3rd Conrad Festival 2011

Conjuring Absence
“One can never express what they love, signs will never be equivalent to objects, and corpses will never speak. Literature means charming the absent. It is unnecessary when everything goes well, when words aren’t awkward and embarrassing, when the world seems to speak to us in an intelligible way. But when the machinery of the world begins to rust, the world’s glass dome falling on us and its manner of speaking requires translation, then literature appears, unexpectedly and noiselessly.” So Professor Michał Paweł Markowski introduces us to the theme of the 3rd Conrad Festival, which will be held from 2-6 November in Kraków. The 5-day festival will run under the slogan “In search of lost worlds”.

Day one…
...takes us on a journey into the imagination (2 November). And it will begin with an exhibition of Robert Walser’s micrograms. On the 55th anniversary of the death of the German-speaking Swiss writer, Reading Lessons will bring us closer to his works, which he wrote in microscopic cipher on scraps of paper, napkins, receipts, and railway tickets… The The Tanners author took on multifarious tasks: he was a bank clerk, an insurance agent, a butler, a caretaker, and an archivist. But he was writing the whole time (he debuted in 1898). He also battled with alcohol problems and depression, and finally fell victim to schizophrenia, spending the last 27 years of his life in a psychiatric institution where he could indulge in his beloved long walks. The Wyspiański Pavilion will also host Walser’s micrograms, and the exhibition will be accompanied by a discussion of his work (which was admired by Franz Kafka, among others) with the participation of translators Małgorzata Łukasiewicz and Susan Bernofsky, and Werner Morlang and Reto Sorg associated with the Robert Walser archive in Zurich.
The evening, however, will be devoted to the kids! The Kraków Opera will visit the world of fairy tales (for young and old) through the European premiere of Itamar Meets the Rabbit, an opera based on stories by David Grossman, who will be present himself in front of the Kraków audience as the Narrator. The actors Eli Gornstein and Adi Cesare will appear, accompanied the Polish Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Cracovia orchestra under the baton of Ilan Mochiach, with the composer Yoni Rechter appearing as the special guest.

Day two...
...covers the intersection of globalisation and local identity (3 November). Professor Tadeusz Sławek takes the audience on a journey in the footsteps of Bartleby the Scrivener (Herman Melville). And in the Pod Baranami Palace, discussions will take place about the condition of the modern Polish novel, with the participation of Ignacy Karpowicz and Marta Dzido, and on the dangers and opportunities for literature in a shrinking world, where the Indian writer Namita Gokhale, British critic Nick Barley and director of the Book Institute Grzegorz Gauden will be participating. The next event, which promises to be interesting, is the long-awaited polemic between the antagonists – Walter Benn Michaels the neopragmatist and liberal Paweł Śpiewak (chaired by Jan Sowa).
The evening will be dominated by the work of the festival’s patron, Joseph Conrad, Robert Walser (film screening) and rock singer, painter and poet Tomasz Budzyński. The author of Lord Jim and other books will be discussed by Alberto Manguel, who has also visited more than one part of the world, and who mastered the language of his second homeland (Argentina) at the age of seven (previously he’d spoken in English and German). While working in the Pygmalion bookshop in Buenos Aires, he met Jorge Luis Borges (who become blind at the age of 55) and became one of his personal readers. Writer, editor, translator, author of numerous anthologies, he will present not only Conrad’s works, but also their perception in South America. On the boards of the Stary Theatre, a play will be performed directed by Jan Klata, Coprophages or the hated but indispensable, created on the foundation of two of Conrad’s novels Under Western Eyes and The Secret Agent. And later in the evening the Pod Baranami Cinema has quite a treat in store: short films by the Brothers Quay inspired by the work of Robert Walser, while Rotunda will host a double literary-musical meeting. A concert of Tomasz Budzyński will be preceded by Andrzej Stasiuk’s interview with the rocker combined with promotion of his biography, Soul Side Story.

Day three...
...swimming in books! To begin with a grand opening, Philip Larkin and readings of Home is So Sad, The Large, Cool Store, and Mr. Bleaney led by Jacek Dehnel (4 November). In the middle, a strong accent in the form of the panel discussion “Women Under Pressure” joined by women writers from different parts of the world: Fleur Jaeggy (Italy), Zeruya Shalev (Israel) and Namita Gokhale (India), as well as a screening of the film adaptation of Walser’s play Snow White (dir. J.C. Monteiro). And then the tension will keep on growing... Maria Amelie, Alberto Manguel, Steve Sem-Sandberg, and finally... Michel Houellebecq!
Maria Amelie, who in 2010 was awarded the title Norwegian Woman of the Year by the magazine “Ny Tid”, was deported from the country at the beginning of 2011. Originally from North Ossetia, her parents had fled for political reasons, first to Finland and then to Norway, where they decided to live, despite the rejection of their requests for asylum. Thanks to the efforts of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) Maria Amelie, actually Madina Salamova, found herself in Kraków. It is worth noting that Kraków was invited to join ICORN as the city representing Polish and European literature. Maria Amelie herself says that the day she was expelled to Moscow was the worst day in her life. In Kraków, she found peace; she liked the city and its atmosphere; and will perhaps use this experience in her next book. She returned to Norway in April – after receiving a work permit.
Steve Sem-Sandberg is recognised as one of the most intriguing Scandinavian authors of recent years. In his books, he’s not afraid to ask important and fundamental questions: how is violence born?, can lofty ideology can become a bloodthirsty hydra?, what makes a person able to leave their peaceful life and cross the Rubicon? For November, Wydawnictwo Literackie has announced the release of the Polish translation of his most recent book De fattiga i Łódź (The Destitutes of Łódź), which was one of the most sought-after titles at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. The meeting with Sem-Sandberg will be chaired by Jacek Leociak, a historian of literature, who analyses the different forms of representation of border experiences.
Michel Houellebecq is known primarily as the author of Atomised, a novel from the top of the bestseller lists. Based on this book, Oskar Roehler directed a film with the same title. The book, which combines elements of the novel of manners, essay, and science fiction, caused a veritable storm in France, and the non-granting of the Goncourt prize to the author was compared with rejection by the jury of Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night. By education Houellebecq is a farmer. He began writing poetry, then came the time for essays and lyrics, and finally novels. In 2000 he left France, first to live in Ireland, and then in the Spanish region of Andalusia. Regarded as a writer with a unique portraitist’s sense, he is regarded as a prosecutor and penetrating critic of contemporary culture. He describes himself as an artist rooted in the tradition of realism, and he admits to being inspired by Dostoevsky, but his primary source is the work of Balzac. The heroes of his novels are often sociopaths who cannot adapt to life in today’s society, outsiders and recluses. The meeting in the Pod Baranami Palace will be moderated by Cezary Michalski, essayist, novelist and journalist.

Day four...
...has been dedicated to the art of translation (5 November). First into the fire is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in a new translation by Magdalena Heydel (Znak), who will also moderate the Reading Lesson in the Voivodeship Public Library. The secrets of literary translation will be covered during the discussion with Susan Bernofsky, Anders Bodegård, Adam Pomorski, Andrei Khadanovich. In the Poetry Transformations cycle meeting at the Pod Baranami Palace with Francine Clavien, Marcin Kurek, Joanna Wajs, Vanni Bianconi, Jacek Dehnel, Armin Senser, and Ryszard Wojnakowski will be moderated by Anna Schlossbauer of the Pro Helvetia Foundation in Zurich.
In a series of author evenings, you’ll be able to talk with the Belarusian poet Vladimir Neklyaev, Polish-American writer and historian of Jewish origin Eva Hoffman, poet and prose writer Justyna Bargielska, and writer and essayist Janusz Rudnicki. The day ends with a meeting with Roberto Calasso. In 1962, the Italian writer and exceptionally erudite essayist joined Adelphi Edizioni – a publishing house that he has managed for 10 years. In Poland, he’s famous for his excellent books on Greek and Indian myths. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony is a moving story about a parade of surprisingly close mythical ghosts, and about the human horror and fascination with the mystery that is the world, while in Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India, the author presents Indian mythology in semi literary terms. Dariusz Czaja said of his work that it “tirelessly creates thrilling meditations with changing rhythm, register, colour and density on this fascinating fabric, which is literature. About how the outstanding works of the Western world had left flashes of the invisible”. The meeting will be chaired by Ireneusz Kania, who has translated books by such authors as Umberto Eco, Mircea Eliade, Robert Graves and Calasso (Ka), and who is also an expert on Buddhism and the Kabbalah.
The day will close with a film story of the friendship between Walser and Carl Seelig, editor and patron of the arts. The screening of The Guardian and His Poet (Der Vormund und sein Dichter, dir. P. Adlon) will of course take place in the welcoming Pod Baranami Cinema!

Day five...
...will provide an opportunity to talk about more or less cryptographic fiction (6 November). Joanna Olech will recall children’s classic Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. Marek Bieńczycki will talk about The Face Book, whose heroes include Winnetou, Chandler, Chateaubriand, Baudelaire, Krasiński, Słowacki, the football managers Beenhakker and Górski, and Andre Agassi, the tennis player. Manuela Gretkowska will discuss The Trance, in which you can detect autobiographical threads, just as with her earlier books. Janusz Głowacki – following the key of cryptography – has treated his life as raw material for another greatly dramaturgic and narrative tragicomedy. The narrator and hero Out of the Head goes through ups and downs straight from the theatre of the absurd.
A bridge between Polish and foreign literature will be traversed with a discussion with Maciej Zaremba, the Swedish journalist of Polish origin, publicist and translator, which will be chaired in the Collegium Medicum by Michał Olszewski.
The hit of the last day of the festival will be the English poet Brian Patten. At the age of fifteen years, he left school and decided to completely devote himself to poetry. In the 1960s, he co-founded Liverpool pop poetry – mainstream egalitarian poetry – accessible to all and enjoying great popularity, a pioneer of writing poetry “on stage”, or poetry slams. He believes that part of the poet’s work embraces refreshing the language, and in one interview he said, “The best poetry reminds us of what we have forgotten, that we know”. In his poetry meetings, he often creates an unforgettable performance, combining word, music and gesture. The meeting with Patten at the Harris Piano Jazz Bar ends with a concert of Odysseus’ Dog. An Essay for Voice and Double Bass by Tadeusz Sławek and Bogdan Mizerski.

***
This year’s Conrad Festival has been listed in the official calendar of the most important cultural events during the Polish Presidency of the EU Council, as is the Book Fair in Kraków, which takes place at the same time. Both events attract top artists, critics, and domestic and foreign writers to Kraków. The festival’s guests come from various countries, write in different languages, and represent a variety of different cultures and worldviews.