RaiNews 24 Features Poem Booth in Turin Book Fair Coverage

Italian television network RaiNews 24 visited the Netherlands to cover the country's participation as Guest of Honor at the 2025 Turin Book Fair, featuring our Poem Booth as a centerpiece of the Dutch cultural delegation. The report, which aired as part of their coverage of "La Scoperta dell'Olanda" (The Discovery of the Netherlands), showcased the Poem Booth alongside interviews with poet Babs Gons and Stefano Musilli, Cultural Affairs Officer for the Netherlands Consulate General in Milan.

The segment highlighted how the Poem Booth represents a fusion of Dutch innovation and literary tradition, described by the reporter as "poetry as political act" where "technology serves verses and applied intelligence creates." The installation, now featuring work by acclaimed Dutch poet Ellen Deckwitz - current Amsterdam city poet and winner of the prestigious Italian Premio Ciampi - demonstrated how AI can democratize poetry by transforming photographs into personalized verses.

At the Turin Book Fair, held from May 15-19, 2025, the Poem Booth generated over 8.000 poems in Italian for visitors, marking a significant milestone in VOUW's mission to bring poetry into public spaces through what we call "Slowtech" - technology that brings people together in the physical world rather than separating them. The fair, Italy's largest book event with over 231.000 visitors, provided the perfect stage to showcase how interactive installations can make literature more accessible and engaging for diverse audiences.

The RaiNews 24 feature positioned the Poem Booth within the broader context of Dutch cultural export and the Netherlands' commitment to supporting writers and translators internationally, as highlighted in the report's discussion of the Dutch Foundation for Literature's work to promote Dutch literature globally.