Rewiew: Göteborg Bokmässan 2015
This year the Spanish Embassy in Sweden has had a stand at the 31st Gothenburg Book Fair. The fair is one of the most important events in the Scandinavian region; over 100,000 annual visitors, 12,000 square meters of exhibition area and over 800 participants.
The stand had for name “Fyra Språk, Fyra Litteraturer” (Four Languages, Four Literatures), which alluded to the number of languages and literatures that we have in Spain. For this reason, we collaborated with the following institutions: Instituto Cervantes in Stockholm, Institut Ramon Llull (in charge of the promotion of Catalan literature and culture abroad), Etxepare Institutua (in charge of the promotion of Vasque literature and culture abroad), Council for Galician Culture (in charge of promoting Galician culture), and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain.
The role of the Spanish Embassy is to promote Spanish culture. We believe that by working in collaboration we can create synergies that can benefit each institution; the ones that have attended the fair for the first time, as well as the ones that are already regulars.
Besides having a permanent exhibition of books in the four languages, we organized a series of talks and presentations at the stand:
Presentation of the book Intemperie (in Swedish, Flykten), by Jesús Carrasco. With the participation of Swedish literary critic Yukiko Duke. (Below, José Pedro Torrubia, Cultural Attaché of the Spanish Embassy, and Jesús Carrasco.)
Talk between representatives of the Etxepare Institutua (Mari Jose Olaziregi) and the Council for Galician Culture (Dolores Vilavedra) about common and diverse challenges in the promotion of culture
Presentation of the book Desig de Xocolata (in Swedish, Tre Koppar Choklad), by Care Santos. With the presence of the translator of the Swedish version, Ellinor Broman.
Presentation of the book També això passarà (in Swedish, Även detta går över), by Milena Busquets. With Mónica Riaza, Cultural Manager of the Instituto Cervantes in Stockholm.
Presentation of the book El cuerpo en que nací (in Swedish, Kroppen jag föddes i), by Guadalupe Nettel. With Erik Larsson, from Natur&Kultur
Conversation with Milena Busquets and Kirmen Uribe about the role of memory in literature.
Conversation about the challenges of writing in Galician between Inma López Silva and Dolores Vilavedra.
We hope that this is the beginning of a long future in collaboration to bring culture in the four languages closer to Sweden!
