On the 11th of May at 19:30, as part of the Design Month in Graz, there will be a festive presentation of the citybooks project in the same Austrian city. During the evening, the City One Minutes Graz will be premiered in the company of the video artists, Lea Titz’s photography exhibition ‘Graze’ will be opened to the public and there will be a special performance by the artist Flavius Argyelan. Furthermore, there will be readings by citybooks authors Andrea Stift, Werner Schandor and Onno Kosters, while actors Rudi Wiederhofer and Ninja Reichert will recite citybooks by Milena Michiko Flašar, Onno Kosters and Simone Lenaerts. On the initiative of Luise Kloos, citybooks coordinator in Graz, a book documenting the project’s activities in the city will be published by edition keiper, and will be presented during the same evening of citybook festivities. Alongside the citybook texts, the publication will feature photos by Lea Titz and stills from the City One Minutes.

Fore more information and the complete program see www.nextkunst.at

The Exhibition ‘Graze’ is open from the 12th until the 20th of May 2012, every day from 12:00 until 19:00. Location: designHalle, Lazarettgürtel 62, 8020 Graz (opposite the Citypark)

Here you can read Doris Lind’s excellent introductory text for the exhibition: ‘Die Stadt schreiben, sehen, hören’ (Writing, Seeing, Hearing the City), in which she closely examines the notion of ‘the city as a book’, and looks at the unique ways in which the five writers, photographer and video artists approached the theme and designed their responses to it. (The text is available in German and Dutch).

citybooks Graz was realized with the support of the European Commission, deBuren, designmonat Graz, Graz UNESCO City of Design, Land Steiermark, the city Graz, Kulturvermittlung Steiermark, Literaturhaus, Diagonale and next – Verein für zeitgenössische Kunst.

citybooks exhibition during the designmonat in Graz written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: andrea stift, exhibition, graz, lea titz, luise kloos, milena m. flašar, onno kosters, simone lenaerts, werner schandor

Verbeken wrote a story about a launderette (english translation coming soon). Lindner wrote a series of poems featuring phrases like ‘elektriciteitskabels steken door het trottoir' (electric cables stick up through the pavement) ‘voor even een regenboog boven het kanaal' (for a moment there's a rainbow above the canal). The authors recite and talk about their experiences in Charleroi, their takes on the city and the creation process of their citybooks.

Wednesday 9 may 2012 - 12:30 > 13:30
De Loketten, Vlaams Parlement | IJzerenkruisstraat 99, 1000 Brussels
Free entrance, reservation recommonded via  deBuren.

Organization: deBuren and the Flemish Parliament

The 'Literaire Loketten', citybooks Charleroi: Pascal Verbeken & Erik Lindner written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: charleroi, erik lindner, literaire loketten, pascal verbeken

Read more about this translation project here.

Tuesday 8 May 2012 - 19:30
Location: Beursschouwburg | A. Ortsstraat 20-28, 1000 Brussels
In Dutch and French
Entrance free, click here to make a reservation (recommended)

Organization: deBuren in collaboration with the Beursschouwburg

Presentation in Brussels: citybooks and Radiobooks translated by students written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: caroline lamarche, charleroi, joseph pearce, translations

The first citybooks from Lublin will be published on www.city-books.eu soon in English, Dutch, French and Polish. The 24 photos made by the Polish photographer Maciej Rukasz in Lublin are already online.

Read an interview with the authors Andrzej Stasiuk and Witold Szablowski here, and discover how Dutch author Arnon Grunberg spent his days during his citybooks residency via his blog messages. To read about the project in Polish, visit the website of TEK, the partnerorganisation in Lublin.

citybooks presented at EU conference in Lublin written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: ksenia duńska, lublin

On the 24th of May, the big citybooks group exhibition will open in Brussels with work of Filip Berte, who took part as a photographer on citybooks Tbilisi. You can really get to know the work of Filip Berte in Ghent this spring and summer. From the 17th of May until the 4th of November, a spectacular exhibition will run at STAM: Filip Berte / The Graveyard – Steden in de marge (Cities at the Margins). Before this exhibition opens, from the 27th of April until the 17th of June, you can visit the installation Collective Memory Mass Grave at the Caermersklooster in Ghent. Here, Berte exhibits as the laureate of the Provinciale Prijs Beeldende Kunst 2011 (Provinces’ Visual Arts Prize 2011).

Together, the works in both exhibitions make up part of his large-scale undertaking Eutopia, an artistic research project in which his Tbilisi citybook also appears. Tbilisi is one of the cities in which he investigates contemporary European living environments with a focus on the geographical, political, historical and cultural contexts. You can listen to Filip Berte talk about Eutopia here.

• Collective Memory Mass Grave at Provinciaal Cultuurcentrum Caermersklooster
  27th of April until the 17th of June
  The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 - 17:00 except on monday
  Vrouwebroersstraat 6 (Patershol) - 9000 Gent
  Free entry
• You can find more information about the Provinciale Prijs Beeldende Kunst exhibition 2011 and the Caermersklooster here or at www.netevents.be.
  
  
  

• Filip Berte / The Graveyard – Steden in de marge at STAM
  17th of May until the 4th of November
  The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 - 18:00 except on monday.
  Bijlokesite, Godshuizenlaan 2, 9000 Gent
  Tickets € 6 / 4,5 / 1 / free
• You can find more information about the Filip Berte / The Graveyard – Steden in de marge exhibition here and via www.stamgent.be.

Filip Berte’s work from Tbilisi will also appear in the big citybooks group exhibition at De Markten in Brussels from the 24th of May until the 11th of July 2012. You can find more information about this exhibition here.

Images © Filip Berte

Eutopia is supported by CAMP O, Vrede van Utrecht, European Cultural Foundation, deBuren & Kunstenfestivaldesarts.

Filip Berte exhibits in Ghent written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: caermersklooster, filip berte, stam, tbilisi

The Dutch Embassy in Tbilisi will distribute the books amongst those without Internet connections at home, so that they too will be able to become acquainted with the project and the work of the participating authors and photographers.

Dorian van der Brempt, director of the Flemish-Dutch House deBuren and driving force behind citybooks, will be on hand to elucidate the project, and the authors Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili and Shota Iatashvili will recite from their citybooks. As well as this, the presentation will feature citybooks photos by both Kakha Kakhiani and Filip Berte.

Besides Kordzaia-Samadashvili en Iatashvili, Stefan Hertmans, Frank Westerman and Lasha Bugadze also wrote citybooks about Tbilisi. Read, listen to and download all of these stories for free as webtext, e-book and podcast in Dutch, English, French and Georgian at www.city-books.eu. This summer, Bugadze will be a guest at citybooks Turnhout. More information on this to follow!

Competition question: Win a copy of the citybooks book Tbilisi/ თბილისი.

deBuren is giving away 5 copies of this bilingual English-Georgian publication. To be in with a chance, answer the following question: what did 922 like in the citybook by Frank Westerman? Send your answer, before the 15th of May, to info@deburen.eu.

citybooks Tbilisi was realized in collaboration with Dutch Embassy in Tbilisi, the city council of Tbilisi, Europe House, the George Leonidze State Literary Museum of Georgia, Radio Muza, Gosselin Moving and the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia.

ნიდერლანდების საელჩო გეპატიჟებათ პროექტ “citybooks თბილისის“ დახურვასა და პროექტის ფარგლებში გამოშვებული წიგნის პრეზენტაციაზე:
23 აპრილი, 19:00 საათი, ევროპის სახლი (თავისუფლების მოედანი, 1) ფლამანდურ-ნიდერლანდული კულტურული ცენტრის DeBuren-ის დირექტორი, ბატონი დორიან ვან დერ ბრემპტი ისაუბრებს ევროპული ქალაქების ლიტერატურულ პროექტზე; მწერლები ანა კორძაია-სამადაშვილი და შოთა იათაშვილი წაიკითხავენ “citybooks თბილისისთვის“ დაწერილ თავის მოთხრობებს, ნაჩვენები იქნება კახა კახიანისა და ფილიპ ბერტეს ფოტოები. საღამოს გაუძღვება ლაშა ბაქრაძე.
citybooks თბილისი განხორციელდა შემდეგი ორგანიზაციების მხარდაჭერით: თბილისის მერია, ევროპის სახლი, საქართველოს გიორგი ლეონიძის სახელობის ქართული ლიტერატურის სახელმწიფო მუზეუმი, პარლამენტის ეროვნული ბიბლიოთეკა, სატრანსპორტო კომპანია „გოსელინი“, რადიო „მუზა“ და ნიდერლანდების საელჩო თბილისში.

citybooks book presentation Tbilisi on the 23rd of April written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: ana kordzaia-samadashvili, dorian van der brempt, filip berte, frank westerman, kakha kakhiani, lasha bughadze, shota iatashvili, stefan hertmans, tbilisi

citybooks

After Charleroi and Ostend, Turnhout is the third Belgian city in which citybooks will set up shop. This time, Peter Terrin, Chika Unigwe, Walter van den Broeck, Marjolijn Februari and the Georgian author Lasha Bughadze will be amongst the writers participating. The latter has already taken part in citybooks Tbilisi, for which he wrote A Song for Tbilisi. Now he’ll journey to the Low Countries, via the network set up between participating cities, to write a second citybook. This edition of citybooks will see collaboration with Turnhout 2012.

Venice is the first Italian city to take part in the citybooks project. The preparations are well underway, and we can already let a few names out of the bag: Atte Jongstra, Rebekka de Wit en Andrea Galiazzo (photographer). Venice is home to our local partner-organisation Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The resulting stories will appear not only as webtexts, e-books and audio book in Dutch, English and French, but also in Italian, as a special ‘courtesy translation’.

Can’t wait to listen to an Italian-language citybook? You don’t have to! The Italian author Davide Longo has written citybooks about Utrecht and Charleroi, both of which are now available to read and download in the original Italian. The story about Utrecht is also available for listening, while an audio version of the work from Charleroi will follow shortly.

Yerevan, after Tbilisi, is the second Asian city to feature on the citybooks map. At this moment, Serge van Duijnhoven is a guest in the brand new World Book Capital in Armenia. More information on this to follow!

Via www.city-books.eu, facebook and twitter we will keep you up-to-date with the latest citybooks news from all participating cities.

New citybooks cities announced: Turnhout, Venice and Yerevan written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: andrea galiazzo, atte jongstra, chika unigwe, davide longo, lasha bughadze, marjolijn februari, peter terrin, rebekka de wit, serge van duijnhoven, turnhout, venice, walter van den broeck, yerevan

The presentation in Perdu is a combination of recitals from, and new readings inspired by, the issue Clubsandwich:
Friday 20th April 2012 – 20:30
Kloveniersburgwal 86, 1012 CZ Amsterdam
€5, reservation recommended: www.perdu.nl
For more information: www.deburen.eu/nl/programma/detail/de-club-goedgeorganiseerde-waan

The ‘Club’ issue of DW B was compiled by Atte Jongstra and Bart Vervaeck. Organized by: DW B, Perdu and deBuren in collaboration with hard//hoofd

Presentation of new issue of DW B with citybooks prepublication written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: atte jongstra, dw b, erik lindner, marjolijn februari, perdu, saskia de coster

On the 24th of May, the big citybooks group exhibition opens in Brussels. But, if that’s too long to wait, you will be able to see Sander Buyck’s photos from Charleroi in Paris from the end of this month. On the 23rd of April, Sander Buyck’s exposition will open its doors in the French capital. At the invitation of the Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre, the house for Belgian and Luxemburgish students studying in France, Buyck will present his citybooks photos in the organization’s monumental building.

In 2011, Buyck spent two weeks exploring Charleroi, fixing the industrial city’s surprising beauty in a series of 24 images. As well as these photos, he will also exhibit a number of his pictures from his Palestine series, previously presented at the Beursschouwburg, at the invitation of A Prior Magazine, for their themed edition Picasso in Palestine.



The exhibition opens in the company of the photographer on the 23rd of April at 19h30 – open to the public.
The exhibition runs from the 24th of April until the 3rd of June 2012.
Opening hours: Every day from 9am until 6pm
Free entry
Address: Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre
9A boulevard Jourdan
75014 Paris (FR)

© Sander Buyck

You can fid more information about the exhibition at the Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre at www.fbl-paris.org/nl. In July 2012, deBuren will spend two weeks as a guest organization of Biermans-Lapôtre, for a special residency for talented young writers, who – following their stays – will each write a reflection on the problems and opportunities unique to Paris as an extraordinary metropolis.

Sander Buyck’s work will also feature as part of the big citybooks group exhibition in De Markten in Brussels from the 24th of May until the 11th of July 2012. You can find more information about this exhibition here.

Sander Buyck exhibits in Paris written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: charleroi, exhibition, fondation biermans-lapôtre, sander buyck

The writers each stayed in Charleroi for two weeks and, inspired by their residencies, each wrote a citybook: a story or a series of poems. The results are very diverse: the Italian author Davide Longo, for example, wrote a dialogue in which a woman fetches up memories of a writer than once lived in Charleroi, while Caroline Lamarche records a quest to find a person from her past in diary-like fragments. Erik Lindner wrote ten intensely concentrated poems, and Thomas Gunzig, with plenty of black humour, recounts how a forgotten toothbrush leads him around some of the city’s least pretty sites. Pascal Verbeken was the fifth author to stay in Charleroi. His citybook is newly finished, and will be presented as a premiere at the Musée on the same evening.

Sander Buyck’s photos will feature as part of a large-scale citybooks photography exhibition in the museum in 2013, and will be on show during summer 2012 during a group exhibition in de Markten in Brussels.

Practical information:
Date: Thursday 26 April 2012 - 20:00
Musée de la Photohraphie, Avenue Paul Pastur 11, 6032 Charleroi
Free, reservation requiered: +32(0)71 43 58 10 or mcp.info@museephoto.be
In French.

Organisation: deBuren, citybooks Charleroi in collaboration with the Musée de la Photographie and the city counsel of Charleroi. With the support of the EACEA.

citybooks Charleroi presented at the Musée de la Photographie written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: caroline lamarche, charleroi, davide longo, erik lindner, musée de la photographie, pascal verbeken, sander buyck, thomas gunzig

News from Chartres

At the beginning of my stay in Chartres I did not think much of the cathedral. I found it too big, too overwhelming, filled with tourists instead of believers. I still think it’s true, but the cathedral is not to be blamed. Therefore today, as an old resident, when my visit to Chartres is drawing to an end, I hereby swallow all my bitter comments.

The man who helped me understand the cathedral was Gilles Fresson. We spent almost two hours standing in front of the Portail Royale where he unveiled the meaning of the symbolic gate to me, which makes up an Encyclopaedia of the Medieval Europe. The citizens of Chartres must have been extremely proud of the cathedral, if even the destructing and secularising force of the French Revolution left it almost untouched. Although it was transformed into the Temple of the Mind for a while, most of the sculptures were left undamaged and there was no dragging of dead bodies out of their crypts.

It might have been partially caused by the fact that the respect for the mind was present in this city ever since in the Middle Ages, with local scholars successfully competing with the ones in Paris. They were even bold enough to invite the rabbis to join in the discussion about the Old Testament.

I am reminded of the bloody times of the revolution passing by des Epars, which today is hosting a nice carrousel, but formerly was the place, where people lost their heads on a guillotine. Nonetheless, deep inside I believe that the beheading was committed more to comply with the overall spirit of the époque than to support the true beliefs of the people of Chartres. After all, over the centuries they got used to the cathedral, casting a shadow on the entire city, visible from its every corner, like the unfortunate Palace of Culture in Warsaw, it provides work places for the citizens; they love it and treat their city as if it was the centre of Europe.

However, apart from the spires soaring towards the sky, Chartres also has its dark places… I found them in the Hôtel Dieu hospital with great help from its amused administration staff. As I do not speak French, and the French usually do not speak modern Latin, that is English, I was given the tour by as many as five people. A member of the hospital’s technical staff took us along the dark, dusty corridors of the forgotten basement. Had Lars von Trier seen these interiors, he wouldn’t have hesitated for a moment about the set for his The Kingdom!

The tour took so long that I couldn’t help but suspect that the basements of Hôtel Dieu hosts another Chartres built in case of emergency, with similarly narrow streets, a kitchen that is out of service and forgotten chapels that could replace the cathedral. When I showed the pictures from this expedition to my host Anne, she was very surprised that these marvels are hidden just a few blocks away, and yet never visited by the citizens of Chartres. Not to mention Japanese tourists.

Read the original Polish text by Marcin Wroński here.
The citybook that results from his stay in Chartres will be published on www.city-books.eu later in 2012.

Portrait of Marcin Wronski © Filip Modrzejewski (W.A.B. Publishing)
Photo's © Marcin Wronski

Marcin Wronski blogs about Chartres (2) written by Marcin Wroński in: citybooks news

Tags: blog, chartres, lublin, marcin wronski

The exhibition will be opened on the 24th of May at 19:00, in the company of citybooks photographers (including Martijn van de Griendt, Lisa Van Damme and Lea Titz), as well as citybooks authors.

And true enough, no citybooks exhibition would be complete without literature. And with this in mind, deBuren is also organising a number of literary evenings at De Markten, with writers from right across Europe. Below you will find an overview of the activities during the exhibition period.

• 24 mei 2012 - 19:00
  Festive opening citybooks exhibition
  
• 05 juni 2012 - 20:00
  Mauro Pawlowski en Maud Vanhauwaert in conversation with Johan de Boose
• 19 juni 2012 - 12:30 > 13:15
  Broodje Brussel Guided Tour: photography exhibition citybooks
• 28 juni 2012 - 20:00
  Arnon Grunberg recites from his work and is interviewed

The exhibition will take place in the context of the Summer of Photography 2012, a BOZAR initiative. To keep up to date with all of the exciting events of this summer’s festival, you can like the Facebook page here.

Organized by: deBuren in the context of Bozar’s Summer of Photography 2012, in collaboration with De Markten and with support from the European Commission.

citybooks Group Exhibition opens the 24th of May in Brussels written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: arnon grunberg, bozar, christian binder, david bocking, de groene amsterdammer, de markten, exhibition, filip berte, frosina stojkovska, kakha kakhiani, lea titz, lisa van damme, maciej rukasz, martijn van de griendt, maud vanhauwaert, mauro pawlowski, sander buyck, summer of photography

Chartres in Spring

For a couple of days now I’ve been trying to get down to some honest work, some quality time with my keyboard. But the cloudless blue sky invading my room through the window uninvited is stronger, so I give up and go out to stroll around the city. And it seems as if Chartres enjoys being watched by me, because, even though I know maybe ten words in French (including a few indecent ones), I feel completely at home here. Maybe because it resembles Lublin. With its quarters sprawling into different directions it’s peaceful and yet entirely urban. And, from what I’ve heard, it has a population not bigger than the one of Świdnik. It even has its own Hartwigs’ Corner, although, for the lack of the Hartwigs, here it is called St. Peter’s corner.

My most lovely mascaron on the front of the cathedral

There’s just one problem, I hope God forgives me!, I’m annoyed by the cathedral. Not even the real one, a landmark soaring like the Palace of Culture used to soar marking its place in Warsaw. It annoys me that this lovely city places the cathedral on every single gadget, when, if you ask me, God feels much better at St. Peter’s; religious people would rather go to the St. Aignan’s; whereas lovers and fat wild ducks can be more often found on the bank of the Eure River, where I finally understood why it was here that the French created Impressionism.

I did not come here to paint pretty landscapes, though. I came here to write a crime story! Not that I couldn’t write a non-crime story, but it's best to stick to one's spécialité de la maison...  I was therefore over the moon when, walking around my beloved downtown, I came across Rue du Massacre, the Massacre Street, as I dared to assume. I’d already started to imagine some bloody crime scenes, corpses scattered around the Eure, when the plate on the wall allied with my French-Polish dictionary to cause yet another disappointment. Instead of a massacre I was left with an uninspiring slaughterhouse.


So I continue admiring beautiful scenery, smiling to French women and, if nothing surprises me in time, I will have to consider changing my specialisation. No dead men in Chartres! Or wait… “No Dead Men in Chartres”. Not a bad title indeed…

Read the original Polish text by Marcin Wroński here.
The citybook that results from his stay in Chartres will be published on www.city-books.eu later in 2012.

Portrait of Marcin Wronski © Filip Modrzejewski (W.A.B. Publishing)
Photo's © Marcin Wronski

Marcin Wroński blogs about Chartres (1) written by Marcin Wroński in: citybooks news

Tags: blog, chartres, lublin, marcin wronski

citybooks Sheffield receives subsidies for participation in the Festival of the Mind with its ‘ WordSurge ’ project written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: agnes lehoczky, david bocking, festival of the mind, helen mort, henriette louwerse, sheffield

Jeroen van Rooij: ‘In Labyrinths, my citybook about Chartres, I write about the artwork 1965 / 1 – ∞ by Roman Opalka. If I’d have considered the fact that I would end up reading my text for recording, then I would have thought of a clever solution for the titles from the work that I mention. In the Centre Pompidou there are three details from 1965 / 1 – ∞ on display, with the unpronouncable names 3,307,544 – 3,324,387, 3,324,388 – 3,339,185 and 3,339,186 – 3,353,469. Finally I did manage to get these number sequences out without stuttering or stumbling over them. The number of attempts I needed for this would make an excellent title for an Opalka painting.’

Listen to Labyrinten here.

Ester Naomi Perquin: ‘The evening before the recording session was a late one; as a rule, poetry day extends into a poetical drinking-bout. And sure enough, in an Utrecht bar, we toasted the day. And again. And then again. Old television series were discussed, as were women who see bookcases as real personalities. When, finally, I had made it to my hotel bed, it was almost time for breakfast. So this is partly why the recording session wasn’t quite as flawless as I had hoped, though a glass of water did work wonders. As I was reading, a sense of homesickness crept over me. I heard there’s a thick blanket of snow in Bucharest now.’

Listen to Boekarest - Een eenpersoonsreisadvies here.

Erik Lindner recited and recorded his poems about Charleroi in a record time of seven minutes and two seconds. On the photos alongside you can see just how he did it.

Listen to Charleroi. 10 Gedichten here.

Sound engineer Aart de Jong of KlankTank makes sure the session runs smoothly from start to finish, and then gets to work with the recorded material, fixing any minor mistakes and perfecting the overall sound.

Since then the results have been made available online, and you can listen to and download the work of Ester Naomi Perquin, Jeroen van Rooij and Erik Lindner at www.city-books.eu and via iTunes.

Photo's © Marianne Hommersom

Notes from the Underground #13 written by Marianne Hommersom in: Notes from the underground

Tags: aart de jong, erik lindner, ester naomi perquin, jeroen van rooij

Poet and translator Mysjkin has translated poetry by Ester Naomi Perquin, Ruth Lasters and Lieke Marsman for deBuren, all in the context of the Liegend Konijn Debut Prize. Recently, he translated Romanian author Adrian Schiop’s citybook Travesti into French, in collaboration with Doina Ioanid. Ioanid’s Dutch translation of Overgangsgedichten has also just appeared in print, of which Mysjkin translated the cycle ‘Interval’.

deBuren congratulates Jan H. Mysjkin written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: adrian schiop, congratulations, jan h. mysjkin

For the ninth time, the ALCS (Association for Low Countries Studies) is organizing its biennial conference. From Tuesday 3rd until Thursday 5th of April 2012, more than forty academics will present their reflections on the theme ‘Low Countries, Big Cities’.

The theme arises from the participation of The University of Sheffield in the citybooks project, together with authors Joost Zwagerman, Rebecca Lenaerts, Helen Mort, Ágnes Lehóczky and Abdelkader Benali, photographer David Bocking and cinematographer Dominic Green.

The citybooks will be specially presented on Wednesday 4th of April. Willem Bongers-Dek introduces the project, poets Helen Mort and Ágnes Lehóczky will read their citybooks, followed by readings by four Sheffield students: Charles Macdonald-Jones, Louise Snape, Christine Barningham and Victoria Beardwood. The photo's of David Bocking will be exhibited and Dominic Greene, the maker of the city-one-minutes will also be present.

Keynote addresses during the conference will be by Herman Pleij (UvA), Wim Vandenbussche (VUB) and Geert Buelens (UU). For more information visit: http://alcs.group.shef.ac.uk

Organised by: Association for Low Countries Studies (ALCS) and The University of Sheffield with support from the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union) and the Vlaamse Vertegenwoordiging (Flemish Representation in Holland).

photo © David Bocking

citybooks Sheffield presentation at ‘ Low Countries, Big Cities ’ conference written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: abdelkader benali, agnes lehoczky, david bocking, dominic green, helen mort, joost zwagerman, rebecca lenaerts, sheffield

Translation students at the University College Ghent are busy working on the Dutch translation of Caroline Lamarche’s citybook

Students and Lecturers from Gent and Mons on excursion in Charleroi.

The story begins on a cold winter morning, on the 9th of February of this year. Eight masters of translation students from the faculty of applied linguistics at Ghent, and a student from Charleroi studying in Ghent for a year, come together to discuss the translation of Patrimoine immaterial: Un séjour au pays noir, (Intangible Heritage. A stay in the Black Country) Caroline Lamarche’s citybook about Charleroi. Each student has translated a page of the text into Dutch.

The best way to read a text is to translate it; by examining our translations I see it become more and more beautiful. The students’ translations throw new light on Lamarche’s rough, contrary writing, prose that isn’t easy to tame or possess. As translators, we literally go underground: we delve into the text searching for coal, and especially gold. After all, wasn’t coal once called black gold?

‘Terril’, how do you translate that best? In the Van Dale (multilingual dictionary) it says: “Belgian Dutch, mining term. Artificial hill in the vicinity of a coalmine, made by ongoing processes of dust and waste deposition. Synonyms: slag heap, spoil heap”. Lamarche’s text also features worlds like ‘trémie’ (a kind of tunnel) that are unknown in France, but are used particularly in and around Liège.

From Ghent, the group travels to Mons, where they’re met by Carola Henn of the Université de Mons (Faculté de Traduction et d’Interprétation / Faculty of Translation and Interpretation). She’s working with four students on the French translation of the Radio Book Erfenis (Legacy), by Joseph Pearce. The next day, thanks to the students from Mons, we follow a tour of Le Bois du Cazier, the memorial dedicated to the mine at Marcinelle, which became tragically infamous after the 1956 accident that took the lives of 262 men. And though Lamarche doesn’t mention this place in her citybook, it’s the best possible way to become acquainted with the region.

At the end of the tour, when we’re sat inside chatting with the guide, Carola says something that makes everything fall into place beautifully. The story by Pearce deals with a guide who doesn’t just describe the history of a tragedy, but actually carries that tragedy upon him. Lamarche’s text portrays an exhausted region wrestling with a bleak future, and its history was conveyed to us inimitably by a guide just as laden with the weight of tragedy. Her father, a mineworker literally to the core, died at an early age from silicosis; “black lung”. And so Lamarche and Pearce are united through our translation project.

Désireé Schyns, lecturer in French, Department of Translation Polytechnic University of Gent

Read the full report here (in Dutch).

The translations in Ghent and Mons are taking place in the context of a wider translation project, in which higher education students from the various language communities in Belgium work together on the literary translation of two Belgian authors: ‘La traduction littéraire: collaborer pour communiquer’. The project was subsidised by the Prins Filip Fund and is supported by deBuren.

Group photo © Carmen Derycke
All other photos © Désirée Schyns

Notes from the Underground #12 written by Désirée Schyns in: Notes from the underground

Tags: charleroi, désirée schyns, translations

deBuren and De Groene Amsterdammer, the Netherlands’ oldest independent news magazine, share a passion for literature. That’s why De Groene is keen to put citybooks, a project that asks authors to write a unique account of a particular city, centre-stage. Each week, one citybook will be published at www.groene.nl/boeken, and - just as at www.city-books.eu - you can read, listen to, and download them for free.

First up is Jeroen van Rooij’s citybook Labyrinths, about the French city of Chartres. Not only is Van Rooij’s citybook in De Groene’s spotlight this week, but the magazine also published an exceptional review of his latest novel, Het licht (The Light).

citybooks feature on De Groene Amsterdammer website written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: de groene amsterdammer, jeroen van rooij

About van Rooij’s citybook:
Labyrinths is a reflection on looking and being looked at, on the influence of Chartres’s famous cathedral on her visitors and on how the same visitors determine the cathedral’s very meaning. The citybook is available as in Dutch, French and English, and the Dutch-language podcast, recorded by the author himself, is also already online.

Jeroen van Rooij Book Presentation in Antwerp written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: chartres, jeroen van rooij

The English and French translations of A Hundred and Forty Kilos of Love are already available online, the translations into Macedonian and Albanian are in full swing, and their respective podcast recordings are too. And, from May, you will be able to read and download the original Dutch-language webtext and e-book of A Hundred and Forty Kilos of Love absolutely for free at www.city-books.eu.

Saskia de Coster presents her citybook A Hundred and Forty Kilos of Love written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: literaire loketten, saskia de coster

In the Polish city Lublin, the citybooks project is in full swing. TEK, our local partner there, has already organized a variety of events with participating authors, including a discussion with Witold Szabłowski at the Spółdzielnia Coffeehouse and Bookshop. The citybooks photographer Maciej Rukasz was also on hand to document the event. Szabłowski, as well as Andrzej Stasiuk, have taken part in a host of other interviews about their work with citybooks, too. You’ll find a whole collection of Polish-language media covering these events and others besides at the TEK website.

A selection of fragments from these interviews has been translated into English. In the first fragment below you can read an interview with Witold Szabłowski, who – with his family – spent 6 months living exactly as it was in Poland during the communist regime. In the second, Andrzej Stasiuk explains why he’s so fond of Lublin. Soon to follow is the translation of an interview with Arnon Grunberg, in which he speaks about Lublin’s particular sense of melancholy. You can already read the original Polish article here.

This spring, Maud Vanhauwaert and Mauro Pawlowski will each spend two weeks in the city. You can stay up-to-date with the activities in Lublin and other participating cities via the news page at www.city-books.eu. Via Facebook and Twitter you can find out when the first citybooks from Poland will appear online. As ever, you’ll be able to read, listen to and download them as webtexts, podcasts and e-books in Dutch, English, French, as well as Polish.

Witold Szabłowski at the Spółdzielnia Coffeehouse and Bookshop © Maciej Rukasz

My Own Private People’s Republic of Poland: Interview with Witold Szabłowski  (fragments)

On 22 January, after living in the People’s Republic of Poland for six months, Witold Szabłowski went online and saw an e-mail in which someone threatened to denounce him and his wife for child abuse. There were no bananas in the communist times, so we explained our daughter, that we would not eat bananas, recalls Szabłowski. How was it to go back and live in those times? Here is the interview with Witold Szabłowski, a writer and journalist who stayed in Lublin as part of the citybooks project.

How did you come up with the idea to live in the People’s Republic of Poland for six months?

– I wanted to try the assumed identity journalism that is so popular in the USA or Germany but not really known in Poland. I had tried it before, working for Tesco in Great Britain for two weeks, but I had a feeling that I didn’t get to the core of the matter. (…)

How did you prepare for this time travel?

– We had to gather clothes, toys, pots from those times. We got them from our friends. It appeared that a lot of people still have stuff accumulated in their attics. The shops were empty, so when there was a delivery people bought more that they needed just in case. One of my friends from the university’s parents inherited their parents’ house filled with stuff from the communist times. We looked through them and I found some great stuff, like a razor made in the German Democratic Republic. It took us one year to gather all things we needed. And we were quite meticulous. Even all of our underwear was from those times.

The experiment commenced on the 22 July?

– We moved into a rented flat on 15 July, but it took us a while to unpack, redecorate the kitchen, disconnect the Internet. That’s why we commenced our life in the People’s Republic of Poland on this important, also for Lublin day.

How did your neighbours react to your experiment?

– We rented a flat in Ursynów, the part called the Falklands by the people who live there. We decided not to inform the neighbours that it is a deliberate thing. I grew my moustache, my wife got a perm and we commenced with our new life. When we went into a shop they automatically treated us as potential shoplifters. I often noticed I was being observed by security people. It had never happened to me when I was dressed in “capitalistic” clothes. My wife had similar experiences.

Did you get any positive reactions?

– People reacted enthusiastically to my yellow Fiat 126 from 1985. We heard lots of sentimental stories from our neighbours. “Oh, you have the Fiat, I met my wife when I was driving the same one.” I discovered that lots of people have a strong need to talk about the communist times. For many of them those were the times of their youth, after all.

Did it take a lot of effort to cook a dinner?

– All questions concerning food and eating we consulted with an expert, Błażej Brzostek, who wrote a book about food and eating habits in the People’s Republic of Poland. He made us a list of products that were similar in quality to those available at that time. It appears that you can still buy products imitating chocolate today. We bought cheap kinds of sausage, fried it for dinner instead of preparing real meat. We organized some regular deliveries from the farms, what was common practice in those times. After a while it seemed we were eating better food than in in capitalism. (…)

Was it difficult to live without the Interned for half a year?

– It was difficult workwise, but I think that all the things I wrote at that time were of better quality because, instead of relying on what I could google, I had to call an expert, find a book in a library, visit the archives. (...) Was it just fun or something more?

– Our project was some sort of fun. It’s obvious a family of three cannot reconstruct the life in the communist regime when everyone around us is living in capitalism. The aim of the project was to describe capitalism. We went 30 years back in time to get a new perspective.

Instead of what?

– Instead of the vision of brave people from Solidarność fighting bad communists. Or the perspective present in Polish absurd comedies from that time; those were fun times, everyone was having a lough all the time. None of those perspectives wee look at our history from is really true.

What do we ignore?

– 35 million of people who lived their lives differently then. But they were no heroes, they had nothing to laugh about. They lived, went shopping, had kids, went to work. (…)

The original Polish text was published in the Magazine of Dziennik Wschodni.

I Love this Dragon. An Interview with Andrzej Stasiuk (fragments)

Andrzej Stasiuk, the author of “On the Road to Babadag” will write about Lublin for the citybooks project. His piece will be then translated into four languages and published online. What will Stasiuk write? We don’t know that yet. He talks to Sylwia Hejno about strolling along Zamoyska Street, a sense of affection he has for eastern cities and why not winning the title of the European Capital of Culture was a good thing.

You’ve stayed in Lublin for almost two weeks now, what do you see from your window?

– Faces from my childhood. I was brought up in a poor neighbourhood in Warsaw. I see poor worn out men in their 50s. I even helped one of them. He looked so bad that I went up to him myself and asked: “Well, do you need some…?” Him: “Fucking badly!” I gave him some cash and he was amazed that some angel visited him standing in this gate. And when I was on my way to Warsaw a couple of days ago, three quiet and discreet beggars asked me for help.

(…) You’ve said some strong words about other cities.

– And I’m happy to do that now and again. Lets take Krakow as an example. It’s a city filled with self-love and self-admiration as if no one ever travelled anywhere to notice that the world is full of similar cities. When I see that attitude, I stick a spike right in the middle of this backwater’s ass with great delight. Krakow is just another Central European town, just as dirty with pigeon shit as many others. Lublin hasn’t got a huge ego, it’s easier to get to the essence of it, easier to touch it.

(…) Lublin lost the competition for the title of the European Capital of Culture. Is it good or bad?

– Jesus, it’s great. What do you need this whole circus for? For a moment you would notice more money coming in, because you would be the Capital of Culture, but what does this tittle really mean? The year passes, all the artists and experts leave and you are left with the same burnt out bulbs, the same old merchants on the Jewish market, the same old man with a limp. Those titles and events they never last long or matter too much. It’s all about some officials organizing a claque for themselves. This is what I think, that in the end we always end up alone where we were, not European enough, overpowered by our relationship with in the East. It’s something we hate, but also something that defines our identity. Let Wrocław be the Capital of Culture. I used to like this city a lot for its lack of pretentiousness. It was a melting pot of the West and the East. But five or six years ago it went nuts, just like Krakow. They started to believe that Wrocław is the best, that it’s almost Berlin. They even built themselves a lookalike fountain. It started to affect people who live there, it’s hard to talk to anyone in the streets now.

From the original Polish interview by Sylwia Hejno, Kurier Lubelski, 03.12.2011

citybooks authors interviewed in Lublin. written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: andrzej stasiuk, arnon grunberg, maciej rukasz, maud vanhauwaert, mauro pawlowski, witold szabłowski

On Sunday afternoon (15.30-16.30), there’ll be a chance to hear Simone Lenaerts, Anna Luyten en Bernard Dewulf in conversation. At the invitation of deBuren, they embarked on trips in Graz, Bucharest and Ostend respectively, to (re)discover each city in the context of the international residency project citybooks. During their stay, each author wrote a non-fiction short story about the city itself and their experiences there. But how do you approach such a project? And how do you describe the jumble of language, symbols and impressions that makes up a city? The three authors will present excerpts from their citybooks and discuss the challenges of living and reading, travelling and writing.

More from deBuren at Mind the Book
On Saturday, at 16:30, there’s the chance to attend the Mediacafé: Nieuws, dat verzin je niet (You don't make up the news). Karel van den Berg, Xandra Schutte (De Groene Amsterdammer), Wouter Verschelden (De Morgen), Piet Piryns (Knack) en Lisbeth Imbo (Radio 1) will take a look behind the scenes at the editorial workings of news and comment magazines. Fittingly, at 18:00, there will be a screening of DWARS, the aptly descriptive documentary about De Groene Amsterdammer.

Littattoo
At the deBuren stand, illustrator and cartoonist Jangojim will be performing as a literary tattooist. Have the title of your favourite book or fictional character drawn on your arm, or choose a citybook title and be adorned as ‘The Knifemaker of Tbilisi’! (In fact, you can start making your choices now at www.city-books.eu).

On Saturday, events kick off with a discussion with Arnon Grunberg. The Dutch author has recently returned from his citybooks residency in the Polish city of Lublin, and the text about his stay will appear online this spring. During Mind the Book he will be in conversation with Rob Riemen and Ian Buruma about Riemen’s book De eeuwige terugkeer van het fascisme (The Never-Ending Return of Fascism) (2010). And, on Sunday, Geert van Istendael and Peter Holvoet-Hanssen will also make appearances at Mind the Book. For deBuren they wrote, respectively, the Radioboek Three Poets or the Permanence of Poetry and the citybook The Mission in Ostend.

For more information and full listings, visit http://.mindthebook.be

citybooks at Mind the Book written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: anna luyten, bernard dewulf, geert vanistendael, mind the book, peter holvoet-hanssen, radio books, simone lenaerts

Ester Naomi Perquin’s account, titled Bucharest – A One-Person Travel Pack, recently appeared as a prepublication in Tirade. The original Dutch language version is now also available online to read and listen to on the citybooks website, and the English translation is available as webtext and e-book. From April the citybook will also be published in French and Romanian.

The original Romanian version of Adrian Schiop’s citybook Travesti is already online, and is currently being translated into French by Jan H. Mysjkin. This poet and translator has already translated a number of texts for deBuren, and in October 2011 was awarded the translator’s prize at the Festival International Poesis te Satu Mare in Romania. On the 15th of March he’ll present his work as part of the Donderdagen van de Poezië (Poetry Thursdays) initiative in Antwerpen.

Photo: Christian Binder

Ester Naomi Perquin writes citybook 'Bucharest - A One-Person Travel Pack' written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: adrian schiop, anna luyten, boekarest, christian binder, ester naomi perquin, jaap faber, răzvan radulescu

2012/02/23 Hangman

Places
One of the places that I could visit in Lublin was the “Hangman’s House”, which is described as a mysterious place in the center of the city, the house of the town’s hangman. I went to the Dlugosza Street where the hangman’s house was supposed to be. I noticed a school, but I didn’t see anything that resembled a hangman’s house. There were lots of pupils. I didn’t feel like asking them: “Excuse me, but where is the hangman’s house?”

2012/02/26 Obsession

Grandchildren
“I’m as fond of waitresses as you are,” the journalist said. “Why do you think are we so obsessed by waitresses?” “Well,” I answered, “I’m not sure if it’s an obsession. But yes, I've been fond of waitresses since the day I set foot in a restaurant. A waitress brings us food and drinks. She resembles the mother who used to bring us food and drinks as well. In general the waitress is in some sort of uniform. The mother is never in uniform. The waitress combines the best of two worlds, she is not waiting for grandchildren but she keeps us alive.” “This is it,” the journalist said. The journalist looked genuinely happy.

2012/02/27 Back

Too long
This morning I went back to Majdanek --this time with my godson and his mother. “They keep Zyklon B behind glass near the gas chamber,” the mother of my godson said. I did see the gas chamber, but I didn’t manage to see the Zyklon B. Although it was snowing I didn’t want to stay inside for too long.

Arnon Grunberg blogs on: www.arnongrunberg.com/blog

Arnon Grunberg blogs about Lublin (4) written by Arnon Grunberg in: citybooks news

Tags: arnon grunberg, blog, lublin

Those who are keen to get a sense of Thomas Gunzig’s writing in advance can discover his citybook La Réserve about Charleroi at www.city-books.eu. Gunzig spent two weeks in residence in the industrial town, where a forgotten toothbrush prompted a strange and distinctly foreign quest... The English translation The Reservation is also available online, as is the Dutch version Het reservaat. Alongside his citybook, Gunzig has also written the Radio Book La Gambas for deBuren, as well as De belangrijkste uivinding ter wereld (The Most Important Invention in the World), a Radio Book for children.

Besides this, you can also listen to and download a Radio Book by Josse De Pauw. His text Narcissus Flycatcher, recounts the tale of Narcissus Vliegenvanger, who, after a rather confusing dream, pursues his female next-door-neighbour on a journey to Japan…

Manu Riche is one of Belgium’s foremost documentary filmmakers, and his works include Striptease and Hoge Bomen, amongst many others. On Saturday March 3rd he’ll appear at Cinema Zuid during IDFA on Tour, the film festival’s exciting best-of showcase. The special event will include, alongside other topics, a debate about contemporary documentaries. You’ll find more information at: www.deburen.eu/nl/programma/detail/idfa-on-tour-cinema-zuid.

Image © ElsVandeKerckhove
Photo © Danny Willems

Josse De Pauw impresses in a new theatre piece scripted by Thomas Gunzig written by deBuren in: Notes from the underground

Tags: josse de pauw, maciej rukasz, radio books, thomas gunzig

What’s more, there is a whole range of newly translated citybooks available to read and download, including texts by Simone Lenaerts, Thomas Gunzig, Caroline Lamarche, Goce Smilevski, Werner Schandor and Jeroen van Rooij.

Translations
Belgian author Simone Lenaerts wrote a text about Graz, in which she came face-to-face with ghosts of the past. This citybook is now online in the vernacular Austrian German, titled Wie ein Wimpernschlag. The series of poems by Onno Kosters about Graz are also available in German, and free for download as Schwerkraft und Gegengewicht. In the meantime, English translations of citybooks by Austrian writers Werner Schandor (Freedom of the Heart), Andrea Stift (I do not live here) and Milena Michiko Flašar (Farewell), also arrived at www.city-books.eu, fresh from Graz.

In other news, Howard Curtis brilliantly translated the black humour of Thomas Gunzig’s citybook about Charleroi into English in The Reservation. The English versions of the citybook by Caroline Lamarche about her days in ‘the Black Country’ of Charleroi and Jeroen van Rooij’s text about Chartres, Labyrinths, are now both online, too.

And, while you could already discover Nikola Madzirov’s poems and the texts of Goce Smilevski and the young writer Irena Cvetkovic in Macedonian and Albanian, these citybooks about Skopje are now also available in English. The translations into Dutch and French are well underway.

Finally, a tip for music lovers: Adrian Schiop has written a citybook about Bucharest, Travesti, and although this text is currently only available in the original Romanian, there is a world of Romanian music to be discovered through the links in the webtext!

Photo: Joost Zwagerman © Peter Boer

Listen to Joost Zwagerman audiobook for citybooks Sheffield written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: andrea stift, caroline lamarche, goce smilevski, jeroen van rooij, joost zwagerman, milena m. flašar, simone lenaerts, thomas gunzig, werner schandor

2012/02/22 Lunch

CIA
This afternoon, I had coffee at Grand Hotel Lublinianka with a theatre director who plans to stage my play “Our Pope” in Lublin.
An interpreter was present as well.
We spoke about the pope, Guantánamo Bay, CIA prisons in Poland and conservatism.
After approximately an hour the meeting was over and together with my girlfriend I walked to my favorite lunch café in Lublin, café Vanilla.

2012/02/20 Key

Capricious
On Sunday, an acquaintance and I wanted to visit the Jewish cemetery in Lublin.
We went to a yeshiva to pick up the keys, but the guard at the yeshiva refused to give us the keys.
When my acquaintance asked “why?”the guard answered. “I don’t feel like giving you the keys.”
My acquaintance was upset, but I’m used to the capriciousness of guards.

Arnon Grunberg blogs on www.arnongrunberg.com/blog

Arnon Grunberg blogs about Lublin (3) written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: arnon grunberg, blog, lublin

2012/02/18 - Cloakroom

Visitors
This afternoon I visited The Lublin Province Museum and The Chapel of the Holy Trinity. A uniformed man forced me to leave my jacket at the cloakroom. I suffered from the cold, but modest suffering can be uplifting.
I counted more guards than visitors in the museum. At exactly 3 p.m. a middle-aged lady opened the door to the chapel. I spent thirty minutes in the chapel with the middle-aged woman and a Polish couple.
My plan was to visit the synagogue after the chapel, but it had started snowing. Instead of going to the synagogue I went to hotel Europa.
“Do you have a bar?” I asked a lady at the front desk.
“Go one floor down,” she said.
I went to the basement, but there was no bar. There was a bathroom, and some offices. Finally I found the bar in a dark corner on the ground floor. There were many waiters and waitresses, but I was the only guest.

2012/02/18 - Trolley bus

A short drive
“To Majdanek Museum, please,” I said to the taxi driver. For some reason, I found it inappropriate to say: “To Majdanek, please.”
But the taxi driver answered: “Majdanek.”
It was a short drive, less than ten minutes from the city center. As a friend had told me, Majdanek is basically on the outskirts of Lublin. The taxi driver drove me right to the entrance of the camp. There was no guard, no ticket needed to be bought.
I encountered six people in the camp, which was preserved remarkably well. I walked to the mausoleum. On November 3, 1943 18.000 Jews were executed by firing squad on the place where now the mausoleum is.
The cold wind started bothering me; I left the camp and took a trolley bus back to the city.

Arnon Grunberg blogs on www.arnongrunberg.com/blog

Arnon Grunberg blogs about Lublin (2) written by Arnon Grunberg in: citybooks news

Tags: arnon grunberg, blog, lublin

2012/02/16 - Twisted Sex

Swanky

Two ladies who are more or less responsible for my stay in Lublin invited me for coffee at Gallery Café. A charming photographer was present as well. The espresso was good; we talked about movies.
The photographer said: “There is something strange with titles in Poland. Do you know how the movie “Dirty Dancing” is called in Polish? “Twisted Sex” – bizarre isn’t it?”
“Surreal,” I answered. “What’s twisted sex?”

Shortly after this conversation a middle-aged man who appeared to be drunk entered the café. He was holding a plastic bag, which was dripping heavily. The bag and the man smelled like beer. The man started an angry conversation with the waitress; my Polish is not very good but the man referred to the waitress as a prostitute.
“He calls her a hooker, doesn’t he?” I asked.
“Well,” one of my friends said. “He is drunk and he is not in a very good mood. He is complaining about several things. This is really unusual, we never see drunk people in this swanky place.” Then my friends from Lublin escorted me out of the lovely café.

Arnon Grunberg blogs on www.arnongrunberg.com/blog

Arnon Grunberg blogs about Lublin (1) written by Arnon Grunberg in: citybooks news

Tags: arnon grunberg, blog, lublin