“Where it all begins” is the motto of this year’s Book Week in Catalan, as the president of Editors.cat, Ilya Pérdigo, recalled at the opening. And the fact is that once again the contest becomes the pole of attraction for literary novelties and meeting of the sector, with a record number of exhibitors, 287, and more than 300 activities scheduled until the 17th.
They started strong, with events such as Karin Smirnoff’s talk, Vic Moliner’s concert or the live podcast of the Decimonónique Punkis, a poetry recital and dozens of walkers at Moll de la Fusta.
The Premi d’Honour de les Lletres Catalanes, Josep Piera, recalled at the inauguration that “for a writer, his homeland – or matria or fratria, if you like – is his language, and his home is his library. In this library, each book is a window through which we see the outside reality with imagination and affection at the same time”. An affection that extended to the city of Barcelona, ??”my natural metropolis and my literary city, the city where I can speak my Valencian”. The language, he said, “is above any ideology”.
An event, presented by Txell Bonet, in which the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, appealed, remembering Carme Junyent, to “be aware of all the possibilities of our language”. Mayor Jaume Collboni, after claiming the role of Barcelona as the capital of the book and making clear the commitment to the defense and promotion of the Catalan language that is suffering in the Valencian Country, revealed that next year it will be necessary to change the location provisionally due to the America’s Cup. For his part, the Acting Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta asked – after also recalling Junyent – that “we read, we read as much as possible, but above all we read in Catalan”.
A little while later, no longer under institutional pressure, Iceta was able to visit the space and buy books.
