Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The White Review no. 11


The White Review No. 11 features interviews with artist Philippe Parreno, novelist Pierre Guyotat and poet Alice Oswald alongside new fiction by Pola Oloixarac, Evan Lavender-Smith, and Ruby Cowling, winner of the The White Review Short Story Prize 2014. Essays are provided by McKenzie Wark, on the science of climate change, Alexander Christie-Miller on falconers of the Black Sea and Basia Lewandowska Cummings on a new style of cinema. The featured poets are Sophie Collins, Rob Halpern and Gëzim Hajdari (translated from Italian). Artwork is provided by photographers Sarah Jones and Victoria Jenkins, with a cover by Natasha Cox. 

http://www.thewhitereview.org/issue/issue-no-11/

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Hercules in Mato Grosso - Estreno mundial


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Hércules en el Mato Grosso

Drama lírico en 2 actos, en portugués, quechua y alemán.

Dramatis Personae
Hércules Florence: Martín Díaz (tenor)
Barón Langsdorff: Alejandro Spies (barítono)
Anaconda Rainha: María Paula Alberdi (soprano)
Anaconda Vestal: María Virginia Majorel (soprano)

Leandro Rodríguez Jáuregui, piano

Victoria Gianera, piano

Diego Cano, electrónica off stage


Compositor: Esteban Insinger

Libreto: Pola Oloixarac

Escenografía: Luna Paiva

Régie: Walter Jakob

Dirección Musical: Sebastián Zubieta

Asistencia Dir. Musical: Adrián Llano

Vestuario: Leticia Pompei

Iluminación: Eduardo Pérez Winter

Producción General: Bárbara Scotto


Hércules en el Mato Grosso es un encargo del Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón.


Agradecimientos: Jorge Rufinelli, Mariano Siskind, Clara Masnatta, Juan Pablo Piñeiro, Sebastián Soler. Asistencia en idiomas: Andréa Bertacchini (portugués), Katrin Zinsmeister (alemán).

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Festival de la Palabra: Puerto Rico - NYC



 https://www.facebook.com/FestivaldelaPalabra

SAN JUAN

Teatro Tapia
5:30pm—6:45pm 
DEBATE
Mujeres de Letras:
rebeldes y malditas
ALBERTO RUY SÁNCHEZ,
POLA OLOIXARAC,
VÉRONIQUE OVALDÉ
Y MARA PASTOR


Viernes 17 octubre:

Sala Oeste. Arsenal de la Puntila.
9:15am—10:00am
Yo también soy lector
POLA OLOIXARAC
(encuentro con estudiantes)



Sábado 18 octubre:


Las Arcadas del Edificio de Turismo. Paseo de la Princesa
3:30pm—4:45pm
DEBATE
De Madame Bovary a La Maga: retratos de mujer
FRANCISCO GOLDMAN,
POLA OLOIXARAC,
MARA PASTOR,
CARLOS MANUEL RIVERA
Y JOSÉ MURATTI

 
NUEVA YORK



Viernes 24 octubre

Black Box Theater at El Museo del Barrio
6:15 pm – 7:30 pm:
MASTER PANEL
¿Por qué Julia?: La Mujer en la Literarura/Why Julia? Women in Literature
MYRNA NIEVES,
POLA OLOIXARAC,
LILLIANA RAMOS COLLADO
Y SANDRA A. GARCÍA-BETANCOURT

Los teratos de la Lit


 Los teratos de la lit. Acerca de La masacre de Reed College, de Fernando Montes Vera
por Pola Oloixarac

presentación leída en Purr Libros, 29 de mayo 2013

publicada en Revista Katatay, Año IX, No 11/12, septiembre 2014

A la dra. V. Cano

De los seres humanos cultos con aspiraciones artísticas se espera, en los casos más distinguidos, la destrucción. Hablar de la destrucción es una de las maneras modernistas más comunes del arte: se habla una novela que rompe, o un autor que destruye equis estética, tradición, grupo, etc. O no: una novela que no logra romper, que quiso matar y no pudo: en estos casos la expectativa por la destrucción queda trunca. Se fantasea con una palabra escrita que destruye con su sola presencia al resto.

Ahora vamos a hablar de una Masacre, un asunto de muerte distribuida en un milieu particular, en un college. Un ritual de aniquilamiento a gente como ustedes llevado adelante por gente como él (o como nosotros). Los yoes y los ellos se pueden siempre recombinar: es la naturaleza de la magia lingüística, que exhibe como ninguna el pasaje del yo al ellos. Será una petite morte que viviremos no sin éxtasis (la Masacre los promete y los contiene) distribuida en los nodos de una red social, de una escuela, un trabajo. En esos lugares de la muerte, la red social vuelve a hacerse física, se recomponen los lazos visibles. Es el ámbito del troll IRL (i.e. in real life), una de las taxa favoritas entre las mutaciones que nuestro autor investiga. 

Adentro y afuera de la novela, en el mundo de los personajes y en el mundo IRL de la vida, la pregunta es Quién decide quién muere y quién permanece con vida.

Como el promachotheuthis sulcus, un tipo de molusco con forma de estrella de mar y una pequeña boca circular de dientes alineados símil humanos, La Masacre de Reed College de Fernando Montes Vera extiende sus tentáculos sobre dos mundos: el universitario precarizado de Buenos Aires y el progresismo en estado de delirium tremens de Portland, situado en un valle del oeste de Estados Unidos. El promachotheuthis sulcus mismo vive a mitad de dos mundos: es mitad calamar, mitad mantarraya. Sabemos de su existencia entre nosotros, o entre el nosotros que conforma el mar, desde épocas muy recientes, desde 20071.

(sigue acá)

Friday, September 19, 2014

insider's look! #HerculesinMatoGrosso

September 19, 2014
Earlier this summer, Music of the Americas explored the ongoing collaboration between the Teatro Colón and the Americas Society. In the last year, Americas Society expanded its relationship with the Colón, one of the leading opera houses in the Western Hemisphere, by initiating a partnership with the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón (CETC). Through the CETC, the Colón is able to establish an environment in which composers can create, audiences can get to know new works, and musicians can enjoy the challenges of premiering them. Music of the Americas had the unique opportunity to learn about the process of production for a new opera, Hercules en el Matto Grosso, due to have its premiere later this fall in Buenos Aires and its U.S. premiere at Americas Society in Spring 2015. Americas Society's Martha Cargo speaks with the opera's librettist Pola Oloixarac.
Background on the Work
Hercules en el Matto Grosso centers on Hércules Florence, the French-Brazilian painter and inventor who traveled with Baron von Langsdorff into the jungles of Brazil's Mato Grosso in the late 1820s. The opera follows the journey of these two men as they venture into the Amazon, where they are confronted by two anaconda snakes, who are water gods. Seduced by the anacondas, Langsdorff loses his mind, infected by fever. From the detailed journals that Hércules kept, we see that he completed his first experiments fixing images with a camera obscura, coining the term "photo-graphia" (painting with light). Oloixarac developed this story as a research assistant to the Department of Romance Languages at the Harvard libraries, and this past February completed her research and libretto at Stanford University. The cast features baritone Alejandro Spies in one of the leading roles (Watch his 2013 ISATC debut at Americas Society here).
The majority of the libretto is in Portuguese, with several German lieder, sung by Langsdorff, as well as some passages in Quechua, sung by the anacondas. The work is scored for two pianos, four singers, and electronics.
Music of the Americas: How did the inclusion of Quechua come up in your research? Is it connected to Amazon legends of these water gods?
Read it here!

----- CETC Teatro Colón el 13 de noviembre, 14, 15, 16! =D

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Argentina vs. Angry Birds

by Pola Oloixarac for The New York Times

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina has defaulted on its debt three times in the last 32 years, most recently last month, making it somewhat of an expert on the subject.
After failing to satisfy a judgment ordering the country to pay $1.3 billion to American hedge funds, closing it out of international credit markets, the hashtag “Argentina vs. the Vultures” no longer makes its citizens anxious. They see it as business as usual.

Argentina is disputing the ruling, by Judge Thomas P. Griesa of New York, which forbids the country to pay the restructured debt from 2002 without paying the investment funds that have held out for full payment. The country has divided its bond holders into two groups: the good ones, who settled their debt for 30 cents on the dollar; and the evil ones, who refused to settle, taking their case to the courts and winning.

But the so-called vultures have helped President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner ease back into the spotlight. In fighting the angry birds of capitalism, she is raising her profile at home, where her grip on power was waning. She has been rising in the polls.

In July, Mrs. Kirchner was facing the most difficult moment in her administration. After six years in office, her policies had resulted in an annual inflation rate that may be as high as 40 percent (official statistics peg it at 10.9 percent), a stubborn recession and little hope for economic growth.
Mrs. Kirchner and her husband, Néstor, who preceded her as president and who died in 2010, ascended to power after the crisis and debt default in 2002. Between then and the current crisis, isolation from the international credit markets set Argentina apart from other left-leaning but more market-friendly South American governments, such as Brazil and Chile. With her vice president, Amado Boudou, put on trial on corruption charges earlier this year for his involvement with the company that prints Argentina’s currency, Mrs. Kirchner was running out of options.

In May, she sought to raise her profile by creating an agency with the Orwellian name of Secretariat for Strategic Coordination of National Thought. But the hedge funds proved a more successful foil for coordinating the nation’s thinking. Most Argentines think it’s fair to defy Judge Griesa and defer payment, even if it means that credit markets consider the country an outlaw, because the system itself is flawed.

Argentines have a weakness for defiant characters. The writer Jorge Luis Borges said the country sympathized with “good outlaws,” those who fought unjust laws. Mrs. Kirchner has assumed the role with aplomb: Like the Argentine literary character Martín Fierro, she’s the outlaw with good intentions, the heroine who never betrayed the people and was willing to defy the capitalists.
Argentines have become skeptics about the usefulness of world markets. “Here, there’s never been a market god,” says Mauricio Corbalán, 46, an urban planner who lives in Buenos Aires. “They no longer trust the neoliberal expert that says you have to pay, no matter what.”

In mid-August, Mrs. Kirchner made an emotional appearance on national television. “I know I’m taking a big decision here; I’m nervous about it,” she said, almost in tears. She explained that the country was trying to make good on its debt payments, but was prevented from doing so by Judge Griesa’s ruling.

China, Argentina’s latest power partner, is eager to see the dispute resolved. Argentina began paying debts earlier this year to the Paris Club and others in a failed attempt to re-enter the credit markets. But Judge Griesa’s ruling interrupted the path to normalization, denying the country the boost that foreign investment could bring.

Argentina’s leaders have reacted by promoting new laws that will grant more power to the state in regulating the economy. To curb inflation, there’s a smartphone app, Cared-for Prices, that allows citizens to “control” prices. Both Argentina and Venezuela share the belief that new technologies can perfect the growing presence of the government in people’s lives, a neo-Socialist approach that has created two of Latin America’s most fragile economies.

Inside the presidential mansion, known as the Casa Rosada, the minister of economy, Axel Kicilloff, has two nicknames: “Excel” and “the Soviet.”

The political gain from the dispute with the vultures is likely to be short-lived, as inflation and stagnation persist. But it cements Mrs. Kirchner’s style as a bejeweled, Ferragamo-carrying committed Socialist: “To my left, there’s only the wall,” she said recently. Not quite. Between that wall and Mrs. Kirchner, the Argentines stand trapped.


also in The New York Times International Weekly

Sunday, August 17, 2014

:)

They'd come around and
They'd ask
"You finished you
2nd novel yet?"

"No."

"Whatsamatta? Whatsamatta
That you can't
Finish it?"

"Hemorrhoids and
Insomnia."

"Maybe you've lost
It?"

"Lost what?"

"You know."

Now when they come
Around I tell then,
"Yeh. I finished
It. Be out in Sept."

"You FINISHED it?"

"Yeh."

"Well, listen, I gotta go."

Even the cat
Here in the courtyard
Won't come to my door
Anymore.

It's nice.


--Bukowski

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Amazon sent me a raven to protect the Realm

Dear KDP Author,

Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.

With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.

Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive. (falta mencionar writing and editing: el trabajo real. btw, books can't be resold within the Amazon realm)

Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.

The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.

Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive. (dice que promueve competition, pero la batalla es por eliminar la competition que compite incluso en definir sus propios precios).

Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.

But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.

And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read).  A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures.  And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.

We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.

(the idea itself of talking about "writer in the middle", where they shouldn't be according to amazon, is the problem. writers are naturally in the middle, and in the middle of the constitution of the price, even if Amazon only notes (supra) the side dwellers of plusvalor).

We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.

Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com

Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com

Please consider including these points:

- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.
- Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
- Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue.

(laughs)

Thanks for your support.

The Amazon Books Team

Monday, August 4, 2014

Fabrication

by Najwan Darwish


The whole story is fabricated. Never have I believed the game that tells us you were slaughtered, and that your blood poured all the way to the Mediterranean only to be consumed by the sea. I am sure the story is all fabricated: Merriam Kershenbaum and Shlomo Ganor every night at 7.30.

Al‐Hurra (Free) [TV], al‐Arabiyya (the Arabian) [TV], and A‐ljazeera (the Peninsula) [TV]. Taken together: the Free Arabian Peninsula. Merriam Kershenbaum and Shlomo Ganor. I am sure they are also fabricated.

The bills placed into my mailbox by a person I do not know. The name of my family in three different languages. They, also, are fabricated. This woman who loves me through my email.

Haifa, too, is fabricated. This is why I never go down the street, and I only look at the sea from a perpendicular angle. Our friendship was in no one’s account. No one took the time to fabricate it; this is why it remained true. Oh! I forgot, all truths are fabricated. This is why I enjoyed sharing with you all your Araq, apples, nuts and other things.

Nothing pressures me. This is why I am not torn when I see our land that has been stolen from us. The robbery was fabricated, checkpoints are fabricated and the soldiers are a bunch of kids who still wet themselves. The elderly
Greek Orthodox women crossing into the Bethlehem checkpoint this morning are, also, fabricated. “In the name of the cross!” is said in a fabricated way. Good Friday is fabricated. The Byzantine‐tunes at the Maronite church in Nazareth is fabricated. My enemies are fabricated, and my relatives are the epitome of fabrication. Inferno is fabricated, and Paradise is fabricated with even greater skill and contempt. (Damn! Is Fairouz’s voice also fabricated?)

No nightmares haunt me, nightmares are fabricated. I do not suffer any disorders with my biological clock. I have no old enmity towards the sun, I do not suffer because of my inherited nature. All of these labels are fabricated.

I, too, am fabricated. Not because of who I am, but because all of the pronouns are fabricated. I do not hate collaborators; see how I listen to their news commentators without vomiting?

I am not afraid of the alarm clock, or even AIDS and atomic weapons. I do not suffer a phobia from ringing door bells or ringing phones. The world will not end tomorrow... all of these are fabricated news.
I am tired of 21st century romanticism: romance mixed with the “shit” of consumers from all social classes. If you wanted to live you too must be tarnished with it as well. This is also another fabricated theory.

Rejoice and be merry! The boxes filled with defeat that are stacked up under your grandparents’ beds are fabricated. And you have been wailing all those years about losing your homelands. Dude! (Woe! As said in Classical way) Loss is fabricated. A big lie formed by robbers of your existence.

Merriam Kershenbaum Shlomo Ganor Al‐Arabiyya al‐Hurra al‐Jazeera And that leper who holds the remote control.

Cockroaches and collaborators are nice creatures. Look at how gentle this one is, and how sweet the ugliness of that one’s face is. Our stereotypical ideas about their cheapness are fabricated.

A sedated group of men sit in the living room listening to the “Voice of Israel”. A respectable group of women make “Tabbouleh” and think about the future after having buried our public dignity. Don’t worry, these are all fabricated.

We cannot respect a few trees in front of our homes, leaving the mountains for those who set up the nets in our naps.

On the 22nd of April, 1948, Haifa surrendered. The date is fabricated. On the 8th of December, 1917, a few Effendis carried their white flag and a picture was taken of them as they surrendered Jerusalem. The event truly took place, but the picture is fabricated. You can, at any given time, gather a few Effendis and ask them to carry a white flag and march with it to Jaffa Gate to take a picture.

The time is 11:30 just before noon on the first of April 2010. Everyone went to sleep and awoke, and I am still up. Pillows are fabricated. In two weeks I will be going to Beirut. The Visa is an enormously fabricated obstacle. Oh, Our Lady of Lebanon, pray for us (though we know your prayer is fabricated.)

In a while I am going to sleep, as my wacky friend rides the bus from Nazareth. Words in Hebrew are flying around her like flies because she thinks the language of the enemy is a corpse, so I tell her: This is a fabricated ideology, the language of the enemy is a sexless robot. She bursts into a wacky, fabricated, laughter. We burst into laughter. Oh god, we won’t die. We run into eternity as our flip‐flops tap along. Eternity is fabricated. Everything that proceeded was a fabrication. Everything to come is also a fabrication. And each creature is raising it's arms like a tree in this fabricated poem.

Translated from the Arabic by Susan Hamad

Monday, July 21, 2014

BAR #2 !

Primera entrega del nuevo issue de BAR #2
- Liliana Colanzi, Alfredito (fiction)
- Thibault de Montaigu, An excerpt from Zanzíbar (fiction)
- Bernardo Carvalho, História de Amor (fiction)
- Ishion Hutchinson, Vers de société (poetry)
- Ken Harvey, The Invisible Mourner (fiction)
- Sam Rutter, sobre Carlos Labbé (review)
- Victoria Liendo, Bn(f) (bookstores we love)
- Busto, Entre difuntos (essay)

Imagen: Amaya Bouquet, "Judith", fotografía toma directa.

Leo y Presentação

Este jueves 24 a las 19hs leo un texto que escribí sobre Luciana Rondolini y Walter Andrade para Arta en Miau Miau, sobre las Filósofas del Bling y "Adorno en Los Angeles".
Bulnes 2705 esq. Cerviño


MiauMiau/Arta/08

Presentamos ARTA/08
ARTA /08 revista trabajó en forma conjunta con los artistas visuales Walter Andrade y Luciana Roldolini y los escritores Rodolfo Biscia y Pola Oloixarac.
En ésta edición, se rompió con la caja de diseño (dossier / imagen separadas), que se trabajó en las anteriores publicaciones.
En ARTA 08, la edición de textos e imágenes es simultánea. Conviven en dobles páginas. Pero los objetos textuales y visuales continúan siendo autónomos. Se construyen entre ellos diálogos o puentes pero ninguno se circunscribe al otro.
En forma dialógica las dos entidades ponen en suspenso categorías, pensamientos e impresiones sobre el arte.
Entre horizontes de semblantes y fantasmas, se entrecruzan las Filósofas de Bling, que se posan en la evanescencia del tiempo de la imagen.

beij xx

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Banff!





Dry air, steam baths, variegated rodents, lean white men dressing like it's 1929: I'm loving Banff. Super brainy conversations with excellent scholars and artists: plus, now I know how to act when encountering a Grizzly Bear (play dead) and how to act when locking eyes with a Black Bear (make eye contact, then look down; slowly slip away, Lot-style). Shoe-gazing mathematicians roaming around, and a jazz festival to boot. Really excited to give a talk tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Friday, May 9, 2014

Travel Fantasy! Extática lectura de BAR en la Feria deli Libro de BA


Join us this Sunday from 7 pm in the Zona Futuro at the Feria del Libro in Buenos Aires.

Featuring readings of best and latest work by emerging and established writers from the Americas, as well as a musical performance by Fernando Montes Vega, Travel Fantasy is an unmissable journey through language and space.
 
With readings by:

Anna Kazumi-Stahl
Iosi Havilio
Thibault de Montaigu
Edgardo Cozarinsky
Lucas Mertehikian
Martín Felipe Castagnet
Martín Caamaño
Tryno Maldonado

 
WHERE: Zona Futuro, Feria del LIbro     WHEN: 19:00 -22:00
 
ANNA KAZUMI-STAHL


Anna is a fiction writer and PhD in literature. Born and educated in the USA, she has lived in Buenos Aires since 1995 and writes short stories and novels in Spanish. Her short story collection Catastrofes naturales was published by Editorial Sudamericana in Buenos Aires in 1997.
IOSI HAVILIO


Author of the novels Opendoor (Entropía, 2006), Estocolmo (Mondadori, 2010), and Paraísos (Mondadori, 2012), Iosi's work has been included in the anthologies Buenos Aires Escala 1:1, La joven guardia, and Madrid, con perdón.
THIBAULT de MONTAIGU

Thibault is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in L'Officiel, l'Officiel Voyages, l'Optimum and Milk Magazine. He has written four books, the most recent of which Zanzibar was published last year by Fayard Editions.

 
TRYNO MALDONADO


Tryno has published the collection of short stories Temas y variaciones (2002), the novel Viena roja (Planeta, 2005), an anthology of Mexican writing Grandes hits, vol. 1 (Almadía, 2008) and Temporada de caza para el león negro (Anagrama, 2009), which was among the finalists for the XXVI Herralde Prize.
MARTIN CAAMAÑO


Born in Buenos Aires in 1980, Caamaño is a musician and writer. Caamaño studies Literature at the University of Buenos Aires, translates Portuguese and contributes to various magazines writing on cinema, music and literature.
 
EDGARDO COZARINSKY

Edgardo is a writer and filmmaker. Among his more than twenty books, the only ones translated into English are Urban Voodoo (prologue by Susan Sontag), The Bride from Odessa and The Moldavian Pimp.



Saturday, April 26, 2014

#NaovaiterCopa

by Pola Oloixarac for the NYT International



BRASILIA– “I'm sorry Neymar, I won't cheer for you this time” is an unexpected song to hear in a soccer-crazed country about to play host to the biggest sports tournament in the world. Neymar is Brazil’s reigning soccer god, the home team is one of the favorites to win the coming World Cup and its five championships are the most of any country. In the caustic style reminiscent of Musica Popular Brasileira during the dictatorship, these lyrics by Edu Krieger reflect widespread discontent in the lead-up to the first match, less than two months away.

“Não vai ter Copa” (we will stop the Cup) is the rallying call for protesters, who have been in the streets regularly since last June. These days, Brazilians are more likely to be caught up in protests against sweeping corruption and wasteful spending than in the renewal of national rivalries that come up every four years. Billions in public money are being spent on stadiums unlikely to be used after the Cup, while the state neglects investments like a new train station for São Paulo.

“During Carnival, every block burst into ‘Não vai ter copa.’ It was the music of the Carnival,” said João Paulo Cuenca, 35, a writer and filmmaker from Rio de Janeiro. The mood that accompanies the tournament every four years is sour this time around. “Every World Cup, Rio gets filled with painted streets, competing with each other. Now, it’s like the Copa didn’t exist.”

Soccer is the strongest socializing bond in Brazilian life so it’s not surprising that the World Cup has become a catalyst to express discontent. The signs of corruption abound: stadium construction projects wildly over budget, scant infrastructure improvements and poor public services.

In a country without a strong tradition of political engagement, people may not follow the news, but everybody reads the sports section. There they learn, for example, that the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia, which was demolished and rebuilt, cost 17 times more than estimated by FIFA, the World Cup’s governing soccer association. There are reports that the stadium roof still leaks and that the government is diverting money meant for other projects to solve the problem.

Since this is an election year, the World Cup is shining a spotlight on the Worker’s Party, which has been in power for 12 years. After two terms of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and four years of his protégée, Dilma Rousseff, Brazil has become the world’s eighth-largest economy. Showing off lavish new projects to an international audience was one reason Brazil courted the tournament; holding a successful Cup is a test the Worker’s Party is desperate to pass.

The higher expectations of the population are another challenge for the party. The social programs fostered by Lula have turned 40 million poor Brazilians into consumers, the new “C” class, and they and the traditional middle class are asking for better health care and education. But Rio de Janeiro has become one of the most expensive cities in the world, and average Brazilians feel they are paying too much for too little. There is the sense that the World Cup is not for them. “Copa pra quem?” (Whose Cup is it?) is another protest slogan.

The World Cup also coincides with the 50th anniversary of Brazil’s coup d’état, a sensitive topic for President Rousseff, who was jailed and tortured during the dictatorship. The excesses of that military past are echoed in the pacification steps in poor neighborhoods in advance of the World Cup. What began as an effort to uproot the drug cartels in the shantytowns has grown into a repressive occupying force, backed up by tanks. Tens of thousands of families have been evicted, and many people feel they have been pushed aside to make the Cup a success.

Bruno Torturra, a 35-year-old journalist from São Paulo, has founded Media Ninja, an organization devoted to covering the protests and police and gang violence overlooked by most media. “People recall the day when the army confiscated our rights in 1964, and on that very day national troops stormed Complexo da Maré and brutalized the poor,” he said. Now, he added, “people are being literally tortured and killed.”

Videos of tanks sharing the narrow streets with children and girls being kicked to the ground by the military police are making the rounds in social media under the hashtag #NaovaiterCopa. There are worries that the repression will worsen. FIFA is pushing for what’s called the “Copa law,” allowing any protester to be treated as a terrorist, jailed without trial.

This authoritarian approach is copying other Latin American governments, raising concerns about individual rights. A law criminalizing protest is being considered in Argentina, and the protests in Venezuela have been marked by police brutality and the jailing of students on terrorism charges. Today’s left-leaning leaders show an alarming willingness to adopt the brutal techniques of the old right.

When the protests began, President Rousseff, who faces re-election in October, pointed out that they were a sign of an improved and changing Brazil; these days, people do think they deserve better.
With quintessential Latin American panache, President Rousseff has resorted to the ultimate populist move: She knows that if Brazil wins the Cup, all will be forgotten. In the end, it’s all up to Neymar and the soccer fans.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Soirée de honor argentina en París

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 por Pola Oloixarac para Revista Eñie


La ensayista Beatriz Sarlo llegó puntual, de rigurosas perlas japonesas, con una falda de tajo tanguero que dejaba entrever sus ya legendarias piernas. Ricardo Piglia sorteó las distinguidas multitudes engalanado en un trois pièces, el look intacto que hacía furor durante sus magnos días de Puán. Cual Justin Timberlake plateado, Ricardo tomó ágil posesión de la silla y comenzó a firmar sus libros pacientemente, inquiriendo el nombre de cada lectora con un parpadeo gentil.

Aconcagua humano entre los stands, Alberto Laiseca era de suyo un espectáculo impar. La eminencia de Camilo Aldao cruzó con lenta majestad los pasillos del Salon mientras los niños se arremolinaban a su paso, atraídos y fascinados ante su presencia sobrenatural (la littérature, c’est ça). A unos metros de la estela que dejaba Lai caminaba distraído César Aira, la mirada distante en lo alto como un Napoleón miope que escruta la batalla en lontananza, los estandartes editoriales multiplicándose infinitos, conversando con su amigo el mago-poeta Arturo Carrera.

En la cena de gala Martín Caparrós se encontraba en su elemento profundo. Departía con una copa de Pouilly-Fumé en mano y degustaba la exquisita combinación del foie aux truffes con su propio francés añejado, que domina como pocos. Ya ubicados en la amplia mesa circular, enjoyada de escarapelas, el bigote de Caparrós y el del Turco Asís generaban un extraño mandala.

En otra mesa Sylvia Molloy conversaba muy animada con Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, que se había delineado los ojos muy punk, y Ariel Schettini, que consultaba una misteriosa app en su teléfono que le decía cuántas personas (¿lectores, escritores?) había dicho la palabra frenchkissing esa noche. No se veía por ningún lado a Mariana Enríquez; su espíritu darkie (nunca emo) la había llevado a pasear por el cementerio Père Lachaise. Daniel Link llegó un poco más tarde: su conferencia sobre Copi, la supernova exiliada cuyas obras siempre están en cartel en alguna parte de Francia (toda drag tiene su Evita) lo había ralentado en las medianías de Paris Huit. Al llegar desplegó su abanico mientras recobraba el aliento, e intentó desviar la atención de la prensa francesa, en vano; vencido por la insistencia, comentó que sí, entre sus condiciones de contratación había exigido viajar con su gata Tita Merello y la gata no habría asimilado “el agua tan dura de Paris” dado que es “artera a su aristocracia intestinal”, a lo que agregó “perdón pero me tengo que ir”. Para entonces, un deportivo Martin Kohan ya se había retirado a sus aposentos; no es fobia, expliqué entonces, súbita vocera de la biopolítica especializada: es una técnica depurada para evitar los paparazzi. Por suerte Alan Pauls clavó los talones de sus Nike azules y recibió con aplomo el impacto de las fans.

Pero la pompa máxima fue cuando entró en escena Edgardo Cozarinsky –mistérico, con unos antifaces negros que exorbitaban sus ojos cerúleos. Todos elevaron su copa hacia Edgardo, que intentó zafarse de su destino de divo de la noche pero los franceses, con buen tino, lo escoltaron a su sitial para que no pudiera escapar. La noche estalló en aplausos; “nadie como él ha sabido unir el refinamiento de la alta cultura argentina con el arrabal”, comentó Josefina Ludmer, de estricto negro y diamantes. A la par del Salon habían organizado una muestra de los primeros documentales de Edgardo, una máquina mágica que permitía a los parisinos entrar y salir de Buenos Aires. “París está transfigurada. Al fin caemos en la cuenta de que, caminando por París, uno siempre es un fantasma entrando o saliendo de Buenos Aires”, comentaban los visitantes locales.

A la hora de los quesos, algunos se fueron al Flore (tan obvio) o al Deux Magots (l’horreur). Siguiendo a Edgardo que, como buen porteño, es un parisino de fuste, los autores caminaron por el Sena iluminado en lo que debió ser una de las noches más bellas del mundo. Por el río oscuro se deslizaba una pequeña embarcación con guirnaldas de lucecitas de Fogwill; el que comandaba el timón era el hermano de Fog, marino, y su hija Vera.

En suma, París era una fiesta, y no en el sentido Hemingway o Vila-Matoso del término. O quizás ya no era París: era Roma o Bizancio, y nosotros los godos.

Un estrépito los distrajo de la maravilla. Había siseos, gritos; no se entendía bien. No era francés; tampoco era el terciopelo de las gargantas argénteas.

 “¡Es un debate que nos debemos como sociedad!”, “¡Hay que abrir el debate!”  (bis)

El misterio cacofónico se disipó rápidamente: ¡era un generador automático de frases de Ricardo Forster! Un trineo de fabricación nacional, con partes chinas pero ensamblado en Tierra de Fuego, lo venía empujando entre los pasillos del Salon; como se habían olvidado de apagarlo, el muñeco generador automático de frases de Ricardo Forster había continuado camino por las callecitas de París. “Déjenlo, ya le va a tocar cruzar la Île Saint-Louis”, dijo Edgardo, su voz ronca de malevo abisal, que ya preparaba una de sus bombas ninjas para desaparecer sin dejar rastros. Todos guardaron un silencio educado lo que duró la proclama del muñeco, que venía sin traducción al francés (color local) y cuya estela de humo terminó devorada por el runrún de la noche.

El muñeco generador automático de frases de Ricardo Forster era bastante gracioso y de vanguardia tecnológica para la industria del cotillón, pero no era nada comparado a lo que vendría. De lejos parecía una comparsa, pero no era carnaval; tampoco se trataba de emular actitudes brasileras, en tanto el asunto revestía un delicado cariz nacional. Se venía un ser gordísimo (“la Cultura es un asunto muy UOM”, comentó Ariel Schettini, sin dejar de chequear su app), como el Hombre Malvavisco de los Cazafantasmas pero con la cabeza enorme de alguien que no había leído nadie pero que… ¡era Ernesto Laclau! Aullaba:

“¡Significante Vacío! ¡Significante Vacío!”, su probóscide subía y bajaba como el Pájaro Loco.

Rodrigo Fresán y Cecilia Szperling se miraron incrédulos; Luisa Valenzuela acarició al loro azul sobre su hombro, tranquilizándolo. “Cómo les gusta Lacan a los argentinos, es surreal. Para mí es el tipo que meaba borracho el palier de mi edificio cuando niño”, comentó el escritor Thibault de Montaigu, que después de ser vecino de Jacques se mudó a Buenos Aires pero había optado por París para no perderse la fête.

¿A qué venía ese alboroto? ¿Trajeron piquetes, Moyanos, paros docentes, para sumar más color local? Alguien susurró: No, no, es todo una perfo, por “Casa Tomada”, de Cortázar Julio. Es la perfo oficial.

Empezaba la puesta en escena de “Eva Perón” de Copi por una drag de lustrosa peluca caoba y cartera Louis Vuitton.