The third Hay Festival Forum Sevilla took place from February 12 to 15, 2025, at various venues in the Andalusian capital. The program included 27 events where topics such as literature, architecture, the environment, and more were discussed.
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Event 8
A life-changing book
Project of the José Manuel Lara Foundation
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IES Ramón Carande, barrio Tres Mil Viviendas del Polígono Sur
Promote reading as an engine of social transformation. With this goal in mind, the José Manuel Lara Foundation, as part of the Hay Festival Forum Seville program, is launching the activity 'A Book That Changes Lives', in which the poet Defreds will meet with students from the IES Ramón Carande, located in the Polígono Sur neighborhood.
Through this initiative, students will have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the author after reading his latest book, 'Amanecer' (Dawn), fostering an approach to reading not only as entertainment but also as a tool to enhance their education and, in doing so, empower them to choose their future with greater freedom.
This activity aligns with the philosophy of the José Manuel Lara Foundation, which aims to bring reading closer to young audiences through new figures, many of whom are active on social media. Defreds has written a dozen books, including 'Casi sin querer' (Almost Unintentionally), 'Ojalá siempre' (I Wish Forever), 'Sempiterno' (Everlasting), and 'Historias de un náufrago hipocondríaco' (Stories of a Hypochondriac Castaway), with his most recent work being 'Amanecer', published by Espasa Editorial.
Odile Decq in conversation with Martha Thorne and Ramón Pico
Building different worlds
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Escuela de Arquitectura (Campus Reina Mercedes de la Universidad de Sevilla)
The French architect and urban planner Odile Decq is internationally recognized as a teacher, entrepreneur and advocate for women in the profession. She will speak on global design, in this conversation in collaboration with the Seville School of Architecture (ETSA-Seville). She will present museums in Italy and China, a residential tower in Barcelona and two single-family houses in France. Through these seemingly diverse projects, it will become evident how this architect approaches place, client needs and cultural, political, legal and construction contexts that are often different and difficult.
Her multidisciplinary approach was recognized with the Jane Drew Award in 2016, and she was honored with the Architizer Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 for her pioneering work, but also for her commitment and contribution to the architectural debate. In 2018, she was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, in recognition of her outstanding contributions in building science, design and education, and of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. A professor of architecture for over 25 years, Odile Decq was director of l'École Spéciale d'Architecture (ESA) in Paris from 2007 to 2012, and has taught and lectured at numerous international universities, including Bartlett (London), Kunstakademie (Vienna and Düsseldorf), SCI-Arc (Los Angeles, CA), Columbia University (New York, NY) and, most recently, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA). In 2014 he created his own school, now located in Paris: the Confluence Institute for Innovation and Creative Strategies in Architecture, accredited by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
She will discuss her career with Martha Thorne, urban planner and former executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and architect Ramón Pico, Director of the Seville School of Architecture.
Event in English
This event has taken place
Co-organized with the School of Architecture of the University of Seville
The Spanish poets of the Generation of ’27 left an indelible mark. Such a constellation of inspired and talented young and not-so-young people may never be seen again. It was Seville itself that hosted the tribute to Luis de Góngora on the tricentenary of his death, an event which led to the idea of a new literary generation to replace that of ’98. This generation included, among others, Federico García Lorca, Pedro Salinas, Luis Cernuda, Manuel Aleixandre, Jorge Guillén, Gerardo Diego, Dámaso Alonso, Rafael Alberti, and Miguel Hernández.
Almost a century later, Hay Festival Forum Seville pays tribute to those great writers through the voices of artists and intellectuals in Seville, who will read some of their favourite poems by poets of the Generation of ‘27. Amparo Graciani, Helena de Bertodano, Carlos Aganzo, Nuria Canivell, Beltrán Gambier, Miquel Molina, Laura Ventura, Félix Losada, Gioconda Scott, José Vallecillo, Nacho Orovio, María Limón, Pablo Morillo and Sheila Cremaschi will be participating. Members of the many reading clubs hosted by the Infanta Elena Public Library will also take part in the event, reading from works by their favourite poets of the Generation of ’27. José Félix Valdivieso will be the master of ceremony.
Event featuring readings in Spanish
This event has taken place
Co-organized with the Infanta Elena Public Library, Junta de Andalucía and Universidad de Sevilla
Carlo Ratti in conversation with Javier Moreno and Martha Thorne
Intelligence to build
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Fundación Cajasol - Teatro
Building with intelligence... human and artificial. This is the challenge facing architecture today and will be discussed by architect and engineer Carlo Ratti. He teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Politecnico di Milano. He is a founding partner of the architecture and innovation firm CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. A prolific writer, speaker, academic, and entrepreneur, he shares his innovative ideas through many formats. His experience as an international exhibition director spans many countries, from Germany to China and from Italy to Portugal. He is currently the director of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2025). He graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and later did his master's and doctoral work at Cambridge University, UK, completing his doctoral thesis as a Fulbright scholar at MIT.
Ratti will talk about the connections between human, artificial, and collective intelligence for our built environment. After presenting some examples of the different types of intelligence he uses to create his architectural projects, he will talk with Javier Moreno (renowned journalist and former editor of El País) and Martha Thorne (urban planner and former executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize) about intelligences for improving the built environment.
Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into spanish
This event has taken place
Co-organized with the 'Tendencias' supplement of El País and the Cajasol Foundation
The famous phrase ‘People from Bilbao are born where they want’ becomes a book in the hands of María Larrea, a multifaceted writer, screenwriter, and film director who, yes, was born in Bilbao, though she has lived in France. This first autobiographical novel – first published in French – is marked by a life that is far from easy to understand: at 27, she discovered that her parents were not her biological parents and that she had been sold. Rather than curse her fate, she chose to reflect it in writing that is as dense and direct. In just one year, a cascade of awards followed, including the 2022 First Novel Award in France, the Best Novel Award from France Télévisions, and the Best First Novel Award from Les Inrockuptibles. In her film career, in 2018, the author received the Audience Award for a first feature film screenplay at the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers, granted by the French radio station France Culture, for the film she co-directed with Catherine Paillé.
Larrea will discuss her work and the influences of her tumultuous life on it, with members of nearly twenty book clubs that meet at the Infanta Elena Public Library. She will do so in the company of journalist and actor Jesús Vigorra. His journalistic work in radio and television and, especially his involvement in cultural dissemination, has been recognized with the National Award for the Promotion of Reading in 2006, from the Ministry of Culture; the Spanish Publishers Award in 2003, for the promotion and dissemination of books; the LIBER Award 2007, from the International Book Fair; the Communication Award from the University of Seville and the Aljabibe Journalism Award, among others. He has collaborated in several media, especially in Canal Sur and Diario Córdoba. The event will be presented by Isabelle Berneron, book attaché of the French Institute.
Event in Spanish
This event has taken place
Co-organized with the Infanta Elena Public Library and the Junta de Andalucía, and with the collaboration of Alianza Editorial
Ángel Cárdenas and Ricard Frigola in conversation with Miquel Molina
Water and culture transform cities
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Fundación Valentín de Madariaga
The positive transformation of cities has developed over time thanks to culture and, more recently, to renaturalization projects. The aim is to improve the quality of life of citizens, but also to deal efficiently with the ever-increasing climatic emergencies. And in this transformation framework, water plays an essential role. As was the case with the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, which led to the development of its sewerage system and water network under the cover of a cultural event. Almost 100 years later, answers are still being sought to make cities environmentally sustainable spaces, to solve supply and sanitation deficiencies and to include a cultural story that explains the past and argues for the future.
Ángel Cárdenas, manager of Urban Development, Water and Creative Economies at the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), will speak at the event. In this unit, he leads a portfolio of more than $8 billion in urban operations focused on the sectors of mobility, water and sanitation, citizen security and creative economies. And Ricard Frigola, economist, associate professor of Economics and Regulation of Public Services at the University of Barcelona and between 2010-2019 was professor of Urban Management at the School of Architecture and Design at IE University. He was financial director of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Organizing Committee (COOB'92), and is currently director of Institutional Relations at Agbar.
The event will be moderated by Miquel Molina, deputy director of La Vanguardia and writer. He is the author of two novels and several essays; the last one, Cinco horas en Venecia. Award for non-sexist journalism.
Event in Spanish. Welcome at 18:50h.
This event has taken place
Co-organized with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF)
Boris Izaguirre made his way by penning an irreverent social column in his native Venezuela as well as writing soap opera scripts before settling in Spain, where over time he has carved out a unique niche for himself as a public figure. Behind that seemingly innate talent lies hard work and a lot of dedication.
He is one of the most well-known faces on the Spanish celebrity scene. Journalist, television presenter, scriptwriter, actor and writer; behind his light-hearted style lies an extremely cultured background. He found media stardom on the now legendary programme Crónicas marcianas, garnering much audience acclaim. Then came roles as presenter and contestant in a slew of entertainment programmes across an array of channels, such as MasterChef Celebrity, on La1, and El desafío, on Antena 3. He is a regular contributor to Bailando con las estrellas (Dancing with the Stars) and Tarde AR, both on Telecinco. He has also explored the realms of literature, having made his debut at a very young age with the novel El vuelo de los avestruces ; followed by notable novels including Azul petróleo and Planeta prize finalist, Villa diamante .
Izaguirre will talk about himself and his rise to the top with Ana Gavín, director of Editorial Relations at Grupo Planeta.
Event in Spanish
This event has taken place
With the collaboration of Grupo Planeta and the support of Open Society Foundations
James Ellroy in conversation with Helena de Bertodano
Autobiography in noir genre
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Fundación Cajasol - Teatro
James Ellroy (Lee Earle Ellroy) is one of the most renowned writers of crime novels, with a long work that has been successfully adapted, twice, to the cinema. A direct heir to the geniuses of the genre such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Ellroy's style is direct, with few words, dry as a bourbon, which gives his main characters a personality that leaves no one indifferent: they sharpen their words while caressing the gun. His life, marked in his youth by the unsolved murder of his mother, has inspired some of his novels.
He was born in Los Angeles in 1948 and after the separation of his parents, and when he was only 10 years old, his mother was murdered. Over time he became a thief and alcoholic, which earned him jail time. After giving up drinking and finding a job as a Caddy on a golf course, he began to write. His first novel, Requiem for Brown recreates his own life. Other crime novels followed, such as Suicide Hill, The Angel Quartet and The Black Dahlia. Shortly after, in 1990, came the internationally renowned Los Ángeles Confidencial, which prolonged his success in the cinema with a version that is already considered a classic of the noir genre. This month he publishes the novel The Seducers, the third volume of his quintet about Los Angeles, an absorbing story about Marilyn Monroe and her controversial death.
His work and his life will be reviewed in this event through the conversation that Ellroy will have with Helena de Bertodano, journalist specialized in interviews and celebrity profiles, as well as in reports and travel articles for publications such as The Sunday Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Observer, Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire. She has interviewed more than 1,000 people over the past 25 years, including the Dalai Lama, Meryl Streep, George Soros, Ringo Starr, George Best, Yehudi Menuhin and Jacinda Ardern.
Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish
This event has taken place
Co-organized with Fundación Telefónica and with the collaboration of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial and Fundación Cajasol
History remains in our memory for the great events. But also for the small stories with small letters and legends. The latter include myths, which help us to explain our western culture and its behaviors, heroism, generosity, selfishness, bravery, envy... The gods of Olympus and the heroes of classical antiquity are the protagonists of a fascinating series of myths that never cease to amaze us. In this event, Emilio del Río will talk about modernity and the validity of myths in our lives, in conversation with the writer and journalist Carlos Aganzo.
Del Río holds a PhD in Classical Philology from the Complutense University of Madrid, is an academic, writer, and professor of Latin Language and Linguistics at the Complutense University of Madrid. His program on RNE Verba Volant has been among the favorites of the radio cultural scene for more than a decade; he is the author of successful books such as Latin lovers, Calamares a la romana and Locos por los clásicos. Aganzo is the author of some twenty books of poetry and as many travel books. He has been director of Diario de Ávila and El Norte de Castilla and is currently director of the Vocento Foundation.
Event in Spanish
This event has taken place
Co-organized with the City of Seville and the Infanta Elena Public Library
Sudanese painter Rashid Diab reflects in his work the twists and turns of his tumultuous life, landscapes and people from his homeland, colors and sensations that bring us closer to his world. He also captures the disastrous effects of the wars and conflicts that ravage his country and have forced him to leave it and settle, for the second time, in Spain. The first time was for his studies; the second, out of necessity. He uses his painting as a catalyst against violence.
Rashid Diab was born in Wad-Medani, on the banks of the Blue Nile in Sudan, an environment that inspired his early works using rudimentary and improvised materials. He studied at the School of Fine Arts and Applied Arts in Khartoum, where he graduated in 1978 and received a scholarship to travel to Spain, where he earned a degree in painting and printmaking from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1991, he obtained his PhD on traditional and contemporary art from Sudan, still the only one of its kind. Over the next 9 years, he taught at the same university. In the mid-1970s, his works began to be collected by national museums, libraries, and private collectors, and more recently, by the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute and the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF). In 1999, he moved back to Khartoum and in 2005 he opened the Rashid Diab Art Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating cultural illiteracy, offering courses for children, artist residencies, and exhibitions of Sudanese artists. The war that broke out in 2023 in Khartoum forced Diab to flee his home and return to Spain.
Diab will discuss his life and work with Sema D'Acosta, art critic, researcher and professor of Communication, Realization and Production. He is a member of the Consejo de Críticos de Artes Visuales de España, the IAC and the Asociación de Periodistas Culturales de Andalucía José María Bernáldez. He is also a regular contributor to El Cultural, the international magazine Arte-contexto and Diario de Sevilla. He is the author of several books on art such as The tip of the iceberg and Reflections on current art.
One crime, two, three... a whole symphony of deaths on paper interpreted with one, two, three hands... Those of the writers who hide behind the pseudonym of Carmen Mola and who are already part of the imaginary of the crime novel in Spain, with thousands of copies sold and read. Three men with women's names and who have given life to the inspector Elena Blanco, capable in her investigations of many things that even she could not imagine.
Behind the pseudonym Carmen Mola are Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero. Everything was discovered when they won the Planeta Prize in 2021 with La bestia (The Beast). It was preceded by the trilogy starring the inspector Elena Blanco, which has given rise to two more novels. The three writers decided to root themselves around Carmen Mola, to give free rein to their desire to write under the influence of the greats of the noir genre such as Fred Vargas or Dashiell Hammett. The experiment went well.
The trio will discuss their work and influences with journalist Manuel Pedraz. With a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid, he has been an associate professor at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Seville and is president of the José María BernáldezAssociation of Cultural Journalists of Andalusia. His professional career has long been linked to cultural programs on RNE.
Event in Spanish
This event has taken place
Co-organized with Grupo Planeta and the Seville City Council
