Hay Festival Segovia 2022

12:00 La Alhóndiga. Sede de Gales / Llwyfan Cymru

Opening of the Bernardo Pérez photography exhibition

Bernardo Pérez is one of Spain's most well-known photojournalists. With a career that began in the 1970s, in large part linked to the newspaper El País, he has witnessed the most important international events, and his camera has recorded wars, famines, climatic disasters, political changes, cultural and sporting events of the greatest significance. The exhibition is an anthological journey through a career that covers all genres of journalistic photography. His work is guided by his commitment to the right to have free and truthful information and his non-intervention in a situation. Including but not limited to portraits, travel reports and photographs of events, grouped in series such as Gente con luz, Los agujeros negros del Planeta or his work in progress: Bar.

With the support of Asociación Nacional de Informadores Gráficos de Prensa y TV and the City Council of Segovia.


12:30 Inauguration at Torreón de Lozoya

Map of a possible future

In the spirit of their art & science collaboration Daudy and Novoselov have created for Hay Festival this year a new work composed of refracted light.

The light emanates from a glass sculpture they have made with internationally recognized Segovian studio Vetraria Muñoz de Pablos, one of the great workshops in the creation and restoration of stained glass windows, and with scientists from the University of Manchester.

Novoselov and Daudy’s new conceptual work will be exhibited in the Renaissance courtyards of the Torreón de Lozoya, where the angles of natural light have been carefully calculated to create the maximum effect at certain times of the day.

The glass used in the structure has been fused with Rhenium Sulphide, Rhenium Telluride, Vanadium Telluride and Cobalt Chloride, elements that have never been used for this purpose before. Thus, this entirely innovative sculpture will pioneer the use of new elements of the periodic table to achieve a new method of obtaining color. This intervention is also a component of the general work Everything is Connected.

The result, therefore, is the product of the union between art, crafts and science: in its artistic component, it will reflect a contemporary game of shapes, light and colour; in its artisan component, it will unite traditional techniques with cutting edge technology from one of the best science departments in the world, which can revolutionize the treatment and artistic use of glass; and finally, in its scientific component, pioneering new techniques for creating colors and textures in the world of glass.

With the support of Aida, Ayuda, Intercambio y Desarrollo, City Council of Segovia and Fundación Caja Segovia

"You don’t take photos with a camera, but with your head and your heart.” So says Bernardo Pérez, whose viewfinder has been aimed at those black holes around the planet suffering from violence, extreme poverty and the abandonment of human rights. His camera was also a witness to some of the main events of the Spanish Transition to Democracy, after he joined the founding team of El País in 1976, as well sporting events such as the Olympic Games, heads of state, international conflicts… Pérez has accompanied writers such as Juan Goytisolo and journalists like Maruja Torres on projects for El País Semanal magazine, assignments that have taken him around the Americas and Europe. He will talk to the Hay Festival Segovia about his experience, putting words to the Compromiso con la realidad exhibition that will accompany the festival, putting a selection of his images on show.

Pérez will talk to the journalist Aurelio Martín

War extends far beyond the front line. It affects millions of people; their way of life, their economy, culture and heritage. Three experienced journalists will talk about how to tell the story of a war, with all that this implies: María Sahuquillo, El País correspondent in Ukraine; Luis de Vega, El País's special envoy to Ukraine, who has also reported on other conflicts; and Ramón Lobo, who has been a war correspondent in Iraq, Palestine and Chechnya.

Can literature counteract the negative consequences for society of fake news? Nativel Preciado and Antonio Lucas, two writers who are both journalists and authors, will try to answer this question from the point of view of literary figures, and also talk about how those who work in the media can fight the impact of fake news and move towards quality journalism. Nativel Preciado has had a long career as a journalist, going back to her coverage of the Transition to Democracy. This columnist and public speaker has published around twenty books. Her latest novel, El santuario de los elefantes, won the Azorín Prize. Antonio Lucas is a well-known cultural journalist, Editor of the El Mundo supplement, La Esfera de Papel. He is also a distinguished poet, having been recognized with the Loewe Prize for his book Los desengaños.

They will talk to Daniel Fernández, editor and CEO of Cedro.

After the event, the writers will be signing books at the stand on Calle Real

The European Union Prize for Literature is a European level initiative that recognises the best emerging fiction writers from countries participating in the Creative Europe programme. In the latest edition, the Spanish candidate, who received a special mention from the jury for his epistolary novel, Los días perfectos, was Jacobo Bergareche. He will take part in the Hay Festival, accompanied by three other authors who have attracted the attention of critics and readers with their debuts: Bibiana Candia, author of Azucre; Silvia Hidalgo, who made her debut with Yo, mentira and Aurora Freijo Corbeira, author of La ternera. All of them will share their experiences and opinions of the narrative art.

The name of George Simenon is linked to the astronomical figures racked up by the sales of almost two hundred titles (191 to be exact): 550 million copies sold to many millions of readers around the world. A big part of this stellar success is Inspector Maigret, who features in almost a hundred of his novels. Now the name of this prolific and bestselling writer, born in Belgium and who lived in Paris for much of his life, is becoming literary news again thanks to new editions of some of his novels, published together by Anagrama and Acantilado, as well as with to recent release of the film Maigret by Patrice Leconte, starring Gerard Depardieu. Talking about Simenon and the revived interest in his life and work will be his son John Simenon, who manages his father’s bequest and has been involved in the production of some of the films based on his work.

He will talk to Jesús García Calero, Editor of ABC cultural.

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish and vice versa

John Simenon will visit the stand on Calle Real organized up by Wallonia Region, which will prepare a quiz based on the work of his father.

Audio content is growing in importance in our digital age. Podcasts and other formats have become new sources of information and entertainment. In this territory, one characterized by the power of the spoken word, audiobooks are becoming a new way for people to get to know literary classics and well-known actors are bringing their talents to narrative. The actor and singer Leonor Watling, who has made films with Pedro Almodóvar and Isabel Coixet and who sings with her band Marlango, has given her voice to the classic Animal Farm by George Orwell. Víctor Clavijo, popular for his appearances in television series such as El Ministerio del Tiempo and Cuéntame cómo pasó, has narrated works by Stefan Zweig. Carles Francino, also a popular figure in series such as Hospital Central and Amar es para siempre, has read The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald’s ironic masterpiece. These three will talk about this new experience.

Evento en español

Like other major European cities, Budapest has its own "island of museums"; our modern-day sites of pilgrimage. This is the context of the Liget project, an urban and cultural development plan that has transformed the Hungarian capital, involving several museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts. The director, Lazlo Ban, who is also in charge of Liget, will be at the Hay Festival to explain and elaborate on the project, and how it relates to comparable projects in Europe.

Isabel Fuentes, PhD in Museology of Natural and Human Sciences, has spent twenty years working in scientific communication and cultural management in institutions such as the Residencia de Estudiantes, the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the La Caixa Foundation. She is currently the director of CaixaForum and an expert in the transformation that a museum can bring about in the city in which it is installed.

Ban and Fuentes will talk with Miquel Molina, journalist and writer, assistant director of the newspaper La Vanguardia.

Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish and vice versa

Historian, television presenter, fiction writer and essayist, Simon Sebag Montefiore was present for the last days of the Soviet Union and travelled around the region during the 1990s. He has written on Russia for The Sunday Times, The New York Times and The Spectator, among other magazines and newspapers. A number of his book, including Stalin>: The Court of the Red Tsar, Titans of History and Jerusalem: The Biography have been translated into Spanish. The last book published in Spain by this writer, a descendent of a distinguished family of Sephardic Jews that had branches all over Europe, has been Written in History, a compilation of important letters written about politics, culture and art by great figures who have influenced our past.

Sebag Montefiore will talk to the British journalist Martin Ivens, Editor of The Times Literary Supplement.

With simultaneous translation from English into Spanish

Liv Strömquist's latest book, I Don't Feel Anything Anymore, dissects love in the age of narcissism and the selfie. In her ironic, hilarious comic, she mixes philosophy, sociology and popular culture (Kierkegaard and the Smurfs, Socrates and Beyoncé), in an X-ray of love and its end. Strömquist is one of Sweden's most prestigious cartoonists, as well as a popular radio and television broadcaster. She is also a committed feminist and political asylum activist. She has published, among other works, The Forbidden Fruit and Prince Charles’ Feelings.

Strömquist will be in conversation with journalist and writer Nuria Labari.

There will be a book-signing at the bookstand in front of IE University

Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish

Culture is undoubtedly one of the main engines of change in a society. The directors of two of the country's most important cultural centres will return to the Festival they both know so well to debate this idea. Valerio Rocco has been director of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid since 2019 and was previously vice-dean of Research, Knowledge Transfer and the Library at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he teaches History of Modern Philosophy. Isabel Fuentes, PhD Museology of Natural and Human Sciences, has spent twenty years working in scientific communication and cultural management in institutions such as the Residencia de Estudiantes, the National Museum of Natural Sciences and La Caixa Foundation. She is currently the director of CaixaForum.