EST. Europe as a Space of Translation. A Long-lasting Program and a Festival

The Project “EST”. Europe as a Space of Translation. A Long-lasting Programme and a Festival (from now on: “EST”) is a project thanks to which several cultural and professional institutions (such as theatres, galleries, cultural centres, museums), social agents (cafés, bookshops, book-fairs), educational and research institutions (primary and secondary schools, art and music academies, science academies, universities), professional associations (of writers, translators, authors), international cultural institutions (cultural Institutes of different European Nations) interact both with their own territory and with a wider European area. In different cultural forms and expressions, EST means to give visibility to the role, tasks, responsibility, and work of translators as crucial cultural figures, both within their own countries and abroad, and as decisive agents in the process of change in many fields. EST has achieved relevant results in the following fields of activity: 1. Giving resonance and visibility in the media and, more generally, in the cultural life of European countries, as well as in the public sphere, to the work and public role of translators in Europe. 2. Building and promoting new networks within the different European professional communities of translators, publishers, writers and tightening the already existing ones. 3. Building, promoting and strengthening the above mentioned networks even at the level of intercontinental relationships. 4. Widening the social and public perception of the different kinds of translation, i.e. not only the literary and/or inter-lingual translation, but also the audiovisual and performative aspects and applications of this activity. 5. Establishing a productive cultural environment by promoting an attitude of mutual recognition and attention between, on the one hand, political, technical, practical operators in the field of translation and, on the other hand, universities and cultural/educational institutions on an international scale. 6. Elaborating and promoting an innovative approach to the question of the impact of translation and, more generally, of cultural work. This has been achieved especially by seeking the involvement of non-academic subjects in cultural events that had great resonance (which allowed for a fruitful and mutual enrichment of the perception of translation as a cultural event) and the dissemination of university research and achievements outside the academic world (which promoted and substantiated the idea of intellectual work as deeply interconnected with social realities, rather than as isolated from the actual lives of average citizens). 7. Initiating long lasting activities due to be continued in different cultural settings in Europe. Among them, a Summer School, which fully integrates the University of Naples "L'Orientale" in an international circuit of Summer Schools of recognized excellence; plans for future publications in several languages and based in several European countries; multilingual websites promoting translation and the role of translators as cultural agents and publishing original translations of literary works.