The Second-hand, Ancient and Modern Book Fair of Barcelona, ??which next September will reach its 72nd edition, is reaching a “turning point”, in the words of the president of the Guild of Old Booksellers of Catalonia, Marçal Font, in the presentation of the contest this Thursday at the Arús Library.
Font explained that they wanted to take a leap forward by making the fair more professional, which is the oldest in Europe in its field, and this year it will be brought forward a week, so that it will also coincide with the Setmana del Llibre in Català, a fact that, far from worrying the organization, they see as an opportunity to establish synergies, because they are complementary. On this occasion, 8 new bookstores have been added to return to the 32 before the pandemic, in a total of 226 linear meters on the promenade with which, in the words of Font, “for three weeks the people of Barcelona will recover a space that is often almost exclusively for tourists”.
Font has assured that the fair must be understood “beyond a simple market”, and for this reason it has opted for a grand opening party, on September 7 at the Cine Comedia, where, among other activities, there will be a jazz concert with the Albert Bover quartet, Andreu Pitarch, Masa Kamaguch and Pablo Arias. The president of the guild highlighted that this year the poet, translator, essayist and art critic José Corredor Matheos has been chosen as the town crier. “Barcelona owed him a tribute”, Font has said about the last member of the poetic generation of the fifties, who also closely followed the trajectory of the Dau al Set group.
In fact, jazz and Dau al Set will be the stars of this year’s exhibition, entitled Jazz and the post-war artistic avant-garde. The four Jazz Salons from Dau to Set and from Club 49 of the Barcelona Hot Club, 1951-1957, curated by Aitor Quiney.
The writer and editor Sebastià Bennasar has presented another novelty, a cultural program during the three weekends of the fair, each dedicated to a different field. The first will revolve around the importance of Dau al Set, taking into account that it is the 25th anniversary of the death of Joan Brossa, one hundred years since the birth of Antoni Tàpies, and fifty years since the publication of El vol de l’alosa, an important artist’s book by Joan Miró.
The following weekend will be dedicated to Barcelona as a literary city, with events such as a talk by Josep Lluís Martín Berbois on Sherlock Holmes and events on Manuel de Pedrolo or Montserrat Roig as well as, among others, an event on book collecting by young people.
The third weekend will focus primarily on children’s literature, with emphasis on the figure of Maite Carranza and the importance of both the school and personal libraries.
Another of the new projects that have been presented is Vita Libris, with the aim of bringing back to life some titles that are part of the Catalan literary heritage in an exhibition that will occupy the back of the stands, with the aim also of “defending Catalan identity and vindicating Catalan literature in such complex times”.
Font has also presented the poster for the fair, which is commissioned from a consolidated artist, this time giving voice to urban art with the figure of Sixe Paredes, who throughout his career has combined work in the studio with an important task in street art and that Font has said “comes from the base of urban art and graffiti”. Paredes has summarized his poster as “a reflection of the connections that are generated when one reads a book.”
Catalan version, here
