will retell Grimm fairy tales, and Omar Khir Alanam, who will present his children’s book about peace. The programme also features a focus on Styrian literature, including the work of Frischmuth.

An interactive exhibition created with the children’s museum FRida&freD is based on a book by Katja Seifert. Its centrepiece, Mount Bookolino, can be explored with a tour book that children can write in, cut up and add to as they move through the exhibition.

FRida&freD director Jörg Ehtreiber said the exhibition aims to encourage offline experiences such as reading and spending longer with a book. The exhibition will remain open beyond the festival until the end of the school year.