Alberto Vanolo: the city and its languages

Alberto Vanolo | The City and Its Languages Friday, 9 October 2026 | 6:30 pm | Piazza del Sole, Bellinzona Sconfinare Festival

A city speaks even when it does not use words. It does so through its spaces, its sounds, its lights, its waiting times, the signs that guide or confuse us, the rules that are explicit and those that no one ever articulates. What may appear neutral to some can become an obstacle for others; and what begins as a specific form of attention can turn into a broader opportunity for participation.

Drawing on his book La città autistica (Einaudi, 2024), Alberto Vanolo invites us to rethink the city from the perspective of neurodivergence. A geographer and scholar of urban spaces, Vanolo offers a concrete and radical reflection: to imagine a city capable of accommodating different ways of perceiving, moving, communicating and inhabiting the world. Not a city designed only “for” autistic people, but a city that is more legible, sustainable and attentive for everyone.

Promoted in collaboration with Fondazione ARES, the event is part of an ongoing initiative in the local community, including the «La città che include» project, which originated in Bellinzona and is dedicated to creating physical and social environments that are more aware and welcoming of autistic people and their families. As part of an edition devoted to the relationship between speech and silence, the event revolves around an essential question: which needs often remain unspoken, unheard or unrecognised in public space? And what changes when a community learns to pay attention to forms of communication, presence and relationship that do not conform to dominant modes?

The event will be moderated by Gionata Bernasconi, Fondazione ARES, teacher and writer.

Alberto Vanolo is Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the University of Turin. His research spans urban, political, social and cultural geography, with a particular focus on the relationship between space, inclusion and ways of inhabiting the world. His most recent publications include Nuova geografia politica urbana (with Ugo Rossi, Laterza, 2024) and La città autistica (Einaudi, 2024).

Fondazione ARES (Autismo Risorse e Sviluppo) is a public-benefit organisation that has been active in Ticino for more than thirty years in support of autistic people, their families, and those who work with them or come into contact with them in their daily lives. It promotes resources, expertise and pathways towards inclusion.