Hay Festival Cartagena 2023

With the rise of right-wing nationalist parties all over the continent, Brexit, the refugee emergency and the recent war in the Ukraine, the European Union is in crisis. At this event, the renowned intellectual and political commentator Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria) will reflect on the future of democracy in the European Union and the urgent challenges it faces. Ivan Krastev has analysed the European political union of the last 30 years in a number of book-length essays, including Is It Tomorrow Yet (2020), The Light That Failed: A Reckoning (2019) and After Europe (2017).

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

Two journalists, one from Latam and another from the US, speak with Michael Stott about the state of the profession, their experiences leading journalistic teams and about how to do a good investigative report. With María Teresa Ronderos (Colombia), reporter, editor and director of El Clip, the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística; and with Anya Schiffrin (United States), journalist and director of director of the Technology, Media, and Communications (TMaC) specialisation at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

We humans like to believe that we act rationally, but the emotions are a much more important part of experience that most of us think. Richard Firth-Godbehere has put his thoughts on this matter into his book A Human History of Emotion, which analyses and studies the role of human emotions throughout history and in different cultures. In conversation with Daniel Pardo, the author will talk about how the emotions, in all their complexity and diversity, have modelled the world that we live in over the course of history. This fascinating work of non-fiction weaves together psychology, neuroscience, art, philosophy and religion.

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

This workshop is intended as an introduction to meditative practice based on the tradition of the desert ascetics and, particularly, hesychasm. Pablo d'Ors and his colleagues, through the Amigos del Desierto association, will propose basic practice, based on the body, breathing and mantra, as well as some guided exercises or meditations that can help participants to relax, be within oneself and, ultimately, get close to the mystery of the profound I. This workshop does not require any previous knowledge or experience, but does need an interest in the adventure of examining the interior through the Western tradition.

Limited capacity

The Ukrainian writer, novelist and essayist, Andrey Kurkov, recently awarded the French Médicis Étranger Prize, started to write a diary when the first Russian rockets fell on Kiev on 24 February 2022. In Diary of an Invasion (2022), Kurkov chronicles the terrible impact of the conflict through a personal narrative, which is both a testament to Ukrainian identity and the day-to-day lives of his compatriots. Kurkov has published, in both English and Spanish, the books The Gardener From Ochakov, Death of the Penguin and the recent Grey Bees. In conversation with Emma Graham-Harrison.

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

The Internet is a powerful instrument, yet also a double-edged sword: it has opened up information that can be accessed cheaply and immediately, in an unprecedented transformation; but it is also a medium that, with the social media, has submitted many people to manipulation and addiction. Another unsettling aspect is that we can now no longer imagine a world without the Internet, a tool that just a few decades ago did not even exist. Esther Paniagua (Spain) is a writer and journalist who specializes in matters related to science and technology. Her brilliant and bold essay Error 404. ¿Preparados para un mundo sin internet? (2021), proposes a vision of what would happen if we were suddenly left without the Internet. How far are we from a life without connection to the web? Perhaps we are closer than we suspect. In conversation with the journalist Inés Santaeulalia.

The film director and screenplay writer Laura Mora (Colombia), a Cinema Director graduate from RMIT University in Melbourne (Australia), has receltly released Los reyes del mundo, Concha de Oro for best film winner in the San Sebastian Film Festival 2022, where it was also warded the Sgnis award and the Feroz prize given by the press, and has also been awarded the prize for best film at Biarritz Festival and at Zurich Festival. The film tells the story of some young, underprivileged boys from Antioquía and their relation with their origins and the land, that becomes an extraordinary narration that reflecto n many of the problems that affect Colombia. Her previous film, Matar a Jesús, was premiered at Toronto International Film F and the the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2017. The film was selected for more thann 30 festivals and won more tan 20 prizes worldwide. Mora has also directed the tv series Frontera verde and El Robo del Siglo. Ricardo Chica speaks with mora about her work as a director and about the stories that she choses for her films.

Oleksandra Matviichuk (Ukraine), a lawyer and activist with the Center for Civil Liberties, winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize together with Memorial and the activist Ales Bialiatski; and the artist and writer Victoria Amelina (Ukraine), will talk to Catalina Gómez Ángel about their country, the war that has changed the life of its inhabitants irreversibly and how to continue working in the midst of war.

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

Carolina Sanín (Colombia), a Doctor of Hispanic Literature from the University of Yale, writer, actor, academic and communicator, is a major figure in Spanish-language literature. She is the author of novels such as Todo en otra parte and Los niños; biography: Alfonso X: Desventurado rey Sabio and El ojo de la casa; stories for children including Dalia and La gata sola; the short story collections Ponqué y otros cuentos and Yosoyu; and the hybrid books Somos luces abismales and Tu cruz en el cielo desierto. Sanín presents a new book, El Sol, which is a challenge to traditional literary genres, mingling essay, poetry and fiction. In conversation with Eva Orúe.

Conversation-homage to the music of the Pacific involving the writer Daniel Samper Pizano (Colombia) and Hugo Candelario González (Colombia), composer, arranger, saxophonist, marimba player and classically-educated conductor, who has dedicated his career to disseminating the music of the Colombian Pacific region. This will be followed by a traditional marimba concert with Trío Bahía, who will explore the possibilities in terms of timbre, melody and rhythm of the marimba, the bombo, the cununos, the guasá and also soprano sax, guitar and vocals.

The shared stories and histories that unite Colombia and Spain could fill hundreds of books. We talk of histories in plural because this shared history is diverse, involving different points of view, and above all because this is the way to analyse the past, with the learnings, failures and successes involved, and how to continue this fruitful relationship looking to the future. Conversation involving two historians from both sides of the pond, Manuel Lucena (Spain) and Juan Guillermo Martín (Colombia), moderated by Vanessa de la Torre.