October 1st – 9th
From October 1st to October 9th 2014, the Literature Festival will take place again. Already for the 7th time innovative works and fascinating guests from Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Germany and Bulgaria will be presented in Ruse. The Literature Festival will gather different personalities, perspectives and formats and will present texts that invite to debate and exchange. For the first time this year, the festival will offer an insight into the topic “lyric picturisation” – in the form of movie screenings and workshops. Within the framework of this year’s festival, events will also take place in Veliko Tarnovo and Sofia.
1st – 9th October | Regional Library Ljuben Karavelov
Liberatura – another dimension of literature | Exhibition
1.10 | 11 am Exhibition opening
9.10 | 6 pm Finissage
The term Liberatura was first coined by the Polish writer Zenon Fajfer in 1999. Liberatura refers to a kind of literature, a trans-genre, in which the text and the material form of a book constitute an inseparable whole. Both of them have the Latin prefix “liber” in common. On the one hand this term means “the free one”, who is allowed to express himself freely, on the other hand it means the material form of the book with its specific weight and size, which represents in a way the raw material of Liberatura. The exhibition of Zenon Fajfer and Katarzyna Bazarnik will present a selection of works that illustrates the concept Liberatura.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 8.30 am – 6.30 pm | Saturday 9.30 am – 5.30 pm
- photo: Alžběta Diringerová
1st October | 5.30 pm Canetti House
Reading with Marek Šindelka
Marek Šindelka, born 1984 in Polička, is a Czech author. Šindelka studies screenplay at the FAMU in Praha and cultural studies at the Karls University Praha. In 2006 he got the Jiří-Orten Prize for his debut, the collection of poems Strychnin a jiné básně (2005). In 2008 he published his first novel Chyba, which was also published as a comic in 2011. Moreover, Šindelka writes for different Czech literature magazines such as Souvislosti, A2 and Host. In Ruse he will present his text “Performance starts”.
2nd October | 6 pm Canetti House
Reading with Micul Dejun
Micul Dejun, born 1981, studied literary writing, history and art history in Leipzig, Dresden, Halle, Prague and Sibiu. He is founder of the offspace gallery “Fischladen” in Dresden. In 2010 Dejun was DAAD fellow of the “Scoala de Vara” in Moldova and in Ukraine. 2014 he has been fellow of the Stuttgarter Schriftstellerhaus. At this year’s literature festival Micul Dejun will read from his novel “Beton”.
- photo: ottfilm
3rd October | 1 pm
Poem + Film = Film | Lyric picturisation – workshop with Anastasia Novikova
Lyric picturisation is a genre, which presents and connects lyric and the medium of film. With festivals, like the Zebra International Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, the genre has become more visible and recognized. Within the workshop examples of lyric picturisation will be watched and discussed – always keeping in mind the question: how can a word become a picture. This is especially interesting, considering the fact, that by reading a poem, everyone develops his own, different pictures.
Anastasia Novikova teaches literature and media didactics in the field of German as a Foreign Language (GFL) at the University of Heidelberg. There, Novikova did her doctor’s degree on “lyric picturisation during GFL-lessons. Theoretical basics and didactic praxis.” Her monograph about lyric picturisation was published in the Dr. Kovac publisher, Hamburg in 2013.
The workshop addresses students, as well as artists and interested persons. The workshop will be held in German and Bulgarian languages.
Places for participants are limited (12).
Please register until 26.09 on: a.novikova@gmx.net
- photo: ottfilm
3rd October | 6 pm Canetti House
Poem – I set my foot upon the air and it carried me (2003) | Film
In his film “Poem” the director Ralf Schmerberg transforms German-language lyric to variegated and intensive pictures. Poem is a journey through the world of poetry and imagination. Great German actors like Jürgen Vogel, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Meret Becker or David Bennent give poems of Ingeborg Bachmann, Heiner Müller or Heinrich Heine a new look. Dr. Anastasia Novikova will give an introduction to the film.
4th October | 5.30 pm Canetti House
Timira. A Mestizo Novel – Wu Ming 2 and Antar Mohamed Marincola |
Book presentation with Tanya Topolova
Her name is Isabella Marincola, who calls herself Timira in Somalia. She was born as daughter of an Italian soldier and a native in Mogadishu in 1925. Her life is a treasure of interwoven stories which take place between Europe and Africa. Timira is a mestizo novel, which connects memories, archive documents and fictional elements.
The novel was written by Wu Ming 2, Antar Mohamed Marincola and his mother Isabella Marincola.
Wu Ming 2 is a member of the Italian writers collective Wu Ming. The group was founded in 2000 and works in Bologna. With their collective approach the members constantly deal with the topic of the authorship and deconstruct it. Any kind of human action is something collective for Wu Ming. The group has written several novels, which were translated into numerous languages.
Antar Mohamed Marincola (born in Mogadishu in 1963) is a Somali-Italian author.
On October 4th, Tanya Topolova will present the collective Wu Ming and the novel “Timira” for the first time in Bulgaria. Tanya Topolova teaches Italian language and literature at the university of Veliko Tarnovo. “Timira. A Mestizo Novel” will likely be published in Bulgarian in 2015 by the Elias Canetti publishing house.
4th October | 7 pm Canetti House
Bear Islands (2010) | Film
The documentary “Bear Islands” deals with the Far Eastern Russian republic Sacha (Yakutia). It tells the story of the people who live in this remote part of the country, especially of the caretaker of the ice bears’ reservation , which is located on the Bear Islands in the East Siberian Sea. With “Bear Islands” the Czech director Martin Ryšavy draws a detailed portrait of the landscape, its history and the life of the people in Sacha. Martin Ryšavý, born in Prague in 1967, studied biology, but works as a writer, script writer and film director and teaches screenwriting at the Prague Film School FAMU.
5th October | 12 am Canetti House
Pippi Longstocking | Workshop for children
The workshop offers children (age 4 – 6) the opportunity to discover the adventures of Pippi Longstocking. The group will enter the fantastic world of Pippi, Annika and Tommy and experience exciting moments. For one day Canetti House will become Villa Villekulla, with a lemonade tree, tests of strength and a treasure hunt. With games, music and bricolages we will set free the children’s creativity and phantasy and let them slip into different roles.
Places for participants are limited (10).
Please register on: leonardo@eliascanetti.org
5th October | 6 pm Canetti House
Reading with Angel Igov and Kinga Toth
Angel Igov, born 1981 in Sofia, is a Bulgarian author, literary critic, translator and journalist. He studied English philology and literature in Bulgaria, Great Britain and the US. Angel Igov is author of short stories and the novel “Kratka povest za srama”. His first short story collection “Sreshti na putia” won the prize for prose in the context of the national competition “Iuzhna prolet” (Spring in the South) in 2003. In 2006 his book “K” was nominated for the Elias Canetti literature prize. Igov teaches English and American literature at the university of Sofia. As a journalist, he publishes regularly in various Bulgarian media and literary magazines. In Canetti House, Angel Igov will present, together with the Hungarian artist Kinga Toth, excerpts from his latest novel.
Kinga Toth, born in Sárvár (Hungary) in 1983, is an artist and journalist. She is also the lead singer of the band “Tóth Kína Hegyfalu” as well as board member of the József Attila Association for Young Writers. 2013 she was fellow of the academy Solitude in Stuttgart. In Ruse, Kinga Toth will present her project “ALL MACHINE“ which she also implemented site-specifically in Budapest, Bratislava, Stuttgart, Prague and Sofia. ALL MACHINE comprises an exhibition of graphics and a visual-sound performance with her poems. The central topic of the project is the perception of people and machines. ALL MACHINE shows the living together of people and machines and how our contemporary society evolves from that. After the reading and discussion with Angel Igov, Kinga Toth will present her sound poetry performance.
6th October | 5.30 pm Canetti House
Lecture by Professor Milena Kirova and Boris Minkov
Milena Kirova (born 1958) is literature critic, feminist and lecturer. She writes and teaches with the focus on contemporary Bulgarian literature of the late 20th and early 21st century, feminist literature, feminism and Biblical as well as psycho-analysis researches. 2011 Kirova was awarded with the national prize for literature critic “Ivan Radoslavov and Ivan Meschekov”. In Canetti House she will give a lecture about “Communism on offer: the life before 1989 in the novels of Bulgarian immigrants”.
Boris Minkov (born 1971) is a Bulgarian writer and literature critic. He graduated in comparative literature studies on the work of Hermann Broch and Stefan Zweig. Minkov was guest lecturer at the Universities of Sofia and Plovdiv, the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He is editor of the magazine for literature studies and humanities „Страница“, which has been published since 1997. In Ruse he will talk on topic “Contemporary Bulgarian literature, media, review and public”.
6th October | 7 pm Canetti House
Room of words – Petko Tanchev and Katerina Georgieva | Performance
In their performance the authors Petko Tanchev and Katerina Georgieva show the “room of words” as a space created by the reflection of the vibrations of an individual. Through the interaction between words and digitality they discover a new and energetic world that invites to overcome the limiting boundaries of our perception, in which we force ourselves and in which we define ourselves. The performance “Room of words” allows an individual to go beyond the own parameters of definition and to see itself in a surprising new way.
Petko Tanchev (born 1985) graduated from the National Art Academy with a Bachelor’s Degree in Stage Design. He took part in numerous exhibitions, workshops and festivals in Bulgaria and abroad. Katerina Georgieva (born 1987) is a theater critic and a writer. Since February 2014 she works in the State Puppet Theatre in Vidin as a dramaturge.
7th October | 6 pm Canetti House
Reading with Robert Schindel and Boris Minkov
Robert Schindel, a child of Jewish communists born in Bad Hall in 1944, is an Austrian author. Schindel studied philosophy and was co-founder of the student movement “Commune Vienna” as well as of the literary journal “Hundsblume”. Since 1986, he is freelance author. Central topics of his work are the Shoa and his ambivalent relation to the “capital of oblivion” Vienna. Since 1999, Robert Schindel has been chairman of the jury of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. He is member of the “Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg” as well as lecturer for creative writing at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
In Ruse, he will read excerpts from his novel “Gebürtig”, together with Boris Minkov, who will present his book “Transcription” in autopoetic reflection as a Central European novel.
8th October | 6 p.m. Helikon bookstore
Elias Canetti Publishing House | Presentation
In the last years, the Elias Canetti publishing house has published a number of contemporary European literature in Bulgarian language. Moreover, it has presented new Bulgarian books and published them in German language. Within the festival the work of the publishing house and some of its books will be presented at Helikon bookstore.
8th October| 8 pm Canetti House
Help me Jones | Concert
Help me Jones is a Sofia-based band, whose music can be located in the area of Synthpop and the New Wave Music of the 80th. Mariy Rossen, who is actor, director and poet, and Konstantin Timoshenko, who is DJ and producer from Kazakhstan, are the founder members. After some transcending genre art projects, they established Help me Jones in 2008 – together with the singer and permanent member Andronia Popova (Nasekomix). In 2013 the band published their debut album “Made in China”.
9th October | 3 pm Regional Library Ljuben Karavelov
Liberatura – another dimension of literature | Workshop
Within the exhibition Liberatura, the authors Zenon Fajfer and Katarzyna Bazarnik will offer a workshop. They will present the idea of Liberatura to the participants, discuss it with them and moreover work on some examples and collages. The workshop will take place in English language.
Places for participants are limited (15).
Please register until 28.09 on: leonardo@eliascanetti.org
At 6 pm the results of the workshop will be presented and the Literature festival 2014 will be concluded with the authors, participants, guests and the finissage of the exhibition.
In cooperation with:
