I didnt know José Eduardo Agualusa (a writer with a name that sounds very poetic). But I missed Lisbon again, as I do every summer for a few years. I received last month The Book of Chameleons, published in Portuguese in 2004 and in Romanian translation by Leda Publishing in 2009.
I recently read a lecture - as the writer called it on the new type of barbarians, in Palers volume, Mythological Slanders. The text worried me and made me reflect a little on the immediate reality, see and feel the presence of the neo-barbarian next to us. Not that I did not see it before every day in the streets, in shops, and especially in the area that guarantees most often his celebrity, the media - and especially the audio-visual media. Because the neo-barbarian likes to be seen, admired by his fellows although he has nothing to say; he is in constant pursuit of notoriety by any means.
Its been a while since I last went to the summer book fair in Bucharest. It took place during the same week as TIFF (Transilvania International Film Festival) and I was always away in Cluj at this time.
An extraordinary, astounding, exhilarating recent book: Birth. Stories lived, a collection a collection of testimonies from twenty ladies on their birth giving experience. In the foreword, the two coordinators of the book, Otilia Dragomir and Mihaela Miroiu, define the project as overcoming a barrier: since, despite the victories over the last century for the emancipation of women
The essayistic method in the Diary of the Wilde West is continued in the series of Historemes, in a brisker manner as required by space restraints and the frequency of a weekly column in a local daily (Monitorul de Iași, turned in 2003 into the Ziarul de Iași). First under the title Homo americanus (2000-2001), then under Homo valachus (as of 2001), Codrin Liviu Cuțitaru has been writing regularly and in distinct delight on various topics.
An appreciated member of the professoriate from his natal town, Jassy, were he has rubrics in gazettes, Codrin Liviu Cuțitaru expressed himself- therefore- less in the national press and cultural life. All the six books that he has signed until now appeared at publishing houses from Bahlui, and not at the one that dominate the Romanian market, Polirom. Other three books appeared at the University where he teaches.
Ive been to other book fairs before, but the one from Leipzig is by far the biggest concourse of people and books that I have ever seen. All those that visited the one in Frankfurt, asserted that the one in Leipzig is friendly, warm, and designed for both writers and public. I believe they are right. Maybe this is the reason why the Fiar is so colourful and so loved by the Germans that come here from all over Germany, especially during the weekend.
The extraordinary artist, Geta Brătescu, is one of the most radically experimental creative spirits of the Romanian contemporary culture. At the age of 84, the graphic artist, authoress of collages, videos, installations, performances and many other things, created in many formulas, even improvised ones that are documented photographically and filmic, now, publishes books in addition.
The most recent book of Bogdan Ghiu, Telepitecapitalism, continues further the same thread from The Glass Eye and from Middle Ages Media or The Terminal Man, the volumes where the author has collected TV chronicles written since 1991. I havent gotten handy the first account from this series, The Glass Eye (All Publishing House,1997) in order to check, where the adventure begun.
The book, that I am going to talk anout and which is going to be released on the 10th of February at The Possible Gallery in Bucharest, presents an uninhibited look at the vernacular photography from Romania. The authors approach (Magda Radu, Oana Tănase, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Eugen Gustea și Matei Câlția) doesnt look into the creation of photography history, or at the map of its circulation on the chosen space and it certainly isnt trying to create a subjective and nostalgic album.
