Björn Larsson, Alex Bellini: the sea does not fall silent

Björn Larsson, Alex Bellini | The Sea Does Not Fall Silent Beyond the Wall Saturday, 10 October 2026 | 5.00 pm | Piazza del Sole, Bellinzona Sconfinare Festival

What does someone who lives on the sea listen to? Not silence, but an older and more unpredictable voice: the breath of the waves, the force of the wind, the body of the boat, the fatigue that runs through every movement. The sea does not fall silent: it speaks in a language that cannot be possessed, a language that demands attention, measure, and a willingness to recognise what escapes control. Those who cross it – through writing or with their bodies – learn that listening to it does not mean seeking tranquillity, but entering into a relationship with a force greater than themselves. A writer deeply connected to the maritime imagination, Björn Larsson has made the sea one of the great settings of his work: a space of freedom, solitude and choice, but above all a material for storytelling and knowledge. In his books, from The Wisdom of the Sea to Telling the Sea, the journey is not simply an adventure: it is a way of questioning the relationship between experience and words, between what is lived and what, only later, can become a story. Alongside him, Alex Bellini brings a different and radical experience: that of someone who has crossed the sea alone, rowing, relying on his body, his endurance and his ability to inhabit the limits of human possibility. In his ocean expeditions and books, the sea becomes a physical test, an inner laboratory and a place from which to observe the fragility of the balances that connect human beings to the planet.

At the Sconfinare Festival, Larsson and Bellini do not meet in order to merge two experiences, but to allow them to enter into dialogue precisely through their distance: two different ways of living, listening to and telling the story of the sea. A conversation about freedom, limits and the words that emerge from experience; but also about what the sea, in its constant movement, continues to teach those who cross it and those who write about it.

The conversation will be moderated by journalist Laura Zucchetti.

Björn Larsson is a writer, essayist and lecturer in French literature. Born in Sweden, he lived for many years between different countries and has woven the themes of travel, freedom and the sea into his work. In Italy, his novels are published by Iperborea. Among his best-known books are The True Story of Long John Silver (1998), The Port of Crossed Dreams (2001), The Wisdom of the Sea (2003), Telling the Sea (2015) and In the Name of the Son (2021). His more recent publications include To Be or Not to Be Human. Rethinking Humanity Between Science and Other Forms of Knowledge (Raffaello Cortina, 2024) and A Minimal Philosophy of the Commuter (Iperborea, 2025).

Alex Bellini is an explorer, environmental communicator and writer. He has crossed the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Pacific alone, by rowing, undertaking some of the most extreme ocean expeditions of recent decades. He has also carried out expeditions in Alaska and the United States, as well as on the Icelandic Vatnajökull glacier, which he crossed by ski and sled. With the project 10 Rivers 1 Ocean, he navigated rivers and marine areas among those most severely affected by plastic pollution, turning exploration into a tool for environmental awareness. His books include: The Pacific by Oar. My Three Hundred Days Alone on the Ocean (Longanesi, 2010), Journey to Oblivia (Feltrinelli, 2022) and Imagine If I Hadn’t Tried. Lessons from a Journey Worth a Lifetime (Sonzogno, 2026).