Kosmopolis 2017

Outstanding among the confirmed international authors at the festival are British artiste PJ Harvey, who’ll be reading her poems for the first time in Spain in the closing session, and German filmmaker and writer Werner Herzog, creator of Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo. 

Also at the CCCB will be Timothy Morton, philosopher and creator of the concept of Dark Ecology, proposing that we rethink our vision of ecology, anthropocentrism and art; feminist writer Lynne Segal, expert in gender studies and politics; and Hope Jahren, US geobiologist, one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

K Dialogues will be presenting conversations between Jean-Yves Jouannais, French art critic and author of various novels and essays, and Jean Echenoz, winner of the Goncourt and the Médicis; and a dialogue about crime fiction between Pierre Lemaitre, author of the Camille Verhœven detective series, and the prolific John Banville, who’ll be visiting us with his alter ego, Benjamin Black. Finally, Agrupación Señor Serranowill be presenting their current work in progress. 

 

Consult the programDownload the program

 

The literature of (climate) change

The festival addresses the dilemmas and mutations we’re facing due to global warming and, beyond the seemingly insufficient technological solutions, it analyses the shift in sensibility needed to bring about a new environmental ethic and to halt climate change. First, with a criticism of the anthropocentric vision and the promotion of non-human intelligences by Stefano Mancuso, world expert in the field of plant neurobiology, and Carl Safina, the media champion of animal intelligence. Kosmopolis also explores the world of science fiction with one of today’s leading exponents of climate fiction, Kim Stanley Robinson, who’ll be talking to the veteran of British science fiction, Ian Watson. Plus, climate change will be the central theme of the European slampionship, Green Slam. 

Read this article to know more.

 

Female constellations

To halt climate change, we need a radical change of mentality to bring about social, cultural and economic change. K17 presents a special programme of talks, performances and debates to promote the vast, profound and not always visible female creativity, and table some of the hottest topics, such as motherhood, ageing and prejudices about literature written by women, with the voices of a series of writers such as Orna Donath, Maria Llopis,Brigitte Vasallo,Sophie Divry and Kirstie Logan.

Read this article to know more. 

 

Thinking in strips

The new century has normalised the production and reading of graphic novels that tell fictional, autobiographical, journalistic and even essayistic stories. At K17 we bring together Frédéric Pajak, Zeina Abirached and Paco Roca, three leading international exponents of the graphic novel who have worked particularly on the relations between documentary and fiction, using complex narrative architectures, the desire to think seriously, and great visual imagination. 

Read this article to know more. 

 

The walk by Robert Walser

The first edition of The Walk by Robert Walser was published in 1917. In this short novel, the author updates the figure of the flâneur, walking thoughtfully and analysing the impressions his surroundings create on him. K17 pays tribute to the centenary of the novel with three Walserian walks and a discussion about how the text—and its representation and extension to the street—blurs the limits between reality and fiction, and between memories and their recording. 

Read this article to know more. 

 

Networking literature

K17 strengths the links with Barcelona UNESCO City of Literature, Edinburgh’s Neu! Reekie! festival, the European Literature Across Frontiers platform and the Libraries Network of Barcelona and the Diputació de Barcelona provincial council.

Read this article to know more. 

 

The return of Canal Alfa and Bookcamp

Finally, once again Alpha Channel presents a selection of audiovisual pieces that explore the influence of literature on the cinema, and the fifth edition of Bookcamp,under the banner “Is there future beyond the book?”, continues to explore the transformation that the literary and editorial ecosystem is facing.

Read the article about the Bookcamp and the article about Canal Alfa to know more.

 

More information and ticket sales at kosmopolis.cccb.org