Komendunesi welcome you
The Komendunesi project was born in 2019 from the collaboration between a young musician and the Comenduno Ethnographic Museum of the Tower to create moments of commonality through music and culture.
The Komendunesi Festival is a part of this ongoing project that continues to grow year after year thanks to the Museum, a precious place of ethnographic, historical and social study. The events that take place in Comenduno at the end of August see the participation of both Italian and international artists. The mix of languages and stories celebrates the richness of diversity and builds a springboard to peek beyond borders, reinvent places and imagine electrifying futures.
The origins of the komendunesi
Experiences and intuitions shape ideas, and that is how the Komendunesi project came to life. To explain how it was born, we need to tell you a story. In the summer of 2018 a young Comenduno musician, Marcello Conca, was in Salzburg, where he worked as a mask for the Festival by the same name. Thanks to its mix of tradition and innovation, the Salzburg Festival is a unique experience, one that influences the very concept of musical and theatrical event (find out more here). It is a festival made special by the heartfelt presence of the city not only as a scenography, but also as a protagonist full of life.
During the Celebration of Sant’Alessandro at the end of August, you can sense a similar atmosphere of celebration and closeness between people in Comenduno. The Komendunesi festival was born from the Salzburg intuition, from the desire to share music with relatives and friends and from the belief that making music means creating bonds and uniting communities.
Ideas grow through dialogue. Without the support of the Ethnographic Museum of the Tower and its association, without the ideas of Valerio Calvi, its former president, Gianmaria Luiselli, its current president, Maurizio Noris and Diego Vedovati, members of the association, as well as the vital support of Veronica Arrigoni and Marco Noris, the festival would not have been possible. Just like an orchestra, the Komendunesi draw inspiration from the energy that each person brings along: chorality is the heart of our project.
Komendunesi with the k
Who are the Komendunesi? Komendunesi are the musicians, the people of the audience, the organizers, the asylum seekers from Africa who live in the oratory; Komendunesi are all the people who join the Festival embracing the new dimension of Comenduno as a European melting pot.
You and me, we are Komendunesi: people of different ages, origins and cultures united by common roots such as the bond with the territory and the local parish, the passion for sports, the work ethics, the volunteering and the respect for nature. Our cultural project is an invitation to welcome others – to say benvenutə, wilkommen, üdvözöljük, bienvenidos, witamy! – therefore we can only encourage you to join us and embrace the Komendunesi spirit with us.
Why the K? Because it represents the spirit of the project: it is saboteur, youthful and international. In Komendunesi, tradition and innovation, past and future live in symbiosis.
Inspirations / aspirations
There are many inspirations that we hope to pass down not only to the public, but also to the artists. Just for a week, once a year, people from Europe and the world meet in Comenduno. This meeting creates a rare – perhaps unique? – occasion: sharing experiences and opinions that make us think about the territory and its history. From a small town in the province of Bergamo, Comenduno blossoms and enters the imagination of the public and of many young foreigners.
Aspirations are also important, and for our project we have many. We aim to enrich our cultural offer every year by including different artists and artistic forms. We want to make Komendunesi a varied cultural festival of poetry, dance, theater, opera, painting and ancient, light and jazz music.
Manifesto
Komendunesi is an experience that wishes to provoke and interpret old and new horizons through music
Komendunesi is a place where diversity is a richness that dares to tell itself
For the Komendunesi empathy, listening, respect for the past and for the earth are the keys to open the world
For the Komendunesi, music is
the other half of a stable relationship full of joy, discoveries, frustrations
a means of expressing the speakable and the unspeakable
an invisible bridge that unites us and strengthens us thanks to our differences
The Komendunesi speak European: Bergamasco, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, German
To understand each other, we use English. To connect, we play together. To feel close, we meet in Comenduno.
Comenduno `l sa möv
Dialects fit into the ethnographic vocation of the Komendunesi project because they are the most vivid expression of the territory and its history. Also, their melodies, sounds and cadences are so reminiscent of musical compositions! In the cultural proposal of the Komendunesi Festival, we enhance the Bergamo dialect by claiming its role as guardian and passer of the past.
In the future evolution of the project, we will give space to many other Italian dialects to expand further the ethnographic research of the Museum and to discover new territories, new stories and new insights into what has been and what will be.
The organizers
Marcello Conca
Veronica Arrigoni
Marco Noris
Paulina Żmuda
Gianmaria Luiselli
Maurizio Noris
Diego Vedovati
Collaborations & Sponsors
We would like to thank all those who supported and contributed to making the 2021 Komendunesi Festival special.