The 4th Krakow Literature Days are a literary festival organised on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the international programme “writers in residence” which includes residential stay scholarships for writers in the Villa Decius.
In the contacts between different European regions, the cities, being strong centres of cultural exchange, are becoming more and more important. Krakow, which gained the name of “the city of poets”, is the best place for a literary exchange. The title of the festival homines@urbani.com refers to the literary contact network created by the residents of the Villa – a multilingual, international platform of understanding.
Over 80 authors will arrive for the 4th Days of Literature homines@urbani.com. All of them were during the last ten years scholars of the programme “Homines Urbani” – the biggest Polish residential programme for writers. Invited will be as well writers from the EU, who can now easily cross the boarders, as authors from the East, for whom the question of passport and visa is still a great problem. Writers of different cultures and languages will present how their common project known as “European literature” develops – independent and regardless of all the visa restrictions.
The festival meetings will last for three days and take place in a couple of locations in Krakow: in the Villa Decius, in the Gallery Bunkier Sztuki, in the Goethe Institute and in coffee houses where Krakow’s young literary circles gather. We will hear and see the newest European literature in diverse forms: from the traditional text reading, through multimedia projects to hypertext actions. Once again in world’s history a confusion of tongues will take place; now within the framework of the experimental project Villa Babel, when in different locations in the Villa Decius the writers will read fragments of their books – each of them in his/her own language – and the audience will be able to move from one culture to another.
Because of the fact that many scholars fulfil themselves not only in the field of literature, but also in other medias, in the Gallery Bunkier Sztuki and in the Goethe Institute will be presented movies, blogs, radio-plays, multimedia projects and hypertext actions. The Goethe Institute will be at the same time a place of debates, workshop meetings and an exhibition of books of these authors who will participate in the festival. During the festival there will also be promoted a publication that contains selected texts of the scholars. They drew their inspiration from meetings of different languages and cultures, while the background of their stories is constituted by different cities in Europe and all over the world; among them also Krakow.
A special event during the festival will be the debate “Literature and the city” devoted to the idea of founding literary centres by cities and financing literary study stays. From the European experiences follows that such initiatives are crucial as cultural trade marks of cities and regions. To the round-table debate there will be invited representatives of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the authorities of these Polish cities that compete for the title of the European Capital of Culture or promote themselves especially through literature (among others Wrocław and Gdynia, where there were lately founded prestigious literary prizes), representatives of Polish and foreign foundations and writers. The organisers hope that this initiative will have a culturally creative dimension and stimulate the foundation of new residence programmes for writers and interpreters in other Polish cities.
PROGRAMME:
Thursday, 9th October
Villa Decius, ul. 28 lipca 17a, Krakow
17.00-18.00
WELCOME
Danuta Glondys, Director of the Villa Decius Association
OPENING
Professor Aleksander Koj, Chairman of the Villa Decius Association,
Piotr Żuchowski, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage,
Grzegorz Gauden, Director of the Book Institute,
Dr Maja Pflüger, Robert Bosch Foundation,
Dr Albrecht Lempp, Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation
Simultaneous interpretation Pl/Eng
18.00-19.30
HOMINES URBANI
Premiere of the anthology “Ludzie, miasta” (“People, cities”)
Introduction: Renata Serednicka, Piotr Marecki, Igor Stokfiszewski
Presentation of literary pieces in original languages by authors:
Andrej Chadanowicz (BY), Tobias Hülswitt (DE), Mariusz Sieniewicz (PL),
Natalka Śniadanko (UA), Zmicier Wiszniou (BY)
Simultaneous interpretation Pl/Eng
” Lokator” Club, ul. Krakowska 27, Krakow
21.00-23.00
COFFE HOUSE TABLES OF THE WRITERS
Manifestos, poems and incredible stories at coffee house tables by:
Artur Becker (DE), Marina Bolzli (CH), Jan Böttcher (DE), Marc Degens (DE), Marta Dzido (PL), Tanja Dückers (DE), Alexander Gumz (DE), Ignacy Karpowicz (PL), Mikołaj Łoziński (PL), Zbigniew Masternak (PL), Taras Prochaśko (UA), Siarhiej Prylucki (BY), Johanna Rubinroth (DE), Christian Schiller (DE), Mariusz Sieniewicz (PL), Ostap Sływynski (UA), Natalka Śniadanko (UA), Wojciech Stamm (PL), Łukasz Orbitowski (PL), Marianne Wendt (DE)
Moderators: Piotr Marecki and Justyna Sobolewska
Friday, 10th October
Goethe Institute, Rynek Główny 20, Krakow
10.00-12.00
HALMA
Meeting with representatives of the European Network of Literary Centres HALMA presenting their residential scholarship programmes.
Presentation of the selected institutions, web catalogue and the website. Discussion on the possibilities of cooperation in the field of literary exchange.
Moderator: Danuta Glondys, Director of the Villa Decius Association
meeting in English language
10.00-16.00
HOMINES URBANI MULTIMEDIA READING ROOM
open from 7th till 12th October 2008
On display: books, radio plays, websites, photographs
Greeting: Dr. Angelika Eder, Director of the Goethe Institute Krakow
Participants: Martin Burri (DE), Marc Degens (PL), Doreen Daume (AT), Jakub Ekier (PL), Ruth Fruchtman (DE), Kai Grehn (DE), Paweł Sala (PL), Christian Schiller and Marianne Wendt (DE), Olha Sydor (UA)
main hall
Gallery Bunkier Sztuki, pl. Szczepański 3a, Krakow
18.00-20.00
WORDS IMAGES SOUNDS
Performances, installations and films
Participants: Nazar Honczar (UA), Monika Muskała (PL),
Tobias Rausch and Janette Mickan (DE), Sławomir Shuty (PL), Illia Sin (BY),
Moderator: Igor Stokfiszewski
“Piękny Pies” Club, ul. Sławkowska 6, Krakow
21.00-23.00
ONE MAN SHOW
Open literary stage
Participants: Andrej Chadanowicz (BY), Sylwia Chutnik (PL), Matthias Göritz (DE), Oleh Kocarew (UA), Halyna Kruk (UA), Tilman Rammstedt (DE), Johanna Rubinroth (DE), Xochil A. Schütz (DE), Zmicier Wiszniou (BY), Michał Witkowski (PL), David Zabransky (CZ), Serhij Żadan (UA)
Moderators: Andrej Chadanowicz and Joanna Rubinroth
Saturday, 11th October
Villa Decius, ul. 28 lipca 17a, Krakow
10.00-13.00
LITERATURE AND THE CITY
A round-table debate on promotion of literature via cities and promotion of cities via literature,
and discussing European “writers in residence” programmes
Moderators: Krzysztof Bobiński and Grzegorz Gauden
Simultaneous interpretation Pl/Eng
14.00-16.00
EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE – EUROPEAN CHALLENGES AND POLISH OPPORTUNITIES
Seminar
Experts: Danuta Glondys and Bogusław Sonik
(Villa Decius, The Room with a fireplace)
14.00-16.00 WHAT’S NEW IN POLISH CULTURE
Lecture by Igor Stokfiszewski, literary critic
(Villa Decius, The Blue Room, Łaski House)
lecture in English language
20.00-22.00
VILLA BABEL – VILLA KRAKOW
30 writers read their texts in their national languages in the space of Villa Decius palace
Participants: Nora Bossong (DE), Ksenia Charczenko (UA), Sylwia Chutnik (PL), Agnieszka Drotkiewicz (PL), Marta Dzido (PL), Tomas Escher (DE), Erica Fischer (DE), Lucy Fricke (DE), Roman Graf (CH), Kai Grehn (DE), Ariane Grundies (DE), Tobias Hülswitt (DE), Jörg Jacob (DE), Andra Joeckle (DE), Juhasia Kalada (BY), Nicolai Kobus (DE), Tanja Malarczuk (UA, Maryja Martysewicz (BY), Dorota Masłowska (PL), Zbigniew Masternak (PL), Kolja Mensing (DE), Jasna Mittler (DE), Daniel Mursa (DE), Daniel Odija (PL), Thomas Podhostnik (DE), Sławomir Shuty (PL), Maryna Sokolyan (UA), Katja Thomas (DE), Adelajda Truścińska (PL)
Sunday, 12th October
Gallery Bunkier Sztuki, pl. Szczepański 3a, Krakow
Goethe Institute, Rynek Główny 20, Krakow
10.00-12.00
Bunkier Café / Multimedia Reading Room
informal farewell coffee