Hay Festival Segovia 2022

“Translation is the only way it is humanly possible to read and write at the same time. It is an original text that is inspired by another” writes Nuria Barrios about the world and profession of translating in her work La impostora (Páginas de Espuma), which won the 13th Málaga Prize for non-fiction. She would know, having translated into Spanish landmark texts including James Joyce’s “The Dead” and the novels of John Banville and his alter ego Benjamin Black. What is more, Barrios does not only translate. Since her first novel, Amores patológicos, appeared in 1998 she has continued to enchant us both in this form (El alfabeto de los pájaros, Todo arde) and in outstanding short story collections such as Ocho centímetros, El zoo sentimentaland Balearia. She is also a poet, having published La luz de la dinamo, Nostalgia de Odiseo and El hilo del agua. She will talk about the whole of her career with the Segovia reading clubs, but particularly about the intensity of the path of translation.

Mauri Renedo, from reading clubs, will present Nuria Barrios.

Event in Spanish

Once again this year, Beltrán Gambier brings to the Hay Festival his Short Autobiographies Workshop, open to anyone considering using their own life as material for writing. As was the case with the first workshop, which was full to capacity, participants will write an autobiographical fragment. Gambier is the founder and editor of Intramuros magazine, a Spanish-language publication that is pioneering in its dedication to biography and memoir. In its 26-year run, it has published work by many major writers, including three Nobel Literature laureates: the Germans Herta Müller and Günter Grass and the Chinese writer Mo Yan. The workshop will be co-hosted by the journalist Laura Garrido.

Event in Spanish

The philosopher and educator José Antonio Marina has dedicated his investigations to developing a theory of intelligence that begins with neurology and ends with ethics, based on the premise that intelligence does not seek knowledge but rather happiness and dignity. He has published around four dozen works as the solo author and many more in collaboration with other writers. Some of his books have become bestsellers in a field, essay, where runaway success is a rarity. These include works such as Ética para náufragos and Teoría de la inteligencia creadora, for which he has received important awards, including the Anagrama Prize and the National Essay Prize. He has just published a new edition of one of his key works: La educación del talento (“Educating Talent”), which deals with the question of cultivating talent in children. The question of talent is a central matter in education, and this book helps with the task of discovering each person’s strengths and weaknesses, and the habits necessary to develop skills. He will talk about these matters with the reading clubs of Segovia.

Pedro Blanco, from the reading clubs, will present José Antonio Marina.

Once the event is over, the author will sign books in the venue.

Event in Spanish

The splendid nature, landscape and history of the Rio de Onor area has inspired writer such as Miguel de Unamuno, Miguel Torga and José Saramago, who began his Viagem a Portugal in this Portuguese district, located on the border with Spain and twin to the Zamoran district of Rihonor de Castilla on the other side. Hay Festival Segovia takes one of its Dialogues with the Earth to this unique corner of the peninsula, one of Portugal’s Seven Wonders, in the category of Protected Towns and Areas. The event is organized within the framework of Focus on Portugal, and in partnership with the Portuguese Embassy in Spain and Turismo de Portugal. Those attending this intensive event will experience some of the attractions of this place, which has just fifty inhabitants. They will meet some of those who live here, try some traditional dishes at an open-air lunch, and find out about its traditions. The master of ceremonies will be the journalist and writer Agustín Remesal, former TVE correspondent in Portugal and author of a dozen books of history and journalism including Por tierras de Portugal. Un viaje con Unamuno, published in 2014, in which he offers an in-depth look at the great writer’s travels in our neighbouring country.

Event in Spanish and Portuguese

Casa de las Conchas s one of the most iconic architectural elements in Salamanca. Late Gothic with the first signs of Plateresque, the style in which this land expressed its first Renaissance. In this singular place, the novelist Reyes Monforte, author of books such us La violinista roja, Postales del Este or La memoria de la lavanda, talks with the writer and journalist Carlos Aganzo on the value of art and literature as an alternative to a decomposing world in this Spanish and European cultural capital. They speak of the return to Nature as the only way to return to the Earth everything that the Earth has given to man... and mankind denies. Words for reconstruction. Stories for a new world. Lyrics for a rebirth that are accompanied by a reading by María Antonia Eliott, ambassador of the United Kingdom in Spain, and the Salamancan, Castilian and Leonese poets: Mónica Velasco, Asunción Escribano and Fermín Herrero, on the essential reconciliation of human beings with their environment.

Presented by Ramona Domínguez.

Event in Spanish.

Candela Álvarez Soldevilla is one of the most prominent art collectors in Spain. She was a teenager when she bought an engraving with the money from her first salary, and today her collection totals more than 450 pieces, ranging from early 20th century to the most contemporary art, with a special focus on emerging artists. In the chapel of the Esteban Vicente Museum, there is a select display of this collection; pieces which share a common theme: the representation of the head as a vessel of thought. The artworks bear names as eminent as Ana Laura Aláez, Jaume Plensa, Anthony Caro, Manolo Valdés and Pérez Villalta, among many others.

Presented by Candela Álvarez Soldevilla, Sofia Barroso and the director of the Esteban Vicente Museum, Ana Doldan.

Culture, as well as playing its role in disseminating knowledge and fostering people’s critical spirit, can shape a city's discourse. Indeed, cities that truly invest in culture eventually see an improvement in their capacity to attract and retain talent. Culture can also be seen to help shape tourist demand, favouring the arrival of visitors who are respectful of their destination city. Exploring these themes, Miquel Molina, journalist and writer, assistant director of La Vanguardia and author of titles such as Cinco horas en Venecia and Naturaleza muerta and Jordi Corominas, writer, literary critic and cultural agent who has published novels, essays, and books of poetry. He collaborates with RNE and the supplement La Lectura and has published, among others, Paragraf de Barcelona, The Violent City, Barcelona 1912, the last book of old Europe. They talk to Xavier Vidal, director of the Nollegiu bookshop in Barcelona.

The event will be presented by Sheila Cremaschi, director of Hay Festival Segovia.

Event in Spanish and in Catalan.

Around a dozen inmates of the Segovia Penitentiary Centre will have the chance to participate in the Short Autobiographies Workshop that is to be given once again this year by Beltrán Gambier, founder and editor of Intramuros magazine, which specializes in this literary genre. During its 26-year run, the publication has brought us the words of some famous figures, including three winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is a great opportunity for the inmates to take part in a literary event of distinction, supported by the Hay Festival, at which they will write an autobiographical fragment. Gambier is also a lawyer and has authored several legal texts, including one dedicated to Penitentiary Administration Law.

Also contributing to the workshop will be Félix Losada, writer for Intramuros and owner of the magazine.

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

WATERBURNING

A sea of refracted light, created by the reflection of luminescence on small graduations of the shining surface of a myriad of very slightly mirrored glass discs. The effect of carefully calculated angles of light create strong caustics that illuminate this renaissance courtyard in an infinitely self-renewing work, “WATERBURNING”.

Subtle undulations of the reflecting surface give rise to a light map of gleaming nodal points, bright fields and areas of darkness. The sculpture itself appears only mildly undulating, but the sun amplifies each tiny nuance and turn in texture, illustrating the radically different outcomes created by small changes, inviting us to consider how small decisions generate ilarger nterconnected effects.

As always with the work of Daudy and Novoselov, this work combines art and science together to invite the viewer to consider the importance of each person in society. Empowering the individual to realise the valuable contribution each of us can offer to those around us, to the larger community, to our natural system and planet.

The materials used in this exhibition have been ethically sourced. Both the glass and metal are completely recyclable. Working with the renowned glass workshop of Alfonso and Pablo Muñoz, Daudy and Novoselov have taken care in sourcing low carbon-footprint materials and to celebrate the very best of Spanish artisanship here in Segovia, whilst reiterating the message that we, at every instant, have the potential to be a powerful agent for positive change.

"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.

Event in Spanish

War extends far beyond the front line. It affects millions of people; their way of life, their economy, culture and heritage. Two 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 and Ramón Lobo, who has been a war correspondent in Iraq, Palestine and Chechnya.

Event in Spanish

From Horace to Lucretius, the classics have taught us that our relationship with Nature wholly determines the meaning and destiny of humankind. Emilio del Río, the great champion of Latin, has published books such as Latin lovers, Calamares a la Romana or Locos por los Clásicos. He holds, among many other distinctions, the National Prize of the Spanish Society of Classical Studies. He is also Director General of Madrid City Council Libraries, Archives and Museums.

He will be joined in an extraordinary natural setting by the journalist Elsa González and the journalist and writer Carlos Aganzo. Elsa González is member of the Board of Directors of Telemadrid and of the board of the Federation of Women Managers and Professionals (FEDEPE) and jury member of the Prince of Asturias Awards for Communication and Humanities. She was the President of the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain from April 2010 to April 2018. Aganzo, former director of El Norte de Castilla, is deputy director of the Vocento Foundation and author of numerous books of poems. His latest publication is a homage to Las ciudades de Machado (Machado’s cities).

Event in Spanish

That a majority of the population is dependent on the social media, or that the Internet forms an essential part of our lives is no news. Yet what would happen if the Net went down? Some specialists do ask themselves this question, and one of them is Esther Paniagua. In her book, Error 404, she thinks about whether we are prepared for a world without Internet, and covers the chaos that could break out in the case of an Internet interruption. She also reveals who the guardians of the Web truly are. The book is not a dystopia, but rather an essay aiming to anticipate something that may happen, to allow us to prepare before it is too late. Paniagua is an independent journalist who specializes in science, technology and artificial intelligence.

She will talk to the publisher Miguel Aguilar, manager of imprints such as Taurus and Debate.

Event in Spanish

The name of Georges 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 to the recent release of the film Maigret by Patrice Leconte, starring Gerard Depardieu. Two people who know his work well will talk about Simenon’s life and work at the Hay Festival Segovia: 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; and Caroline Michel, an outstanding British cultural figure and Chair of the global Hay Festivals.

Simenon and Caroline Michel will talk to the writer and journalist Miquel Molina, Assistant Editor of La Vanguardia.

The event will be presented by María Sheila Cremaschi, director of Hay Festival Segovia, Florence VanHolsbeeck, economic and commercial counsellor and representative of Wallonia-Brussels International (WBI) and Pablo Gonzalo, Global Head of Culture and Knowledge of Fundación Telefónica.

With simultaneous translation from Spanish to English and vice versa

This event invites us to explore reality and imagination from the perspective of speculative architect and filmmaker Liam Young. The artist will give a performative talk that, through his words and images, will transport us to real and imaginary worlds that invite us to examine our present and rethink our future. The talk will incorporate an exploration of the use of Artificial Intelligence through a conversation between Liam Young and young researcher Piera Riccio.

Artist Liam Young (Australia, 1979) works in a hybrid space where architecture and design, film, science and fiction intersect to generate powerful audio visual pieces that envision the risks and potential of new technologies. At a time when technological transformation seems to be happening faster than our ability to understand what the effects might be, the worlds that Young constructs invite us to explore their possible outcomes. In his own words, we don’t need more charts and graphs to show us what’s going wrong with the world, we need to dramatize data to get people emotionally engaged.

Liam Young's work has been exhibited in some of the world's leading exhibition spaces, including the MET, MoMA, the Royal Academy and the Venice Biennale. His pieces have also been broadcast on BBC and Channel 4 and he has been nominated for BAFTA awards. He has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and MIT and was on the faculty of the Strelka Institute until its closure.

The young researcher Piera Riccio is working on her doctoral thesis in the field of Artificial Intelligence, with the European ELLIS programme at the University of Alicante and a grant from the Banco Sabadell Foundation for the promotion of young talent. Riccio’s doctoral thesis deals with the social implications of the use of Artificial Intelligence algorithms in social networking platforms and how they are defining the flow of information in our society, thus establishing new paradigms of mass communication.

How do you write a news story? How do you choose a good photo? What is a headline? The El País journalism workshop for children offers two sessions on journalism through simple activities that require nothing more than the wish to tell a story. In this hands-on workshop, the students of CEIP El Peñascal will choose their own story, learn how to write it in the form of a news item, and create a front page that they will take home as a souvenir.

How do new generations experience their relationship to identity, history, love or the concept of revolution? Yara Rodrigues Fowler is one of the most emblematic up-and-coming British writers on the current literary scene. She was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award for her debut, Stubborn Archivist. The Financial Times named her as one of "the 30 most exciting young people on the planet" as one of the designers of a bot that encouraged Tinder users to register to vote in the 2017 UK general election. Fowler's new novel, There are more things, revolves around the political awakening of Melissa and Catarina, two London flatmates with roots in Brazil.

Hanan Issa is a writer, poet, and artist from Wales. Her debut pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts was published by Burning Eye Books in 2019. Her work has been performed and published in a variety of places including BBC Wales, ITV Wales, Huffington Post, StAnza festival and Poetry Wales. Her winning monologue was performed at the Bush Theatre in 2018. She is the co-founder of the Where I’m Coming From open mic collective. She is currently working on short film commissions with BBC New Creatives and Ffilm Cymru Wales. Hanan Issa has been named Wales fifth national poet, making her the first Muslim to hold the title. Hanan has recently been awarded the 2022/23 Cymrodoriaeth Rhyngwladol Hay Festival / Hay Festival International Fellowship.

For her part, Xita Rubert has won over readers and critics with a fascinating debut, My Days with the Kopps, in which she wonders whether growing up is to enter a fiction of no-return. Rubert graduated in Philosophy and Literature from the University of Warwick, after studying at universities such as the Sorbonne. She currently holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, on a scholarship from Princeton University, where she teaches on the relationship between philosophy, literature and medicine.

They will be in conversation with Ludovic Assémat, Head of Arts at the British Council in Spain.

Once the event has finished, the authors will sign books in the booth outside IE University.

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish

A herd of 400 Castilian sheep belonging to local shepherd Mr. Rafael Montes will be walked by Daudy and Novoselov to the area beneath the historic Roman aquaduct in Segovia, in a participatory performance proving the perfection of Einstein’s Unification Theory.

Grand Unified Theory (GUT) is a model in particle physics in which, at high energies, the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model comprising the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces are merged into a single force.

The sheep, each inscribed with SÍ or NO (YES or NO), will form random groups and arrangements, proving perfectly to us the possibility of individuals living peacefully together, however disparate their point of view.

The paint used to write the words on the sheep's coat is ecological and completely harmless to the animal.

A flock of sheep painted with numbers at Daudy and Novoselov’s recent WONDERCHAOS exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK caused a stir in the worlds of mathematics, science and engineering, by creating more random numbers in a month than there are atoms in this universe. As the sheep passed each other, thousands of different number combinations were created, forming in effect a living random number generator. A film by Daudy and directed by Gautier Deblonde illustrating this phenomenon, entitled ALTERNATIVE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR: THE SHEEP OF MR. CHARLES PLATTS (2021), will also be premiered at the festival.

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.

Event in Spanish

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

This summer's heat waves, water scarcity, fires, have put the effects of climate change at the center of the debate more than ever. Meteorological phenomena and interventions on nature are causing alert about our future and that of the planet. Butterflies are disappearing. The deterioration of their habitats due to the use of pesticides, industrial fertilizers and monoculture farming has meant that the numbers of these insects have dropped by 80% in the last fifty years, and the threat of their disappearance is becoming ever more real. The problem goes far beyond the sad loss of some wonderful insects: this is an ecological catastrophe. The renowned evolutionary biologist and ecologist Josef H. Reichholf, winner of the Sigmund Freud Award for Scientific Literature, has been studying lepidopterans for years, and is the author of The Disappearance of Butterflies, a fascinating work of non-fiction about these insects and a cry for help in the face of the disaster of their decline. For his part, Joaquin Araujo, naturalist, author, screenwriter and series director, who stands out among many for having been the first Spaniard to be awarded the UN Global 500 and the Wilderness Writing Award and for being the only Spaniard to be awarded twice the National Prize for the Environment, makes us aware of the biological and poetic importance of water, through his latest book “Somos agua que piensa” "We are water that thinks".

Both will converse with Isabela del Alcázar, Global Head of Sustainability at the IE University. As one example projects under her office: The Nurture Hub, a project founded by two students of the School of Architecture and Design and their mentor to create a space for relax for the students, enhance the biodiversity, raise awareness and attract indigenous pollinators, such as butterflies.

Once the event has finished, the authors will sign books in the booth outside IE University.

Simultaneous translation from German to Spanish and vice versa