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

The translation from Dutch into English of Abdelkader Benali’s citybook Beeld van een gewapende strijder op een paard, in which the author records his stay in Skopje, is the result of a smooth collaboration in a virtual world. Students of Dutch at four British universities worked together on one translation under the umbrella of Virtual Dutch, an educational initiative involving four UK universities where Dutch is taught.

The students of UCL, Sheffield (partner of citybooks), Nottingham, and Cambridge tackled the task by first working in small groups on their own part of the text and then fusing their efforts under the inspiring supervision of literary translator Jonathan Reeder. During his two-week residency in Sheffield, Abdelkader Benali himself was at hand too to offer advice and inside information. Not only Sheffield students could consult the author: Virtual Dutch uses an online communication platform to facilitate the (at times heated) discussion. The online activity was complimented with two plenary videoconferences.

‘Warrior on a Horse’, the result of this effort, can be read and downloaded as free e-book on this website.

Abdelkader Benali with some of the students during a videoconference in Sheffield
Photo's: Henriettte Louwerse

Students translate citybook of Abdelkader Benali written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: abdelkader benali, sheffield, skopje, translations

By now Kosters is an experienced citybooksauthor - he stayed in Utrecht before, where he wrote the citybook All and Nothing. During his second residency in Graz he read the poems he wrote in Utrecht, and an Austrian actor read the German translation. You can watch some video's of this evening here.

Onno Kosters writes poems about Graz written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: graz, onno kosters, poetry, utrecht

On poetry day deBuren was present with citybooks in the Huis van de Poëzie (House of Poetry) in Utrecht. Over 600 people visited the ‘live poetry-anthology that you can walk through', a successful edition of this yearly festival. The citybooks presentations of Erik Lindner and Ester Naomi Perquin caught the attentive ears of quite a few interested visitors.

Charleroi
Poet and poetry critic Erik Lindner read from his citybook Charleroi. 10 poems. He spoke about his residency, and his ambition to catch the city in words without prejudice. To conclude he also read a poem about Ostend, inspired by a film by Henri Storck. During Lindners reading the photo's of  Sander Buyck were presented, who also looked for small but meaningfull moments in Charleroi.

Boekarest
Ester Naomi Perquin read for a most interested audience fragments of her brand new citybook Boekarest. Een eenpersoonsreisadvies (Bucharest. A one person travel advice). The poet made her first steps as a writer of prose with this citybook, and hinted at future plans to write more in this style of poetic prose. The photo's by Romanian photographer Christian Binder could be enjoyed during this presentation. He aimed his camera at the overload of billboards in Bucharest. Perquin's citybook is being translated into English, French and Romanian as we speak, and will be published online soon.

Foto's © Marianne Hommersom

citybooks reading in the House of Poetry written by deBuren in: Notes from the underground

Her work is characterized by poetical observations and sensitive descriptions, and her style has been well received since her debut in 2008.

Mit klarer Sprache erzählt Milena Michiko Flašar ihre aus Trauer und Befreiung gewebte Geschichte, erzählt von einem Aufbruch in geografisches Neuland und, in bester Selbstfindungsmanier, zum Ich. „Okaasan“ ist nach dem Debüt „Ich bin“ die zweite Talentprobe einer eigenständigen jungen Literatur. (Paul Jandl in Die Welt over Okasaan)

Flašar's latest novel is set in Japan, and deals with the relationship between a Kikikomori (a hermit) and a seemingly common office clerk, who nevertheless carries a story within him. Peter Pisa of Die Kurir awarded the novel with four stars and wrote about the characters and the author: ‘Und alle, alle möchte man umarmen – inklusive Milena Michiko Flašar, die wie "ihr" Hikikomori aus dem Schatten gesprungen ist.’ Die Presse calls Flašar a ‘junge, begabte Autorin’ and names Ich nannte ihn Krawatte a ‘beckettsche Grundstimmung’.

Win!
deBuren, in coöperation with Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, has 5 copies to give away of Ich nannte ihn Krawatte. To win a copy, send the answer to the following question to info@deburen.eu: what are the original German titles of the two citybooks that Milena Michiko Flašar wrote for deBuren?

citybooks
If you would like to enjoy Flašars work in its English, Dutch, or French translation you can read or listen to her citybooks about Ostend and her hometown Graz via www.city-books.eu. The original German audiobooks, read by the author herself, can be listened to or downloaded for free on this site too.

From Ich nannte ihn Krawatte:
Über die einfachsten Dinge möchte ich schreiben. Darüber, zum Beispiel, wie wir jetzt hier an diesem Tisch, uns gegenüber, nach zweieinhalb Jahren, einander von Dingen erzählen, über die man normalerweise schweigt.

Win Milena Michiko Flašar's New Book! written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: graz, milena m. flašar, ostend

House of Poetry Utrecht

deBuren will be present again this year in the House of Poetry in Utrecht, where we will have an entire citybooks room at our disposition. Dutch poets Erik Lindner and Ester Naomi Perquin will read aloud their citybooks about Charleroi and Bucharest for the first time. Lindner's citybook Charleroi. 10 poems is already available on this website in its English and French translations.

As part of some of the other activities in the House of Poetry, quite a few authors that contributed to the Radio Books project will be in attendance: Kees ’t Hart (The Pigeon), Ruth Lasters (The connector - a modern fairy tale), Jan Lauwereyns (Song of the Lake), Anne Vegter (Odin is asleep), and Joke van Leeuwen (The fork as human). You can listen to all of their Radio Books online, free of charge.

City Poets

Antwerp
Peter Holvoet-Hanssen is saying goodbye to Antwerp, where he was the city's poet for the last two years. He published the book Antwerpen/Oostende containing some of his best city- and sea poems, drawings, and photo's. His citybook about Oostende is also included in this publication. More information about the festivities can be found through www.antwerpenboekenstad.be and www.ccdeurne.be.

The new city poet in Antwerp will be Bernard Dewulf. For deBuren he wrote the Radio Book The Back, and the citybook Snippets from Ostend.

Genk
In Genk a new city poet has also been inaugurated. Mauro Pawlowski will take over the reigns from Maarten Inghels. On the 25th of January a Night of Poetry will be organized in the local library, filled with poetry, music, and performances. This spring Mauro will go to Lublin to write a citybook about the Polish city.

Gent
Peter Verhelst (who wrote the Radio Book Legion) will present his 'Book of Dreams' to the press and the general public, concluding his period as city poet 2009-2011.

More Radio Books on www.radiobooks.eu

More information about poetry day via www.gedichtendag.com

Poetry Day: Poetry Everywhere written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: bernard dewulf, erik lindner, ester naomi perquin, mauro pawlowski, peter holvoet-hanssen, radio books

My two weeks in Chartres have come to an end. My mission: write a citybook about the city with the cathedral, an initiative of deBuren. I have written about my experiences here and this is my third and last episode. The actualy citybook will follow later.

Chartres on crutches (3) : old and new filmglory

Guess who showed up at the theater nearly a few days ago? Pierre Richard, the star from Le grand blond ave une chaussure noire (1972) and La Chèvre (1981). Let’s have some fun, I thought. I was looking forward to a refreshing dip into that deep pool of nostalgia. But alas, alas. All we got were some cheesy jokes and a very meager presence on  stage. The audience laughed, but not out loud. They applauded politely and afterwards waited for the star in the foyer. Fortunately, a reputation like that isn’t quicky damaged by one less-than-stellar performance.

On Saturday I was expected in the local Médiathèque for a talk. In the presence of a very interested audience, the host, Thierry Plantegenet, asked me several pungent questions on Europe, literature, Chartres, plaster, and crutches. Next, an actor arrived at the scene. He had chosen one of my texts to read to the audience: an account of my nightly adventures in the Antwerp Hôtel du Commerce (described on the first few pages of my novel O vermiljoenen spleet! about French erotic literature). The crowd listened intently, chuckled at certain fragments, and their applause was heartwarming. Indeed, Thomas Marceul fervently internalized my erotic contemplations. Actually, I had planned to read the piece myself, but no, I was told clearly before the talk, they had hired an actor to do so. And behold, suddenly my tekst took on a different meaning. It turned out to be very interesting being one's own audience.

To conclude my residency I went to see Intouchables, the hit film in France right now. Box office numbers reaching the likes of La grande vadrouille and Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis. Forget those statistics, though, and just enjoy the funny and moving story. But definitely go see it, no doubt about that. What you probably won't see, though, are the commercials from Chartres. A dozen local merchants advertise in this cinema. It reminded me of my youth, when once, during a commercial for our local supermarket Driesen, the newly famous locals ran to the screen of cinema Funkis in Herentals. That was a long time ago, but Chartres was relentless in taking me back to the quiet region of my youth. The past never ends.

It has been good here. Between the dead and the living, between the past and the present. Between the cathedral and my crutches. Between glass windows and plaster. Au revoir. Au grand plaisir de se revoir.

* A cult scene from La Chèvre, with Gérard Dépardieu and Pierre Richard.

** The trailer of Intouchables

Photo: southern tower of the cathedral

Bart van Loo blogs on http://bartvanloo.blogspot.com/

Bart van Loo blogs about Chartres (#3) written by Bart van Loo in: citybooks news

Tags: bart van loo, blog, chartres

Presentation in Ostend
The new book by Holvoet-Hanssen will officially be presented in Ostend on January 21. His seventeenth city poem Aangespoeld in Oostende will also be inaugurated that day, and there are several festivities to celebrate the poets arrival in Ostend. For more information and the program of the festivities: www.vrijstaat-o.be. To read more about the city poems, check out www.antwerpenboekenstad.be.

Activities in Antwerp
The writer will also be presenting his book Antwerpen/Oostende in Antwerp's City Hall, on the Day of Poetry on January the 26th. At 14:00 (2 p.m.) Holvoet-Hanssen will officially resign as the city's poet, and Bernard Dewulf will be inaugurated as the new city poet. That same evening at 19:00 (7 p.m.) Holvoet-Hanssen will host a book signing at Salle Jeanne Simons, before his farewell show with www.madametoutou.be starting at 20:00 (8 p.m.). More information and tickets via www.ccdeurne.be and www.antwerpenboekenstad.be

On January the 30th, Holvoet-Hanssen will present his eighteenth and final city poem for Antwerp at 14:00 (2 p.m.) at the Middelheim Hospital. And last but not least, the poet will attend another book signing on the 4th of February from 15:00 to 18:00 (3 to 6 p.m.) in bookshop De Groene Waterman.

Bookpresentation by Peter Holvoet-Hanssen written by deBuren in: Notes from the underground

Tags: bernard dewulf, ostend, peter holvoet-hanssen, vrijstaat o.

Chartres on crutches (2): “You look like a writer”

Last week I went to see Le repas des fauves in the local theatre, a most beautiful venue from the 19th century. This much praised play attempts to be a mixture of a boulevard farce and existential drama, but it seems to remain stuck in the former. The audience laughed a lot, and now and again even I could manage a grin. Afterwards the crowd went wild, and people continued to applaud until the actors almost had to signal them that it was quite enough. Back home I continued reading The Magus by John Fowles, a novel by a British author, set in Greece. Just to make sure I don’t ‘Frenchise’ completely.

My hand regularly says 'crack', causing me to grab my crutches again quickly. Yes, the iron handshake of the waiter in Le bistrot de Paris remains fascinating. Otherwise, he’s all convivialité, though. He's able to sell people on a pancakes with their coffee so smoothly you'd think it’s on the house. The bill teaches you differently. But then there's that smile again. And of course you pay, without accepting his handshake. There are limits.

“You look like a writer”, he says “Yes, Lorant Deutsch, right?”. He nods. It’s not the first time this has happened to me. I don’t tell him that I once considered writing a history of France based on the subway stations in Paris. Deutsch was faster, and wrote Métronome, a big bestseller. But history keeps finding its way back to me, and years later quite unexpectedly ‘a songbook history of France’ appeared from my pen.

And still my hunger isn’t satisfied. In Le bistrot de Paris in Chartres I reread my first sketches for my citybook, and next I dive into the Histoire de France by Jacques Bainville. It's a classic from 1924, that despite the obvious love of the author for the monarchy is an absolute masterpiece. More thrilling than a novel, and much more lucid. Having filled over a thousand pages with French literature in my trilogy Eten! Lezen! Vrijen!, I’m now getting more and more fascinated by the history of my southern neighbours. My literary journeys turn out te be a good compass. History and literature. Insights and beauty. And excitement. And sometimes all of it together. It doesn’t get much better than this. With or without crutches.

Photo: the veil of the Holy Virgin, since 876 (!) in the collection of the cathedral, a gift from the grandson of Charlemagne.

Bart van Loo blogs on http://bartvanloo.blogspot.com/

Bart van Loo blogs about Chartres (#2) written by Bart van Loo in: citybooks news

Tags: bart van loo, chartres

We are happy to see that our facebook fans are following us constantly and are looking forward to the publishing of the e-books and the audio books, not only for Skopje, but also for the other cities. So far we’ve published citybooks from our three Macedonian authors in Macedonian, and Nikola Madzirov’s in English translation, but soon you will be able to read and listen all five stories for Skopje in Macedonian, Albanian, Dutch, French and English and see the photographs and watch the videos to get a full 'Skopje feeling'.

In the summer of 2011, we had a wonderful time with Saskia de Coster and Abdelkader Benali, when they visited us for two weeks to get to know Skopje and to get to live in it for a while, the way we do. During their stay, they not only wandered Skopje’s little streets, they also tasted our delicious food, enjoyed our world famous hospitality, and discussed Balkan history as well as the differences and similarities between all of the different cultures in our city and the western culture. They also got to know our friends and made new connections along with us, thanks to their open-minded attitude and great personalities.  We had a wonderful time together and it made for a lovely citybooks event.

The specific event I'm referring to took place in one of Skopje’s most interesting bars: Menada. Along with Macedonian writers Nikola Madzirov and Irena Cvetkovic, Saskia de Coster and Abdelkader Benali were presented to the Skopje audience. The writers shared their impressions and thoughts about our city and their ideas for the citybooks, reading stories, poems, and essays about the urban environment in general and the city of Skopje in particular.

We present you a short video of the said event.

(Frosina Stojkovska and Olgica Stankovska, citybooks coordinators in Skopje)

Notes from the Underground (11) written by Frosina Stojkovska and Olgica Stankovska in: Notes from the underground

Tags: abdelkader benali, facebook, frosina stojkovska, goce smilevski, irena cvetkovic, nikola madzirov, olgica stankovska, saskia de coster, skopje, video, youtube

citybooks will also be present again this year, reminding you that a citybook can of course be a story or an essay, but can also be a piece of poetry. Last year the first edition of citybooks Utrecht was presented to mayor Aleid Wolfsen. This year two Dutch poets who have recently returned from their residencies will be presenting their brand new citybooks.

deBuren has a citybooksroom on the first floor of the House of Poetry, where at 20:30 Erik Lindner will present the ten poems he wrote in Charleroi, the industrial city in the south of Belgium. At 22:00 Ester Naomi Perquin will read from her citybook about the Romanian capital Bucharest, adding some literary travel-advice to give to the audience.

One will not only be able to hear the citybooks be read out loud, but you will also be able to see citybooks images. Photo’s by Sander Buyck (Charleroi) and Christian Binder (Bucharest) will be on display. Of course, the citybooks about Utrecht from Astrid Lampe and Onno Kosters are still available as free audiobooks, e-books and texts in English, Dutch and French.

For more information about the wide range of activities during this festive evening check out www.huisvandepoezie.nl.

Huis van de Poëzie : a live poetry-anthology you can walk through written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: astrid lampe, bucharest, charleroi, christian binder, erik lindner, ester naomi perquin, onno kosters, sander buyck, utrecht

The Italian author Davide Longo wrote a citybook about Utrecht in 2010, titled Master Utrecht (Il Maestro Utrecht). By means of the network that has been formed between the various citybookscities, Longo could travel back to the Low Countries again in 2011 for a second residency.  This time he went to Charleroi, following in the footsteps of many thousands of his fellow countrymen who in the first half of the twentieth century came to Charleroi to work in the mines.

The resulting citybook ‘Interview n° 6 (Intervista n° 6) can now be read and downloaded as e-book in the original Italian version, as well as in its Dutch and French translations. The audiobooks, as well as the English translation are in full production and will be published online soon.

In the story, an interview between the I-character and Clarisse, slowly allows us to discover what happened in the past that now brought these two persons together.

Author Davide Longo publishes second citybook written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: charleroi, davide longo, utrecht

Chartres on crutches (1) : looking for inspiration

I pace stiffly through the innercity. My foot is in a cast. That wasn't planned at all. Once you start paying attention to it, though, there are many kind of crutches in this world. My pace is slow, but I'm hoping it'll broaden my gaze all the more. I read a lot and get a taste of the athmosphere. I have already gotten into the habit of happily greeting Yves, the beggar on his fixed spot near the cathedral, and I let myself be toured around town by local experts. So far that has resulted in a visit to the same bar every time. The waiter there has an iron handshake. I might return home with my hand in a cast as well.

I've been sent here by deBuren to write a citybook. On their website it says "It's clear that Van Loo knows the ins and outs of the country and culture of France, and we’re very curious to find out how he will approach the ‘city of light and perfume’." Well, I'm curious to find this out myself.

Not giving into the many 'but if's', I limp onwards through the streets, and meet many dead people on my journey. Jean Moulin, Charles Péguy, Hendrik IV and a handfull of revolutionairies that ended up under the guillotine. Chatres is a damned city, despite its cathedral. Much war, much violence, often forgotten. I find my way in this labyrinth. Peek into lives that I never knew about, lead through places I've never been. And I wonder how I'll ever be able to write a consistent story about this. Just a few moments ago, I ran into Proust. Not a madeleine, but a cathedral of a description. I sit down, think, and make tea.

Bart van Loo blogs on http://bartvanloo.blogspot.com/

Bart van Loo blogs about Chartres (#1) written by Bart van Loo in: citybooks news

Tags: bart van loo, chartres

My job at deBuren consists mainly of inventing new programs on the subjects of (European) politics, literature, and films. When it comes to the citybooks project, my main responsibility is the coordination of our citybooks programs in Chartres, Charleroi, Lublin, and Tbilisi. Our partner organisations in Tbilisi, the Dutch Embassy and city council, have decided to publish the citybooks as a book. The publication will be bilingual: English and Georgian.

This means that I am currently in close contact with our designer, to make sure that all the texts and images will end up displayed beautifully, and most importantly, correctly. This is more easily said than done, as the Georgian alphabet - in Georgian: ქართული დამწერლობა – looks nothing like our own. The Georgian language is one of the many  Kartvelian, or South Caucasian, languages - a group of languages spoken by a very limited number of people. Georgian, which counts about four million native speakers, is by far the largest of these Kartvelian languages that still exist today. There's a long standing literary tradition in Georgian that goes back for more than 15 centuries, which makes it one of the oldest, still living, languages in the world.

The Georgian script also proved to be a challenge for the designers of our citybooks website, as it seemed that the back-end of the website was not able to work with this foreign script. Fortunately, the problem was solved and the citybooks Tbilisi are now also available in the georgeous Georgian script. Perhaps you would like to listen to a fragment of one of the Georgian podcasts, while looking at the accompanying text in Georgian - just to get a feel for the language.

If all goes well, the design for the citybooks Tblisi book will be off to the printer soon. Once they are done, all of the books will be delivered at the Dutch Embassy in Tbilisi, who will distribute the books throughout the city and make the project and its writers available to all of those Tblisians who do not yet have access to the Internet.

(Xander Stroo, program officer deBuren and citybooks coordinator)

Notes from the Underground (10) written by Xander Stroo in: Notes from the underground

Tags: charleroi, chartres, georgian, language, lublin, notes from the underground, tbilisi, xander stroo

In February her exhibition Trekvogels / Oiseaux voyageurs ('migrant birds') will open in the cultural center België in Hasselt, presenting an audiovisual installation she made at request of the Museum of Photography in Charleroi. During the opening on February the 11th (2012) the soundtrack of the installation will be performed live for the first time by musician Jürgen De Blonde (Köhn, BE), Rebecca Lenaerts herself, and actor Laurent Bonnet.

For Trekvogels/Oiseaux voyageurs, Lenaerts worked with a collection of slides that were donated to the Museum of Photography in Charleroi many years ago. The photos are the documentation of twelve journeys of a couple travelling through Western Europe, somewhere between the fifties and the seventies. On these very typical holiday pictures (landscapes, monuments, touristic highlights, …) we see the same woman posing for the camera every time. She smiles. She is on vacation. But now she is dead. Through these images Lenaerts tells a story of being on the road, about the search for the ultimate location, and the way people tend to claim the world through photography.

Trekvogels / Oiseaux voyageurs creates a dialogue between sound and image, between what we hear and what we think we're seeing, between observations and interpretations, between dream and reality. The installation has previously been exhibited in the Museum of Photography (2011), partner of citybooks Charleroi.

The music and sounds accompanying the installation are created by audio artist Jürgen De Blonde. During the opening on February the 11th he will, for the first time, bring a live performance of the soundtrack. The texts will be performed by actors Rebecca Lenaerts and Laurent Bonnet.

Details:
Opening: saturday February 11, 2012-01-11
Start: 21:30 Live premiére of Trekvogels/Oiseaux voyageurs. Before this, starting at 20:00 ‘Geen Helden’ by Sofie Palmers and Benny Ceuppens.
Tickets (for both performances) 8 euro /10 euro / 9 euro / 11 euro

Trekvogels/Oiseaux voyageurs will be exhibited from 17-25 February as audio visual installation. The exhibition is open (free entrance) on fridays and saturdays, from 19:00.

More information:
www.kunstencentrumbelgie.be - www.devrouwdie.com - www.kohn.studiomuscle.com

Idea, artistic performance and text: Rebecca Lenaerts
Sound, music and mixing: Köhn (Jürgen De Blonde)
Actors: Rebecca Lenaerts and Laurent Bonnet
Cassette samples: IICADOM (The International Institute for The Conservation, Archiving and Distribution of Other people’s Memories)
Photo’s: Le Musée de la photographie à Charleroi
Coproduction: FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen, Le Musée de la photographie à Charleroi, FLACC (workplace for visual artists), MUS-E Belgium.

Rebecca Lenaerts presents ‘Trekvogels/oiseaux voyageurs’ live in Hasselt written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: charleroi, photography, rebecca lenaerts, sheffield

It’s a coming and going of citybooks authors lately in Chartres. This month Belgian author Bart Van Loo moved into the citybooks residence close to the famous cathedral.

Monday the ninth of January Van Loo arrived in Chartres for his two week residency. Van Loo is well known for his deeply rooted love of France, French culture, and history, and his oeuvre reflects this love. His last book Chanson: een gezongen geschiedenis van Frankrijk (2011; Chanson: a history of France in songs), for example, has already turned out to be very successful. Among his earlier publications are Als kok in Frankrijk, literaire recepten (As a cook in France, literary recepies), and O vermiljoenen spleet, over seks en erotiek in de Franse literatuur (on sex and eroticism in French literature).

It's clear that Van Loo knows the ins and outs of the country and culture of France, and we’re very curious to find out how he will approach the ‘city of light and perfume’ for his citybook about Chartres. On January the 21st, he will be present at a ‘Rencontre’ in the Médiathèque de l’Apostrophe in Chartres, and we are hoping he will drop some hints on his ideas then. In any case, you can expect more news from Chartres soon on www.city-books.eu!

Goce Smilevski, who already wrote a citybook about his hometown Skopje, stayed in the French town last December. He was very enthousiastic about his experiences in Chartres, which becomes clear from an interview down with him for the local television network in Chartres. You can watch the interview here and hear Smilevski talking about getting to know the city and it’s inhabitants, ‘les Chartrains’.

The medieval character of the city much appealed to the writer. If you're able to read French, you can get acquinted with Smilevski’s work soon, not just via the translations of his citybooks about Skopje and Chartres, but also through the publication of the French translation of his awarded novel Sigmund Freud’s sister. English speakers will have to wait a bit (but not much) longer, unfortunately.

photo Bart Van Loo © Koen Broos

Bart Van Loo in Chartres for citybooks written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: bart van loo, chartres, goce smilevski

© Henriette Louwerse

Translation project
Benali is currently writing a second citybook, this time about Sheffield. During his residency in this city he was closely involved with the Virtual Dutch Translation Project, a cooperation between the University of Sheffield, partner of citybooks, and the universities of Cambridge, Nottingham, and London. Currently, 35 students are translating Beeld van een gewapende strijder op een paard from Dutch into English. Literary translator Jonathan Reeder is coordinating the project. Benali also coached the students during his residency in Sheffield.

More stories about Skopje or Sheffield? Listen for example to the audiobooks of Helen Mort or Ágnes Lehóczky, read by the authors themselves, or read the citybook of Macedonian author Nikola Madzirov, already available in English translation too! Discover all the stories and cities via www.city-books.eu.

Now online: citybook about Skopje by Abdelkader Benali written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: abdelkader benali, sheffield, skopje, translations

citybooks | Lublin © Maciej Rukasz

While we're in the midst of finishing up our last chores of the year, the citybooks team and employees of deBuren would like to wish all of you, our partners, friends, and fans, wonderful holidays and a very happy and creative new year. Like this enigmatic picture of Lublin by Maciej Rukasz, we hope you'll start the new year with just a touch of magic.

We'd also like to remind you that of course our website will remain open 24/7 during the holiday period and we recommend you download some of our free audiobooks, webtexts or e-books to fill up those quiet, comfortable evenings on the couch (or train, plane, or wherever you are going or are at). One of our personal 'wintery' favorites is Stefan Hertmans Knifemaker of Tbilisi, available as a podcast, e-book, and webtext. For now, we'd like to leave you with this little clip of Nikola Madzirov (citybooks Skopje) who visited us in our Brussels office last week and told us a bit about himself and his fascination with the city.

Happy holidays and see you in 2012!

- Dorian, Willem, Xander, Sarah, Marianne, Carine, Ann, Miet, Ronald, Jenny, Debbie, and Anna Denise

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Notes from the Underground (9) written by deBuren in: Notes from the underground

Tags: 2011, 2012, citybooks, deburen, free downloads, happy new year, holidays, lublin, maciej rukasz, nikola madzirov, notes from the underground, stefan hertmans, tbilisi

Just before the Christmas holidays we have received some brand new citybooks and uploaded them onto the website. Dutch author Jeroen van Rooij wrote Labyrinten in Chartres, a story about observing and being observed, about wandering and getting lost.

The citybook by Simone Lenaerts is also finished. She wrote Een schijn van tijd in the Austrian city of Graz, where she cannot escape ghosts from the past.

Also from Graz are the original audiobooks by Austrian authors Milena M. Flašar, Werner Schandor, and Andrea Stift. From Sheffield we have received the original English version of the poem by Helen Mort, The God of Gaps, read by the author herself.
Did you know that now, besides downloading citybooks for free through our website, you can also get them (for free) through iTunes? This way you can, for example, listen to Stefan Hertmans' citybook about Tbilisi in Dutch, French, English, and Georgian. You can even subscribe to have new podcasts in your favorite language downloaded automatically onto your computer or mobile device!

The athmospheric photographs by Maciej Rukasz give us an unconventional view on the Polish city of Lublin. The young photographer walked around the suburbs of the city he grew up in and photographed locations he knew years before and had since hardly changed at all.

At the beginning of 2012 new writer residencies get started in Lublin, with Dutch author Arnon Grunberg, Belgian artists Mauro Pawlowski, and Maud Vanhauwaert, and the Polish authors Andrzej Stasiuk and Witold Szablowski.

More exciting prospects: Abdelkader Benali on Sheffield and Skopje, Davide Longo on Charleroi, Ester Naomi Perquin and Adrian Schiop on Bucharest, Marcin Wroński on Chartres, Onno Kosters about Graz, pictures from Skopje and Chartres, and more podcasts and translations of citybooks that you can already discover as webtexts, ànd a new Belgian city participating in the project.

Discover all this and more via www.city-books.eu and stay up to date via citybooks on facebook, twitter and iTunes.

On to 2012 with new citybooks written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: andrea stift, helen mort, jeroen van rooij, maciej rukasz, milena m. flašar, simone lenaerts, werner schandor

As from today, there is also an extra channel for 'Other Languages'. Here you can find the citybooks as audiobooks in Afrikaans, Italian, German, and soon also Georgian, Macedonian, Albanian and Polish.

Find citybooks with your iTunes programm, or have a look via these links:
Other languages
Dutch
English
French

One can subscribe for free to each of the podcast-channels, so you are automatically notified about new uploads of citybooks! This way you won’t miss out on any of the stories.

Of course you can also listen to and download all the podcasts via www.city-books.eu

citybooks in all languages in the iTunes store! written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: itunes, podcasts, translations

Madzirov won several prizes with his poems, including the most prestigious Macedonian award Miladinov Brothers and the European Hubert Burda Poetry Prize for poets born in Eastern Europe. His book (originally published in Macedonian as Преместен камен in 2007) was also translated into English, titled Relocated Stone. Read a review of the book here.

Last summer Madzirov took part in citybooks Skopje. The poems he wrote, inspired by his hometown, can be read in their original Macedonian version and in the English translation at www.city-books.eu. The translations into, Dutch, French and Albanian will be published online in the upcoming weeks.

Not only Madzirov’s citybook can be enjoyed, also texts by his fellow-Macedonian authors Irena Cvetkovic and Goce Smilevski (who collaborated with Marija Sarevska-Todorovska for his citybook about Skopje) are online in their original Macedonian versions. Smilevski is currently in residency in Chartres, where he’s writing a citybook about this city too.

Nikola Madzirov's poems successful in German written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: goce smilevski, irena cvetkovic, nikola madzirov, translations

In February 2012 Grunberg will go to Poland to write, as he will be taking part in the citybooks edition in Lublin. The other participants writing a citybook in this Polish edition are Belgian authors Mauro Pawlowski and Maud Vanhauwaert, and the Polish authors Witold Szablowski and Andrzej Stasiuk. The Lublin citybooks will be published in the spring of 2012 on www.city-books.eu as free audiobooks, webtexts and e-books.

‘Our Pope’ tells the story of Guillaume van Rompuy, a Flemish teacher of Dutch at the University. He has trouble finding a job in Flanders and, advised by his mother, leaves for Poland (since “life seems to be pretty cheap there”) to work at the University of Wroclaw. His girlfriend accompanies him. The result of the move is a total catastrophe. Van Rompuy and his girlfriend end up in a society that on the one hand wants to enjoy the fruits of capitalism, but on the other hand seems to long for communism, a deeply rooted nationalism, bureaucracy and longing for power. They get lost in a Kafkayan nightmare.

More information: www.demonty.be or www.wunderbaum.nl

Image © Mario Debaene

Arnon Grunberg about Poland: on stage now, and in citybooks soon! written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: arnon grunberg, citybooks, de monty, lublin, wunderbaum

On friday the 2nd of December the participants of the PETRA conference in Flagey, Brussels, had the opportunity to be introduced to the audio stories of deBuren. The literary translators attending this public event expressed great interest in the information we provided on our citybooks and Radio Books. People responded enthusiastically to our ambitious and unique literary project, and visitors were especially impressed by the fact that our citybooks are always available in at least three languages as free podcasts and e-books via www.city-books.eu. We make sure that each citybook is translated into Dutch, French and English, and in case the participating city has a different local language we also provide a translation into that language. So far you can enjoy these additional translations in Afrikaans (Grahamstown) and Georgian (Tbilisi). We will shortly add Albanian and Macedonian to this list for Skopje, German for Graz, Polish for Lublin (coming online soon), and Romanian for Bucharest!

(Miet Vanhassel, website and communication deBuren)

photo's © Marianne Hommersom

Notes from the underground (8) written by Miet Vanhassel in: Notes from the underground

Tags: citybooks, deburen, miet vanhassel, radio books, translations

deBuren

Comedian and host Rob Brydon, Students' University president Thom Arnold, University Registrar Philip Harvey and Chairman of Santander UK Lord Terence Burns.
(Photo provided by Charles Fox)

deBuren congratulates the University of Sheffield written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: award, sheffield

Last Friday, the Dutch author Ester Naomi Perquin spoke live from Bucharest on the VPRO radio show De Avonden. Perquin is currently completing her residency in Bucharest for citybooks. During the programme Perquin talked about her residency and read the last part of her course ‘Happiness’, which seems to be inspired by her stay in the Romanian capital. Perhaps it gives us a hint about the citybook she is writing in this city? Her citybook will be published early 2012 as a web text, e-book, and podcast on www.city-books.eu.

Curious? Listen to the programme De Avonden (in Dutch) here. Perquin talks from 12:57 until 27:30.

citybooks Bucharest is up and running. The authors are in residency, the website is being updated and the local partners Peter Oostveen from the Asociata Heritage and coordinator Jaap Faber (University of Bucharest) are making sure everything runs smoothly. While waiting for the citybooks texts by authors Anna Luyten, Ester Naomi Perquin, Jaap Faber, Adrian Schiop and Răzvan Radulescu, you can already enjoy the citybooks photos by Christian Binder on www.city-books.eu.

Ester Naomi Perquin talks about citybooks in VPRO De Avonden written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: bucharest, ester naomi perquin, vpro

PETRA

Find the detailed programm at www.petra2011.eu/events

Date: friday 2nd of December, 20:00 – 22:30
Location: Flagey, Place Sainte-Croix - 1050 Brussels
Tickets (for the entire evening) : € 10 / € 7 / €5 (groups)
More info and reservations: www.flagey.be / tel: 02 641 10 20

Audio stories by deBuren at the literary translation mini-fair of PETRA written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: citybooks, petra project, radio books, translations

Belgian author Chris van Camp was in Chartres last July for the first half of her citybooks residency. From the 14th until the 20th of November she returned to the city of ‘light and perfume’ for a second stint, this time with her citybook 32, Rue aux Juifs.

Van Camp finished her text, a dialogue between an elderly man and his young girlfriend, after her first stay, and deBuren asked Michel Perquy to translate it to French. This French version was performed on November 19th in the Mediathek l’Apostrophe in Chartres, by Thierry Plantegenet and Gwenaële Langlade.

Thierry Plantegenet is the director of Cultural Affairs for the city of Chartres, our local citybooks coordinator and an actor. Gwenaële Langlade is actress and director of the Théâtre du Labyrinthe in Chartres. The duo brought a succesfull interpretation of 32, Rue aux Juifs. The audience reactions to Chris van Camps’ citybook were very enthousiastic. The English translation of the text will soon be available on this website.

Gwenaële Langlade en Thierry Plantegenet © Xander Stroo

Chris Van Camp en Thierry Plantegenet © Xander Stroo

'Rencontres'
Mediathek L’Apostrophe organises a public event for each of the participants of citybooks Chartres. Jeroen van Rooij was there the 29th of October. The other ‘recontres’ will take place:
- 10 December 2011 with Goce Smilevski.
- 21 January 2012 with Bart van Loo
- 11 February 2012 with Lea Titz
- 24 March 2012 with Marcin Wronski

citybook '32, Rue Aux Juifs' performed in Chartres written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: chartres, chris van camp, deburen, gwenaële langlade, mediathek l'apostrophe, thierry plantegenet

November is cold and foggy in Bucharest, but in no way did this harm the great atmosphere that night - the Romanian wine, the palinca, and the many traditional dishes served were a guarantee for that. On the evening of Tuesday the 21st of November, the complete Bucharest citybooks company was gathered together: three authors from the Low Countries (Anna Luyten, Ester Noami Perquin and myself), two local literary heroes (Răzvan Radulescu en Adrian Schiop), and a young phographer (Christian Binder), were all invited to dinner by deBuren's local partner Peter Oostveen and his wife Silvia. There was no shortage of topics to talk about: the differences between Bucharest and Brussels and why those might be smaller than one would think, world politics, ping pong. The future will offer us many more opportunities to work together - from literary evenings to Roma music. You'll be able to find the outcome of all this online soon.

(Jaap Faber, citybooks coordinator Boekarest en lector Nederlandse taal en literatuur aan de Universiteit van Boekarest)

Notes from the underground (7) written by Jaap Faber in: Notes from the underground

Tags: asociatia heritage, bucharest, jaap faber, notes from the underground, peter oostveen, university of bucharest

© Sander Buyck

The Belgian photographer Sander Buyck took his camera to Charleroi. In a poetic-documentary style he shows that beauty can be found in an industrial city which is rough around the edges. He records surprising contrasts.

The Austrian artist Lea Titz created a series on Graz, combining images and text. The citybooks authors in Graz sent her a sentence about an aspect of the city. She then captured these aspects in images and made the rest of the image ‘invisible’.

In Bucharest the young Romanian Christian Binder photographed the abundance of prominently present billboards throughout the city. His photos represent the meeting of the former Eastern Bloc country with western advertising. We have yet to find out whether these billboards will also play a role in the citybooks stories: Anna Luyten, Ester Naomi Perquin, Jaap Faber and two Romanian authors are currently in residency in Bucharest. Their citybooks will be available online at the start of 2012 as podcasts, e-books and webtexts.

© Lea Titz

© Christian Binder

citybooks: more than reading and listening written by deBuren in: citybooks news

Tags: bucharest, charleroi, christian binder, graz, lea titz, photography, sander buyck