The 24th edition of the International Book Fair will be held in Torino at Lingotto Fiere from Thursday 12 to Monday 16 May 2011. In the year of the 150th anniversary of the Reunification of Italy, the Fair offers a completely new layout

The 2011 Fair occupies three pavilions of Lingotto Fiere with its own exhibition spaces: 1, 2 and 3. This year Pavilion 5 will house the professional area with the International Book Forum.

A new arrival for 2011 is the Oval, the 20,000 square metre single space construction built to host the ice skating competitions for the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games, part of the exhibition centre since July 2009. The Oval is home to the Bookstock Village, the area for young readers supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo; the exhibition 1861-2011. The Italia of Books; the Padiglione Italia with the stands of the Italian regions grouped in a single area for the first time; the stands of the national institutions; the Lingua Madre area; the area of Books and Chocolate, Temptation and Meditation; the space dedicated to the guest country Russia, and the one for young readers and a new conference room.

The Oval can be reached from both Pavilion 3 of Lingotto Fiere, through a covered walkway built specially for the Fair and dotted with rest areas and commercial and service stands, and directly from the ticket offices and entrances on the railway side, accessible from Via Nizza and Corso Spezia following the signposts for the “Oval”.

The 2011 edition will be inaugurated on Thursday 12 May at 10.00 at the Oval By the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities, Giancarlo Galan.

The inaugural evening by invitation only in honour of the guest country is on Wednesday 11 May 2011 at 21.00 at the OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni. The greetings from the authorities will be followed by the inaugural address by the Russian author Ljudmila Ulitskaja and the concert of the Bis – Quit Orchestra.

The undoubted centrepiece of the Fair’s 24th edition is the exhibition 1861-2011. The Italy of Books, conceived by Rolando Picchioni and curated by Gian Arturo Ferrari. Our history as a united country seen through books and their protagonists. This is perhaps the most important event that the country dedicates to its fundamental writings, the books that have made and divided the Italians. A spiral nebula where five paths intertwine: the 150 Great Books, the 15 Superbooks, the 15 Personalities, the Publishers, the Publishing Phenomena. At the centre will be the “sixteenth decade”: the Telecom Italia space with the future of books, in the digital and e-book age.

The guest country for 2011 is Russia, that brings to Torino 20th century personalities and new authors to tell the story of a civilisation that has always been at the centre of geopolitical scenarios. A special event organised together with the Chamber of Commerce in the diary for Friday 13 May will focus on the challenges that the eastern “front” presents to economic players in Torino and Piemonte.

Alongside Russia, the special guest is Palestine, already present in the 2008 programme with its authors and this year at the Fair with its own stand.

Two initiatives are back again, without which it would be difficult to imagine the Fair. Lingua Madre, the area dedicated to cultural mixes that as of this year is again signed by the Fair itself, with the competition for female writers that carries the same name. And Books and Chocolate, Temptation and Meditation that lays the best on the table of the chocolatiers from Torino and Piemonte in a programme of meetings with grand chefs and maîtres à penser of taste, cooked up by the food critics of the newspaper Repubblica Stefano Cavallito & Alessandro Lamacchia.

The IBF - International Book Forum, the Fair’s business section created with the fundamental support of the ICE – Istituto per il Commercio Estero, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The Incubator is back again to support publishers who have been on the market for less than two years. Media Invasions 2011 presents three projects: Dimensione Musica, Book to the future and Comics Centre.

The Fair has an irresistible tendency to reach out of Lingotto. The Salone Off from Friday 6 to Monday 16 May breaks out into historic and more humble spaces, former factories and squares in four city districts, one more than last year: districts 3, 7, 8 and 4 for the first time. Sunday 15th will see a treasure hunt on Gtt public transport vehicles and Friday 6 May a mass choreography performance in the squares involved with 250 volunteer dancers.

The social commitment of Voltapagina again takes great writers to the detainees in the Prison of Saluzzo during the days of the Fair.

There will be the second edition of the International Book Fair Prize. After Amos Oz, other great writers take their chance with the electronic vote of visitors and exhibitors to come back in the autumn to meet students around Piemonte: the candidates this year are Javier Cercas, Assia Djebar and Anita Desai.

A small but important revolution changes how visitors can reach us: Lingotto can now be reached easily on the new Metro line. And after celebrating the 150 years of Italy, the Fair will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. Its first quarter of a century. Get ready.