Wilder Winds, a reading and conversation with Bel Olid and Laura McGloughlin
Bel Olid, writer
Laura McGloughlin , translator.
Reading and conversation with Catalan writer and LGBTQ activist Bel Olid and translator Laura McGloughlin at Cork City Library on the occasion of the publication of Wilder Winds, McGloughlin's English translation of Bel Olid's short story collection Vents més salvatges in Catalan.
Organised bt the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at University College Cork organises a in collaboration with Fum d'Estampa Press, Cork City Libraries and the Institut Ramon Llull.
Friday 25 March 18:15
Cork City Library, 61 Grand Parade, Centre, Cork, Ireland
The Importance of Being a Classic
Raül Garrigasait, translator and writer.
Christopher MacLehose, publisher. Mountain Leopard Press.
(Chair) Rosie Goldsmith, editor and journalist.
Author, translator and expert in Catalan literature Raül Garrigasait, whose latest novel Els estranys (The Others), winner of the Catalan Bookseller’s Prize, has been recently published in English by Fum d’Estampa, will be in a panel discussion with prestigious publisher Christopher MacLehose, to talk about the importance of classics in publishing, the essential role that translation plays in bringing cultures together, as well as the translation of Catalan Modern Classics into English as a contribution to this shared literary tradition. This event will be chaired by Rosie Goldsmith.
Tuesday 5 April 11:45-12:30, London Book Fair, Olympia London - Olympia Theatre.
Loss, Plants and Feathers
Marta Orriols, writer.
Max Porter, writer.
(Chair) Daniel Hahn, translator, writer and editor.
Prize-winning Catalan author Marta Orriols, whose piercingly honest debut novel, Aprendre a parlar amb les plantes (Learning to Talk to Plants, Pushkin Press) has already sold rights to 15 countries and has been compared to the work of Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro, will have an intimate conversation on grief and love, loss and the vital pulsations of life with Max Porter, award-winning author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers (which was translated in 23 languages), Lanny and The Death of Francis Bacon. Do expect a session of a moving mingle of darkness and tenderness, and perhaps the exorcism of grief. This event will be chaired by Daniel Hahn.
Tuesday 5 April 13:15-14:00, London Book Fair, Olympia London – Literary Translation Centre.
The Intimate Experience of Time
Josep Maria Esquirol, philosopher, essayist, and professor.
Jay Griffiths, writer.
(Chair) Georgina Godwin, editor and presenter.
Jay Griffiths, author of Wild: An Elemental Journey, Pip Pip and Why Rebel, books that account for some of the most compelling and insightful reads in British contemporary non-fiction, will have a conversation on time, experience, and meaning with Philosophy professor at the University of Barcelona Josep Maria Esquirol, author of The Intimate Resistance, a quest for purpose amidst the stress and nihilism of today’s high-tech world, an essay turned into a bestseller against all odds, and an instant classic for Catalan philosophy. This event will be chaired by Georgina Godwin.
Tuesday 5 April, 16:30-17:15, London Book Fair, Olympia London – Literary Translation Centre.
Across Language and Time: Translating Classics
Prof. Peter Bush, Literary Translator
Prof. Charles Kraszewski, Translator
Ka Bradley, Commissioning Editor, Penguin Classics
(Chair) Rosie Goldsmith, editor and journalist.
Charles Kraszewski is a translator of literature from Polish, Czech, and Slovak. Among his translations are Adam Mickiewicz’s Crimean Sonnets, Forefathers’ Eve and Ballads and Romances, as well as the Dramatic Works of Cyprian Kamil Norwid, both of which latter texts were prepared for this year’s celebrations of the Year of Romanticism in Poland, which mark the bicentennial of the publication of Adam Mickiewicz’s first volume of verse. He is currently working on a broad anthology of the works of Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski, and the heroic poems of the Slovak Romantic Jan Hollý. He is the author of three volumes of original verse in English, one in Polish, and a satirical novel, Accomplices, You Ask? recently published by Montag (San Francisco). He is a member of the Association of Polish Writers (Kraków) and the Union of Polish Writers Abroad (London)
Tuesday April 5th, 16.30pm-17.15pm, London Book Fair, Olympia London, Olympia Theatre
Borja Bagunyà is spearheading a new generation of young literary talents – his latest novel Els angles morts (Dead Angles) is the portrait of a marriage leading towards an unusual existential crossroads, packed with pitiless, corrosive humour. He will be in conversation with Rupert Thomson, whose memoir inspired by his years in Barcelona, This Party’s Got to Stop, won the Writer's Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and his collection of stories set in the Catalan capital, Barcelona Dreaming, was the editor’s choice at the New York Times and winner of Book of the Year by the Irish Times. In this panel, they will explore how cities shape literature and how literature shapes cities. This event will be chaired by Georgina Godwin.
Wednesday 6 April 10:00-10:45,
London Book Fair, Olympia London – Author HQ.
The Boundaries of the Book: Illustrated Non-Fiction for Children
Aina Bestard, designer and illustrator.
Vassiliki Tzomaka, designer and illustrator.
(Chair) Daniel Hahn, translator, writer and editor.
International bestselling author and illustrator Aina Bestard, creator of the successful illustrated series What’s Hidden, pushes the limits of traditional illustration with each publication, as she does again in her latest book published in English by Thames and Hudson, Lost Landscapes, where she explains the early life of our planet with exceptional illustrations and textured paper. Together with fellow Thames & Hudson’s illustrator Vassiliki Tzomaka, they will be discussing their creative process, influences and style, as well as giving the audience an insight to their approach to illustrated non-fiction for children. This event will be chaired by Daniel Hahn.
Wednesday 6 April, 15:15-16:00,
London Book Fair, Olympia London – Author HQ.
Fiction, Gender and Identity
Eva Baltasar, writer.
Yara Rodrigues Fowler, writer.
(Chair) Daniel Hahn, translator, writer and editor.
Full of powerful and physical imagery, multi-awarded Catalan poet and novelist Eva Baltasar is the author of critically acclaimed Permafrost, translated in 10 languages, published in English by And Other Stories (2021), which will be followed by Boulder this summer. Eva’s work is a breathtakingly forthright call for women’s freedom, and speaks boldly of the body, of sex, and on the self. She will b in conversation with the talent of Yara Rodrigues Fowler, praised for their Stubborn Archivist as the witty successor of Sally Rooney. They will discuss new rules for fiction writing, gender, identity, and success. This event will be chaired by Daniel Hahn.
Thursday 7 April, 10:00-10.45, London Book Fair, Olympia London – Literary Translation Centre.
New Fiction at the Threshold of Myth
Irene Solà, writer and artist.
Daisy Johnson, writer.
(Chair) Daniel Hahn, translator, writer and editor.
A fearlessly creative and original new voice in Catalan literature, Irene Solà, brings to British audiences When I Sing, Mountains Dance, a novel that has been translated to more than 20 languages and is the winner of the European Union Prize for literature. Solà’s intensity and talent finds her British counterpart in multi-awarded author Daisy Johnson (known for Everything Under, Fen or Sisters). They will share with the audience their folktale atmospheres of imagination and myth, their unusual characters, and their literary dance with the strangeness of reality. This event will be chaired by Daniel Hahn.
Thursday 7 April , 11:45-12.30,
London Book Fair, Olympia London – Author HQ.
Literature of the Self: Truth and Fiction
Speakers:
Sergi Pàmies, writer.
David Constantine, writer.
(Chair) Georgina Godwin, editor and presenter.
Sergi Pàmies is one of the most outstanding and popular Catalan short story writers of all time. His latest collection, The Art of Wearing a Trench Coat, which explores different kinds of love as well as the limits of fiction writing, has been just published in English. An author of neat style and a humorous sense of the absurd, Pàmies will dialogue with poet and one of the finest British contemporary writers of short stories, David Constantine, author of a prestigious and multi-awarded body of work that includes books such as Tea at the Midland or the selected stories In Another Country. They will offer their personal approach to fiction, from the self to the imagined. This event will be chaired by Georgina Godwin.
Thursday 7 April, 15:25-16:10, London Book Fair, Olympia London – Literary Translation Centre.
Literature, gastronomy and identity
Talk with writer Martí Sales and Professor H. Rosi Song
Within the framework of the Spotlight festival, the IRL has organised an event on 24 March in the afternoon at Newcastle University, with writer Martí Sales and Professor H. Rosi Song of Durham University. The session will begin with a guided conversation between the guests about the interrelation between literature, gastronomy and identity. The discussion will be centred on Aliment, a literary creation cooked up by our guest author (Club editor, 2021). A translation workshop from Catalan to English will follow and the session will end with a short kitchen session, in which students will prepare and then taste a simple Catalan dish.
29 March 17:30. Free
Newcastle University, Old Library Building
Claremont Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RG
Collaboration between Cities of Literature UNESCO – Barcelona, Manchester, Exeter
Mireia Calafell and Björt Rünars perform Varosha
Mireia Calafell and Björt Rünars perform Varosha at the Manchester Poetry Library (Manchester Metropolitan University). The recital of poetry and music Varosha is structured around poems from Nosaltres, qui (‘Us, who’) and Tantes Mudes (‘So Many Shedded Layers’). Mireia Calafell is joined on stage by cellist and Icelandic composer Björt Rùnars, and together they will recreate a journey to what was one of the busiest tourist destinations in the Mediterranean at the end of the 60s, but was left abandoned after the Turkish invasion of 1974. It has been deserted since that time. Today it represents a way of understanding the world as a place that can be devoured by tourism or war, but at the same time evokes the mystery and the contradictory beauty of a space that is newly habitable, allowing us to think of a new way of doing, of being, of speaking. Of asking ourselves who we are.
7 April, Manchester
Maria Sevilla i Joan Martínez: Sounds of Catalan
Collaboration between Cities of Literature UNESCO – Barcelona, Manchester, Exeter
Si una tarda un surt de cansat de fer feina i plou (If one afternoon someone is leaving work tired, and it rains) is a sound poetry show created by Maria Sevilla, one of the most promi-sing voices of Catalan poetry. Inspired by Mark Fisher and RemediosZafra, Sevilla explores her criticism of society's attachment to productivity in four movements. Inspired by the work of other Catalan poets, Sevilla mixes her poetry with music played by Joan Martínez.
Along with Sevilla and Martínez's performance, Bookbag will be open late for browsing & buying.
Manuel Forcano: Maps of Desire: Travelling through Translation and Literature
Collaboration between Cities of Literature UNESCO – Barcelona, Manchester, Exeter
Manuel Forcano is one of the most celebrated Catalan poets. A great traveller and scholar of the Middle East, his poetry evokes its landscapes and explores the history of love and desire in this region. Alongside Dr. Richard Mansell from the University of Exeter, Manuel Forcano will discuss his poetry anthology, Maps of Desire, with readings in both Catalan and English.
Online talk with the writer Llucia Ramis in Liverpool
Within the framework of the Spotlight on Catalan Culture programme at the LBF, writer Llucia Ramis will host an online seminar at the University of Liverpool with students of Catalan studies. They will discuss her story The Hotel of Santa Anna (published in the Barcelona Suites collection, 2019), whose English translation was published in the anthology The Book of Barcelona (Comma Press, 2021). Students from different universities in the UK and Ireland will take part in this seminar.
This event is part of the Triadú Year celebrations. Organized by: University of Liverpool, Institut Ramon Llull in collaboration with The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Leeds and University of Manchester.
30 March 2021, 16:00 Online. Free
The infinite conversation: the craft of translating with Esther Tallada and Mara Faye Lethem
Chaired by Uta Staiger
Esther Tallada, translator of English into Catalan, and Mara Faye Lethem, translator of Catalan into English, will debate the challenges and dilemmas posed by literary translation in a conversation moderated by Uta Staiger, director of the European Institute of the prestigious University College London. Topics will include: the authors they enjoy translating; those they enjoy reading but fear translating; the relationship between English and Catalan literatures; professional influences; and the essential contribution of translation to this infinite conversation between cultures.
This event is a collaboration with the UCL European Institute.
31 March 18:00 Free
UCL. Gower St, London WC1E 6BT
R.A.E, Hip Horns Brass Collective feat. Rodrigo Laviña
MUSIC
The Say it Loud festival from Barcelona will take place in one of the most emblematic current music venues in London, Bush Hall, for one night with Night Say it Loud, staging concerts of R.A.E and the Hip Horns Brass Collective feat. Rodrigo Laviña.
R.A.E (Rising Above Everything) is a rapper from South-East London with a bold, vindicating 90s style in her music and aesthetic. She brings a fresh approach to fusing rap and classic R&B with today’s urban UK sounds.
Hip Horns Brass Collective are three generations of Catalan jazz and modern musicians who have found the formula to a unique sound that differentiates them from all the other brass bands in the country. This time, with special guest Rodrigo Laviña, one of the leading hip hop MCs in Catalan.
The Institut Ramon Llull (IRL) is running a Specialisation in the Publishing Industry course to promote professional careers to students through an introduction to in different areas of specialised publishing. The course is offered within the framework of the London Book Fair (LBF) as part of the Catalan Culture Spotlight programme, with Catalan literature as a highlight.
The objective of the course is to offer a theoretical and practical introduction to the British and Catalan publishing industries.
Hybrid event: online 31 March and 1 April; 5 and 6 April at the London Book Fair
Marta Orriols and Aina Bestard in conversation with King's College London students
Spanish Finalists from King's College London studying Catalan Culture will have an online conversation with authors Marta Orriols and Aina Bestard about their recent work.
This event will be a unique opportunity for the students to get to know, first hand, the type of Catalan literature recently translated into English.
Online, 1 April, 15:30-16:15. Free
Sometimes I feel like I’m writing down the future
Pol Guasch and Manon Steffan Ros. Chaired by Casi Dylan
The two authors share a concern about a possible future affected by disaster, writing with an urgency compounded by the fact that the main protagonists of their books are children. The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros is published in English and several other languages after the original Welsh title Llyfr Glas Nebo won the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2019. A pregnant woman and her young son are among the few survivors in a post-nuclear rural Wales. They have to learn new skills to live and make a future for themselves, but they also feel a deep-seated need to record their past in a found notebook. Napalm al cor (‘Napalm in the Heart’), by the young Catalan author Pol Guasch, winner of the 2021 Anagrama prize, took the Catalan literary scene by storm. Set in an unnamed location, it is an exercise in understanding an extreme and traumatic past through a poetic, intense narrative tracing the journey two boys attempting to flee a militarized zone where they have grown up.
Organised in collaboration with Literature Across Frontiers and Wales Literature Exchange
4 April,
The Grove, London W5 5QX
An afternoon with Catalan writers, Bel Olid and Borja Bagunyà in the University of Edinburgh
Conversatin between Bel Olid and Borja Bagunyà, followed by some readings from their short stories both in English and in Catalan. A great chance to meet these two renowned authors and provide some insight into their writing. The students of Catalan Culture at the University of Edinburgh will then lead Q&A session before it is open to the general audience.
Organised in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh.
4 April,17:30
50 George Square, Project Room (room 1.06), University of Edinburgh. Free
A Vocabulary for the Future
Authors: Borja Bagunyà, Pol Guasch, Najat El Hachmi, Llucia Ramis, Miquel de Palol and Muriel Villanueva.
Video artists and filmmakers: Noémi Varga, Remy Bazerque, Nosa Eke, Ezra Myers, Julia Parks and Graeme Arnfield.
Paula Bonet, Robert Mur y Pola Oloixarac
Created by the CCCB during the 2020 Barcelona Biennial of Thought, "A Vocabulary for the Future" is a collection of audiovisual essays that reflect on ways of thinking about the world of tomorrow. As part of the Spotlight programme, the IRL has joined in partnership with the prestigious Film London to amplify the exhibition and create a new series of works, created by six Catalan language authors and six UK-based filmmakers .
The authors have been selected by the IRL and the CCCB, and Film London has curated the selection of visual artists and filmmakers
Josep Maria Esquirol and Christian Michel The Intimate Resistance by Josep Maria Esquirol, published in Catalan by Quaderns Crema, and now published in English by Fum d’Estampa, won the Spanish National Essay Prize and has been translated into five different languages. Against all odds, this book has become a best-seller. A surprising direction for an essay that makes no concessions to the reader as it invokes the great names of the continental philosophical tradition of the twentieth century. Esquirol is one of the few philosophy professors in Catalonia and Spain who has managed to reach beyond academia and connect with the general public with a proposal that is both rigorous and radically personal. Christian Michel, philosophical debate facilitator, will talk to the Catalan author about acts of resistance (like this conversation) that give meaning to our shared private life.
Organised in collaboration with Fum d’Estampa publishing house
Brigadistes: Untold Stories from the Spanish Civil War
Jordi Martí-Rueda, Meirian Jump and Jim Jump
Jordi Martí-Rueda will present his book Brigadistes. Lives for Liberty, published in Catalan by Tigre de Paper and translated into English by Pluto Press. A great example of narrative journalism, documentary precision and literary sensibility, the book highlights the ideals of an era through 60 short portraits of men and women who abandoned everything to fight against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. The event is being held with the support of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, and will feature one of those anonymous heroes, journalist and writer Jim Jump. A homage to memory and resistance.
Organized in collaboration with the Pluto Press, the International Brigade Memorial Trust and the Marx Memorial Library
5 April at 18:30 at the Marx Memorial Library in London. Free
37A Clerkenwell Grn, London EC1R 0DU
A conversation between Max Porter and Irene Solà
Max Porter and Irene Solà Canto jo i la muntanya balla, by Irene Solà, winner of the Anagrama Fiction Prize, is published by Graywolf in the US and by Granta in the UK with the English title When I Sing, the Mountain Dances. An international success, translated into more than 20 languages, the book has been very well received in the English-speaking literary world. Publishers Weekly described it as fine achievement, and Kirkus Reviews called it a masterfully written, brilliantly conceived book. Max Porter, author of the best-selling books such Grief is the Thing with Feathers, has also praised the novel, saying this book made me swoon (...) utterly universal, deadly funny, and profoundly moving. He will speak to Irene Solà about writing, literature and about the things that make us dance.
Organised in collaboration with the Granta publishing house.
Concert by Laura Peribáñez, From Barcelona to Paris
MUSIC
Barcelona cellist Laura Peribáñez and pianist Kanako Mizuno will pay homage to the cities of Barcelona and Paris, performing works by some of their most significant composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Catalans Gaspar Cassadó and Rogeli Huguet, and French composers Nadia Boulanger and Claude Debussy.
Laura Peribañez is a graduate of ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya), made her first appearance at the Barcelona Auditorium at the age of nine, and has already won several international awards. She has performed at the United Nations Office at Geneva and at the ZK Matthews Great Hall in Pretoria.
Spotlight: Catalan and Balearic Jazz at the Pheasantry
MUSIC
In celebration of the Catalan Culture Spotlight at this year’s London Book Fair, Institut Ramon
Llull presents two intimate music shows at The Pheasantry, the PizzaExpress supper club in
Chelsea, on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th of April. Performing on Tuesday night will be the
Catalan vocal and bass duo Magalí Sare and Manel Fortià followed on Wednesday by the Balearic
singer and multi-instrumentalist Anna Ferrer. Expect two special nights where the audience will be
able to enjoy exciting new voices from the Catalan Countries alongside PizzaExpress’ famous pizzas.
5 and 6 April, 20:00, The Pheasantry
152/154 King's Rd, London SW3 4UT
£18
Wilder Winds and Dark Neighbourhood, Bel Olid and Vanessa Onwuemezi in conversation
Chaired by Jorge Garriz
Join Catalan writer and translator Bel Olid, and writer and poet Vanessa Onwuemezi as they discuss their short story collections, Wilder Winds, and Dark Neighbourhood. The stories in Wilder Winds and Dark Neighbourhood explore the lives of characters on the outskirts of society, characters in seemingly hopeless situations who are struggling to find their place in the world. However, in each collection we find glimpses of hope as characters find solace in their own bodies, in their solitude, or in others like them.
Organised in collaboration with Fum d’Estampa and Fitzcarraldo.
6 April, 19:00 Bricklane Bookshop ,166 Brick Ln, London E1 6RU
Participants: Bel Olid and Vanessa Onwuemezi. Moderated by Jorge Garriz
Talking to Eva Baltasar about Permafrost
Join us in person at Queen Mary for an evening talking to the brilliant Catalan writer Eva Baltasar. There will be readings of her novel Permafrost (published in UK by And Other Stories), both in Catalan and in English, followed by an intimate discussion of the book with its author. Attendees will be able to share their impressions on the novel and pose their questions to Baltasar. Sundry drinks will be served and all attendees will receive a gift from the Centre for Catalan Studies.
Organised in collaboration with the Centre for Catalan Studies, Queen Mary University of London
6 April, 19:00
Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Rd, Bethnal Green, London E1 4NS
Galley Party: Boulder’s Launch
Eva Baltasar
With the support of the IRL, the publisher And Other Stories will organise an encounter with journalists, publishing industry professionals and lovers of literature to celebrate the English publication of Boulder, by Eva Baltasar. There will be brief presentations by the publisher and the author, and then some excerpts of the novel will be read and copies will be distributed among the accredited attendees. All in an informal and festive atmosphere.
Organised in collaboration with the publisher And Other Stories
7 April, 19:00
The Social, 5 Little Portland St, London W1W 7JD
Amazing Animal Babies: A Workshop with Aina Bestard
International bestselling author Aina Bestard, specialised in illustrated non-fiction for children, will run an event inspired by Amazing Animal Babies, a book that introduces pregnancy and birth in wildlife to young readers, published in UK by Thames & Hudson. Bestard’s work is character-ised by a distinctive and expressive approach to drawing and a constant search for original and engaging book formats. Attendees will have the chance to discover these animal babies through the delicate tracing paper overlaid that progressively unveils the illustrations. Organised in col-laboration with Thames & Hudson.
7 April 11:00H 0
29 Fortis Green Rd, Muswell Hill, London N10 3HP
Mireia Calafell and Björt Rünars perform ‘Varosha’
Collaboration between Cities of Literature UNESCO – Barcelona, Manchester, Exeter
Mireia Calafell is accompanied on stage by Icelandic cellist and composer Björt Rùnars with her cello, a keyboard and pedals for electronic loops. Together, they propose a route entitled the name of what was one of the busiest tourist destinations in the Mediterranean in the late 60's and which, with the Turkish invasion of 1974, was uninhabited. Since then, it has been a ghost town. Today, it represents the logic of a way of understanding the world as a place that can be devoured - through tourism, through war - and, at the same time, the mystery and the contradictory beauty of a space that, due to being able to be inhabited again allows us to think of a new way of doing things, of being, of telling ourselves. To ask ourselves who we are.
This event is a partnership with Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council)
7 April 18:00
Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University. All Saints Building, Manchester M15 6BH
Facts and Fiction. A Mirroring Conversation on the Self and Others
Sergi Pàmies and Ed Vulliamy. Moderated by Gala Sicart
Sergi Pàmies, Catalan master of short stories, is a renowned journalist and a prize-winning writer. He brings to London’s audiences his long-awaited first English translation: The Art of Wearing a Trench Coat. A book to be found on the ‘Fiction’ shelves. International reporter and writer Ed Vulliamy’s has reached the greatest achievements in journalism such as the Kapuściński Award. In his reporting, as well as with his books on music or painting, Vulliamy gathers facts for the reader.
Facts and fiction intertwine in a conversation with two authors whose biographies, we will discover, share very similar elements.
8 April 18:30, Frontline Club
13 Norfolk Pl, Tyburnia, London W2 1QJ
An evening of Catalan literature. Readings from the works of Anna Dodas and Maria-Mercè Marçal
Helena Buffery– translator
Clyde Moneyhun– translator
Catalan poet Anna Dodas published two influential collections of poetry before she was murdered travelling in France at the age of 23. A translation of her complete poems by Clyde Moneyhun is published for the first time in English, along with the original Catalan.
Maria-Mercè Marçal is being acknowledged as an iconic figure in European contemporary poetry. There will be readings from her collection of poems, Bruixa de dol / Witch in Mourning and her novel The Passion according to René Vivien, recently translated into English.
All books published by Francis Boutle Publishers.
Tuesday 12 April, 7 pm
Bookmarks Bookshop. 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE
Price Poetry, or The Left Ventricle in Times of Trouble
Price Poetry, or The Left Ventricle in Times of Trouble, is a one-hour work for radio curated and edited by Dominic J. Jaeckle in response to the London Bookfair’s 'Spotlight' on Catalan literature. A special broadcast to commemorate and respond to the first Popular Festival of Catalan Poetry, 25 April 1970, held in Barcelona’s Gran Price hall in solidarity with political prisoners incarcerated under Franco's regime. A work of collage and sonic assembly, Price Poetry pairs archival recordings of Agustí Bartra, Joan Oliver (Pere Quart), Salvador Espriu, Joan Brossa, Francesc Vallverdú and Gabriel Ferrater, lifted from Pere Portabella documentary film 'Poetes Catalans' (read in translation by Tenement editor Jon Auman) with original commissions, select readings and songs from Ona Balló Pedragosa, Lucy Mercer, Stephen Watts, Diamanda La Berge Dramm, Dominic J. Jaeckle, Aidan Moffat, Harmony Holiday and Stanley Schtinter.
CINEMA
To coincide with the Catalan spotlight at the London Book Fair 5-7 April 2022, Catalan Cinema Now! looks at what is happening in film in Catalonia in the aftermath of Covid. Screening a number of hybrid documentaries that navigate the boundaries between fiction and documentary as well as co-productions that showcase Catalan scriptwriting, these are films that map the originality, strength and innovation of contemporary Catalan filmmaking. The seven featured films show the vibrancy of Catalan cinema in the here and now — navigating its past, documenting its present and preparing for its future. Films map queer histories, interrogate what community means, and dream about utopias; they examine a changing workplace and reflect on how biographies are constructed and canonised. With two Catalan features in competition at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival — Isaki Lacuesta’s Un año, una noche / One Year, One Night and Carla Simón’s Alcarràs – the latter winning the Golden Bear – it is a fitting moment to celebrate the achievements of Catalan filmmaking – looking at how directors are building on the legacy of earlier generations of filmmakers from Pere Portabella to Joaquín Jordà, Ventura Pons, Marc Recha and Albert Serra and forging a new cinema of possibilities.
Catalan Cinema Now! season is curated by Maria Delgado and produced by the ICA in collaboration with the Institut Ramon Llull
Catalan Cinema Now at the ICA
CINEMA Innovations (9-10 April 2022)
Career interview with Luis Miñarro (studio) 4.30pm A career interview with the legendary Catalan film producer and director Luis Miñarro
The secrets and frustrations of a group of women in a small rural town are playfully r evealed in this bold debut feature by Ainhoa Rodríguez
Sis dies corrents / The Odd Job Men (dir Neus Ballús, 2021) 10 April, 6pm
It’s plumber-electrician Moha’s first week in a new job, only colleague Valero isn’t proving too welcoming in Neus Ballús’s wry, funny documentary.
9 and 10 April and 14,15,28 and 29 May
Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH. Entry fee
Catalan Cinema Now at the ICA
CINEMA May: Intersections (14, 15 May)
Libertad (Clara Roquet, 2021) (14 May, 6.15pm)
Costa Brava Lebanon (Mounia Aki, 2021) (15 May, 6.15pm
Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH. Entry fee
Catalan Cinema Now at the ICA
CINEMA May: Identities (28, 29 May)
Magaluf Ghost Town (Miguel Angel Blanca, 2021) (confirmed) (28 May, 20.30)
SanMao. The Desert Bride dir. Marta Arribas and Ana Pérez (Spain 2020) (confirmed) (29 May, 4pm) TBC
Sediments (Adrian Silvestre, 2021) (confirmed) (29 May 6pm) Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH. Entry fee
Performance poetry at iklektik in collaboration with the European Poetry Festival
Maria Sevilla and Joan Martínez
Mireia Calafell and Björt Rùnars
Jansky
A unique afternoon of live Catalan poetry, celebrating the innovative and performative brilliance of contemporary poets and musicians, this event welcomes Mireia Calafell and Björt Rùnars, Maria Sevilla and Joan Martínez, and Jansky to London. Representing a new wave of poets to whom experimentation and performance are core to their understanding of literature, and held at the remarkable Iklectik Artlab in Waterloo, this event will also feature three British poets, presenting brand new live works in response to the visiting poets, in collaboration and playful hospitality.
Organised in collaboration with the European Poetry Festival and Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council), curated by poet and artist Steven J Fowler.
10 April 14:00-16:00 Iklectik, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Ln, London SE1 7LG, Free
La Veronal and Toni Jodar at Sadlers’ Wells
PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS
MarcosMorau’s multi-disciplinary company La Veronal returns to Sadler’s Wells with Pasionaria after his thought-provoking debut in 2015, ‘Voronia’. Granted the National Dance Award by the Spanish Ministry of Culture in 2013, La Veronal is known for its stunning and expressive work which extends across different artforms. ‘Pasionaria’ is a place everyone talks about and a place of progress. Life has become an artificial landscape and inhabitants have lost any kind of passion. Pasionaria questions the emotional detachment that we are moving towards. The artificial world which we are pushed towards and violently thrown into, where individualism and moral cowardice is turning the current world into a place of defenceless adults.
The show will be preceded by a 30-minute performance-lecture with Toni Jodar entitled ‘Current trends in the language of contemporary dance’. Highlighting movements that have shaken our bodies and events that have changed our world, Toni Jodar will use words and his body to present La Veronal dance company and its code of movement. Pasionaria is a show that fuses languages, including the set itself and references to cinema and literature, to raise questions, not without humour, about the future of a humanity devoid of all passion or feeling and increasingly dependent on technology, automation and manipulation. 3 and 4 May Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Ave, London EC1R 4TN. £20.00
It don’t Worry Me – Atresbandes at the New Diorama Theatre
PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS
‘Let’s not overthink this…’
Stripped down to their pants and socks, but deadly serious, two performers interrogate the tension between art and political correctness. Meanwhile, three audience members have turned up dressed in the style of Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville, apparently expecting a different show altogether... Welcome to a gloriously silly world where everything has spiralled out of control and out of context – but the stakes have never been higher.
Furiously original and confoundingly funny, ‘It don’t worry me’ is a show like no other: somewhere between theatre, performance art and hallucinogenic experience. Don’t miss the London premiere of this acclaimed international collaboration, created by award-winning UK performance duo Bert & Nasi and trailblazing Catalan company Atresbandes.
3 to 7 May
Tuesday - Saturday, 19:30pm / Saturday matinee 15:00pm New Diorama Theatre, 15 - 16 Triton Street, Regent’s Place, London, NW1 3BF
£16
Catalan circus at Jackson’s Lane
PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS
The creative hub of contemporary circus in North London, Jacksons Lane, will host a Catalan circus showcase with performances from three companies: Leandre, En Dic-iembre and Circ Pistolet. The flagship arts and cultural venue in Haringey, Jacksons Lane’s year-round programme of contemporary performance, arts participation and cul-tural education exists to empower, and ignite creativity within, diverse communities and work tirelessly to overcome traditional barriers through art.
LEANDRE: 4 and 5 May 19:30
EN DICIEMBRE: 10 May 19:30
CIRC PISTOLET: 12 May 19:30
Bilingual reading of Eva Baltasar's work and conversation of the author with university students. There will be a translation workshop with translation groups from the university and other language faculty members
29 April 16:00
Taylorian Library, St Giles', Oxford OX1 3NA. Free
Poetry and Science: Two Sisters at Loggerheads
Book presentation of The Poetry of Science, bilingual Catalan-English anthology of poems by Àngel Terron, published by Goat Star Books (2021)
Poetry and science are like two sisters sharing the same room and at loggerheads with each other. Àngel Terron is strongly opposed to reductionism and scientism. His poems argue against any attempt to make science a substitute for the humanities. Science can never be the whole story, as it cannot truly explain what it means to be human. The anthology The Poetry of Science, edited and translated from Catalan by Rafael Peñas, includes a selection of Terron’s work between 1977 and 2012, translated into English for the first time. Through his poems, Terron succeeds in reconciling both sisters.
26 May 19:00
John Keats House, 10 Keats Grove, London NW3 2RR. Free
Exhibition "Just Dig, Love & Psyche", Vicens Vacca at IKLECTIK in London
PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS
Vicens Vacca is one of the leading figures in sound art in Catalonia. He started out in contemporary art in the mid-1980s, experimenting with sound in the margins of conceptual art. For Vacca, sound is never an additional complement, but a corporeal element with plastic qualities, which is materialised in the space of action as a sculptural object. For this London exhibition (first solo exhibition in the UK), Vacca has chosen three works with the space of the Iklectik in mind: two of these works are acoustic and are activated by the proximity of the spectator; the third, one of his latest works, exhibits two objects that refer to how the passage of time has dealt with the concepts of love and the psyche.
31 May - 5 June Iklektik, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Ln, London SE1 7LG, United Kingdom. Free
Karaoke Elusia by Oriol Puig Grau
A rehearsed reading presented by Boundless Theatre
Boundless Theatre is a leading theatre company for 15-25 year olds founded in 2001 and led by Artistic Director Rob Drummer. The company makes work that the Guardian newspaper describes as ‘fizzing with youth’ across the UK and internationally. Alongside developing future artists now, Boundless produces live shows, digital performances and podcasts that connect to youth culture globally. Boundless is proud to support a diverse community of young adults to be creative through exhilarating, shareable and meaningful social experiences around culture.
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