Segovia 2017

By the time the name of Rohuna (a remote Moroccan location some 60 kilometres south of Tangiers) crossed paths with Umberto Pasti, he was already an established garden designer of international fame. He was born in Milan and studied philosophy. He is also a writer, art and literature critic, collector and aesthete. Books such as Jardines. Los verdaderos y los otros, La felicidad del sapo or, the most recent, Perdido en el paraíso provide an eloquent account of how his understanding of life is linked to the very nature which man seems intent to destroy. “When a plant disappears, a form of life disappears”, he is used to saying. In his particular paradise in Rohuna, he has dedicated two decades to bring together 1,200 indigenous species, about a hundred of which were on the verge of extinction. He divides his time between Milan, Tangiers – where he met Paul Bowles and Juan Goytisolo – and his particular paradise in Rohuna, proving that dreams can come true. 

Ngoc Minh Ngo is a Vietnamese-born American self-taught photographer whose work explores the intrinsic beauty of plants and nature. Her sense of aesthetic is informed by the landscape and light – the changing moods of the coastal village in Vietnam where she was born.  Years later, she discovered the photography of such masters as André Kertész, Jacques Henri Lartigue, and Robert Frank, and realised that, as she had learned from reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “The essential is invisible to the eyes”, a truism that steers her work. She’s a regular contributor to top line magazines such as T Magazine, AD, Cabana o House & Garden and her books In Bloom and Bringing Nature Home have been published by the prestigious Rizzoli publishers. 

Umberto Pasti and Ngoc Minh Ngo talk with Sofía Barroso manager of cultural events, specialised in art and gardens.

Umberto Pasti and Ngoc Minh Ngo will participate live by videoconference, while Ms Barroso will be on stage

This session will be streamed live at YouTube

Video of Rohuna 2020: © Ngoc Minh Ngo

Photography of Umberto Pasti: © Ngoc Minh Ngo, courtesy of Around Art

Photographs of Ngoc Minh Ngo and Sofía Barroso: courtesy of Around Art

In this new edition of My own and Others’ – a series of readings which celebrates its eleventh anniversary at Hay Festival Segovia – José Antonio Municio, expert in the history of the garden, will reveal some of its secrets to us.

Caroline Michel, Hugh Elliott, Toñi Elliott, Christian Ebner, João Mira Gomes, Jan Versteeg, Maria de Lurdes Vale and Magali Guerrero read texts of their own work or by their favourite authors during a walk through the Romeral de San Marcos garden, guided by the masters of ceremony Cristina Ward and Félix Valdivieso.

In the case of rain, the event will take place at the same time at La Alhóndiga

Photographs of “My own and others” 2019: Javier Segovia

The career of the most recent winner of the Premio Planeta reached a turning point in 2001 when his novel Soldiers of Salamis (Soldados de Salamina) was published in more than 20 countries and translated into 30 languages, spring-boarding him to international fame and prestige. Hitherto known as a doctor in Spanish Philology, he combined his fictional endeavours with the publication of articles in specialised media and literature lessons at the University of Girona. He would subsequently publish The Speed of Light (La velocidad de la luz), The Anatomy of a Moment (Anatomía de un instante) which earned him the National Prize for Narrative, among other awards, The Impostor (El impostor), El monarca de las sombras, and then Terra alta, for which he received the most important literary award in Spanish, the Premio Planeta. In this novel, Cercas ventures into the realm of thrillers in a story about the value of law and possibility of justice. Las leyes de la frontera, is a testimonial novel in which reality melds with fiction. Recent historical events such as the Civil War and the Transition frame stories in which characters seek to find their place in the world. This writer from Extremadura who settled in Catalonia at the age of four is a columnist for the daily El País, has also written essays (El cine de Gonzalo Suárez) and translated work by H. G. Wells and Sergi Pámies, among others. Javier Cercas talks with Ana Gavín, Director of Editorial Affairs for Grupo Planeta.

In case of rain, the event will take place at the same time in Vicerrector Santiago Hidalgo, old Escuela Universitaria de Magisterio (Plaza Colmenares, 1). This building is located in front of Jardín de los Zuloaga.

Photography of Javier Cercas: © Arduino Vannucchi, courtesy of Grupo Planeta

Photography of Ana Gavín: © Ricardo Martín, courtesy of Grupo Planeta

The Covid-19 crisis has cast doubts on the strength of the European project once again. The pandemic has exposed the lack of a common policy for the challenge posed by the health emergency and, on the other hand, has led to widening the gap between the countries of the South and those of the North.

A parallel phenomenon has been the media maelstrom: the global spread of fake news has reached undue proportions. In light of this, the mainstream media has not only seen their audience numbers skyrocket, but also how, after a long time, society has acknowledged their role as guarantors of verified and diverse information.

Enric Juliana, deputy director and columnist of the newspaper La Vanguardia; Manuel Carvalho, editor of the Portuguese newspaper Público; Francesco Olivo, expert in political information for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, and René Moerland editor-in-chief of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad will address these concerns. The debate will be moderated by Miquel Molina, Associate Editor of La Vanguardia.

René Moerland will participate live by videoconference, while the others participant will be on stage

This session will be streamed live at YouTube

In February Maribel López became the Managing Director of ARCO, one of the most important contemporary art fairs in the world. However, this art historian and curator of exhibitions was no stranger to the festival with which she has been associated since 2102 as marketing director and programme curator. Her career has always been linked to galleries, having run her own art centre in Berlin. She also participated in the Estrany-de la Mota project in Barcelona and worked alongside the curating teams of Creatures and The Office.

Caniche Editorial specialises in publishing artist’s books and the production of “assaults”—disrupting solutions that shatter through conventional circuits, thus enabling contemporary art initiatives from writing to plastic arts, including architecture, photography, installations and performances. The directors Carlos Copertone and Patxi Eguiluz join the conversation.


In case of rain, the event will take place at the same time inside the Torreón de Lozoya.

Photographs of Maribel López and Caniche Editorial: courtesy of Around Art

González Sainz likes crossing boundaries, whether in literature or in life. Not surprisingly for a time he alternated his residence in border cities such as Trieste and Soria and his narrative skirts well-trodden paths and current trends. He studied philology, and he became known as a writer with Un mundo exasperado, which earned him the Anagrama award for novel. He had previously published short stories (Los encuentros) like his latest release, El viento en las hojas. Other novels of his are Volver al mundo, for which he received the Castilla y León de las Letras award and Ojos que no ven. He has translated Italian intellectuals such as Emmanuelle Severino, Guido Ceronetti, Daniele del Giudice, Ennio Flaiano and his friend Claudio Magris. He also taught literature at the university of Ca’Foscari in Venice, where he lived for two decades. His work seeks to understand the world through profound contemplation.

Valladolid is a point of departure and return for Alejandro Cuevas. The city is his particular frontier. He has a degree in Spanish and then obtained a Masters in the History and Aesthetic of Filmmaking, another Master in Management of Culture and the Economics of Culture and a Master of Arts from the University of Florida. But despite all his academic endeavours, he considers himself to have taught himself. Six years living in the United States has given him the necessary distance to be able to look at his country, which is reflected in his most recent works. Humour, sometimes acid, is a hallmark of his writing. He has published five novels: Comida para perros (1999), La vida no es un auto sacramental (1999, runner-up Premio Nadal and Premio Ojo Crítico), La peste bucólica (2003), Quemar las naves (2004, Premio Rejadorada) and Mi corazón visto desde el espacio (2019), a bittersweet portrait of that Spanish youth with brilliant schooling and a dark future. His many short stories compiled in Mariluz and a long list that have obtained awards such as Café Compás, Ciudad de Torremolinos or 21 de marzo among many others.

González Sainz and Cuevas talk with the journalist and writer Angélica Tanarro.

In case of rain, the event will take place at the same time in Hotel Palacio San Facundo (Plaza San Facundo, 4)

Spanish philosopher and essayist Fernando Savater, renowned for his extensive work on Basque terrorism and winner of the Octavio Paz Prize, is joined by Polish historian Adam Michnik, director of Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, a political activist who has been granted numerous civic and professional recognitions including being named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. They agree that the time has come to join forces, to rekindle the spirit of the European ideal and face the threat of radical nationalism. These two icons of liberal thought and defenders of Europe share their views on stage.

This session will be streamed live at YouTube


Photography of Fernando Savater: © Ricardo Martín, courtesy of Grupo Planeta

Three of the most engaging writers in Europe: Edurne Portela (Spain) author of Mejor la Ausencia, awarded the 2018 Prize for Best Fiction Book of the Year by the Madrid Bookshops Guild and Formas de estar lejos; Janne Teller (Denmark) author of the modern Nordic saga Odin’s Island, where she discusses political and religious fanaticism, or the existential Nothing, initially censored and considered today a classic by many critics; Karolina Ramqvist (Sweden) one of the most influential writers and feminists of her generation, who tackles issues such as sexuality, commercialisation and isolation, author of The White City. All three take part in the Hay Festival Europa28 project and anthology, which brings together 28 women writers, artists, scientists and entrepreneurs, one from each EU country, to convey their visions of the future of Europe through fiction or essay capturing a multidisciplinary snapshot of several of today's most interesting minds. They speak with the writer and journalist Giles Tremlett. Furthermore, the city of Rijeka in Croatia, European Capital of Culture 2020, will host an edition of the Hay Festival in Rijeka from October 5 to 9, 2020 with these 28 outstanding authors.

“The scale of vision (of the anthology) is ambitious, looking far back in history and across vast territories. Compassion and a plea for peaceful co-existence are the common themes in a bright celebration of unity in difference.”  THE GUARDIAN

Karolina Ramqvist will participate live by videoconference, while Janne Teller, Edurne Portela and Giles Tremlett will be on stage

This session will be streamed live at YouTube

Photography of Edurne Portela: © Daniel Mordzinski

Photography of Janne Teller: © Schiffer-Fuchs

Photography of Karolina Ramqvist: © Jasmine Storch

Photography of Giles Tremlett: © EFE

The world of information is always hectic, by nature, but when the news is a protracted crisis like the pandemic whose effects continue to linger, the challenges for information increase. Some professionals have to face the public on a screen day in and day out putting their own credibility on the line. Such is the case of Carlos Franganillo, presenter of Television News 2 of La 1 on Televisión Española. Before becoming the news anchor, he had become a popular face of the state TV station as the correspondent at various international destinations such as Moscow and Washington. During his stint in America he covered the end of Barack Obama's presidency, his official visit to Cuba in 2016 after the restart of relations between Havana and Washington, the 2016 electoral campaign, the victory of Donald Trump and the beginning of the new administration.

He speaks of all this and of the challenges that the Covid-19 crisis has posed for journalists with journalist Aurelio Martín.

In case of rain, the event will take place at the same time inside the Torreón de Lozoya

Reyes Monforte’s latest novel, Postales del Este, is set in the Auschwitz concentration camp in the midst of World War II. In September 1943, the young Ella arrives from the Darcy internment camp in France. Maria Mandel and Josef Mengele discover that she speaks several languages and her handwriting is impeccable, so they assign her to be the copyist for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Women’s Orchestra as well as to Kanada Block, the warehouse where all of the belongings of the detainees were classified. She comes across postcards and photographs that the prisoners carried in their luggage and decides to write the names of those murdered so no one forgets who they were. This novel about memory and identity is the eighth for this writer and journalist who came to the fore in the field of literature with Trapped by Love (Un burka por amor), which has over 60 editions and was turned into a television series reaching an audience of over 4.5 million viewers. She would later publish Amor cruel, La rosa escondida, La infiel, Besos de arena, Una pasión rusa (for which she was bestowed the Alfonso X el Sabio historic novel award ) and La memoria de la Lavanda, which hit the best-seller lists. As a journalist, she started out in Luis del Olmo’s Protagonistas show and has worked for Onda Cero and Punto Radio stations as well as on various television programmes. She has a column in La Razón newspaper.

She speaks with Jesús García Calero, culture writer, Culture Editor for ABC daily and author of Don Juan contra Franco.

In case of rain, the event will take place at the same time in Hotel Palacio San Facundo (Plaza San Facundo, 4)

Photography of Reyes Monforte © Paco Navarro, courtesy of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial

Photography of Jesús García Calero: © Jeosm

The loss of happiness in a world in decline. This is the central theme of the latest novel by French writer Jean Paul Dubois which last year snatched the most prestigious literary award in the French language. His novel, Tous les hommes n'habitent pas le monde de la même façon, which one could say foreshadowed the uncertainty that would come later, won the Prix Goncourt with the story of Paul Hansen, who looks back at his life and reflects on injustice and fraternity from his prison cell in Quebec. Among his other 21 books are Kennedy et moi (France Télévisions award), Le cas Sneijder and Si ce livre pouvait me rapprocher de toi, all three of which have been made into films, as well as A French Life (Vie Francçaise) ( Femina and Fnac awards) and Vous plaisantez, monsieur Tanner. He has also worked as a journalist and published articles in Le Nouvel Observateur.

Carmen Posadas is a celebrated author of novels and a writer of children’s stories and essays. Among her most notable works which have been translated into more than 25 languages are Five Blue Flies (Cinco moscas azules), Little Indiscretions (Pequeñas infamias) which earned the Premio Planeta and La hija de Cayetana. Her work as a journalist has earned her the Premio Iberoamericano de Periodismo Rey Felipe. She’s currently a columnist in the weekly magazine XLSemanal. Alongside her brother Gervasio, she runs an online writing course.

Jean Paul Dubois and Carmen Posadas will talk with Fernando Paz, director of AdN Alianza de Novelas Publishing.

Mr Dubois will participate via video link, while Ms Posadas and Mr Paz will be on stage.

This session will be streamed live at YouTube

Photography of Jean Paul Dubois © Xavier de Fenoyl

European cultural institutions serve as a bridge between science, art and society. Since 2009 and after heading CosmoCaixa Madrid, Isabel Fuentes – who studied biology in Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and obtained a doctorate in Museum Studies from the Musée Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris – is the Director of CaixaForum Madrid. Her two lines of work, scientific communication and cultural management, had already come together in a common objective in Residencia de Estudiantes or the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC). A keen student of metaphors in the rhetoric of scientific exhibitions, in 2015 she ventured into fiction with her first novel Un gen fuera de la ley (A Gene Out of Law).

The analysis of various initiatives at the heart of the European Union to generate links between research, culture and society will be the topic of conversation with Valerio Rocco. Since November 2019, this philosopher and writer has been at the helm of the Círculo de Bellas Artes, the historic cultural institution in Madrid that has been granted the European Heritage Label. Rocco is also professor of the History of Modern Philosophy at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and has been Associate Dean of Research at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UAM. His lines of research have included Philosophy of Europe and Geopolitical Philosophy of History. He is currently taking part in Horizon 2020 research project “FAILURE”, on the concept and its reversibility.

Love and food go out on a date in Foodie Love, the latest television series “cooked up” by Isabel Coixet. The internationally acclaimed Spanish director kneads together two of her passions in the first ever fictional series in Spanish for HBO. Released in 2019 and with Laia Costa and Guillermo Pfening portraying the two lovers of gastronomy, the relationship unfolds with a thread of humour running through. Coixet gained international recognition in 2003 with a film adaptation of My Life Without Me (Mi vida sin mí), based on the short story by American author Nanci Kincaid, and earned her first Goya. Previously, she had been nominated for awards by the Spanish Academy for Demasiado viejo para morir joven and Things I Never Told You (Cosas que nunca te dije). For The Secret Life of Words (La vida secreta de las palabras) she swept the floor garnering the top awards:  Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Her films regularly feature in the most prestigious international festivals. Map of the Sounds of Tokyo inaugurated the official competition in the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, Endless Night (Nadie quiere la noche) opened the 2015 festival in Berlin, for which she had been a member of the jury since 2009, and the adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s hit novel The Bookshop (La librería) opened the Seminci de Valladolid in 2017. Coixet has directed various documentaries of social content and in defence of human rights. She has been bestowed the Medalla de Oro de Bellas Artes and the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in France.

Isabel Coixet talks with the journalist and writer Jesús Ruiz Mantilla.

Photography of Isabel Coixet: © Silvia Tortajada