Gender Bender has always been a project that seizes change as an opportunity for growth. It has always been a group effort that enhances the personal visions of those who create it, in which the contribution of each person leaves a clear and decisive mark.

It is a great honor and source of pride for me to completely take over the artistic direction of Gender Bender starting this year. I look to the future with that spirit of innovation that is also the history of the project.

The words that I believe can sum up the transformation we are going through are: Inheriting the future.

For me, this is the deep meaning of handovers, exchanges between generations, and the growth of new ideas that find the space and conditions to grow and flourish.

I would like to address a big thank you to Daniele for all the lessons that our working group will keep as we proceed on this wonderful adventure: the dedication to research, the desire to create together, the need to exchange points of view in the diversity of perspectives, and the determination to bring joy and beauty to activism.

Gender Bender continues to make culture together with artists, our beloved audiences and the vast network of partners, and it will always do so starting from bodies, from relationships, from the here and now, welcoming contradictions and creating spaces for exploration and exchange.

We are working on the next edition of the festival and new projects, we look forward to meeting and experiencing them together!

Mauro Meneghelli