CURRENTS.- After two years of face-to-face inactivity due to the restrictions of the pandemic, With a spring climate despite the winter, in a property recovered from the old power plants of the city and with the spectacular setting of the waterfront, the General Belgrano bridge and the Paraná river in the background, yesterday began in the city of Corrientes the XII Provincial Book FairI find that, year after year, it is consolidated as one of the main cultural and leisure attractions scheduled in parallel to the winter holidays.

The objective of this edition of the fair “is to favor the meeting of the publishing sector with the creators and artisans of the word and the book, and put them in dialogue with other cultural manifestations such as cinema, music, performing arts and new technologies. through presentations, talks, workshops, exhibitions of local and regional films, and plays,” Gabriel Romero, president of the Institute of Culture, told LA NACION.

According to organization data, some 5 thousand people passed through the fair only on its opening daywhich began on Thursday morning with scheduled activities for students and continued in the evening with the official inauguration and the opening conference given by the writer Ana Maria Shua, who spoke with Ramón Blanco about a fascinating and elusive topic: “How to be a writer, technique and mystery”. That was the title chosen for the presentation that lasted for more than one in the courtyard of the fairgrounds.

A while before, the inaugural act was headed by the lieutenant governor Pedro Braillard Poccard; the mayor of the city, Eduardo Tassano; by the Minister of Education, Práxedes López; the rector of the Northeast University, Omar Larroza; and the president of the Institute of Culture, Gabriel Romero, who cut the ribbons to enable the fair that returned to its face-to-face mode, after two years of being held virtually.

The Corrientes Book Fair has become over the years a regional reference in the matter that mainly attracts publishers from the area who take advantage of the space to publicize and market their titles, the same as the authors, who have in the space and in the exchange an amplified possibility of diffusion for their work. In fact, as or more important than the marketing of the books is the presentation of the works, for which a stage and two medium-capacity auditoriums were available on this occasion.

“The Book Fair mobilizes an issue that is not only cultural but also economic, which is very important in these times for the publishing industry, that is why we accompany and strengthen the ideas of cultural industries,” said Gabriel Romero in dialogue with this newspaper.

One of the most important publishers is Moglia Ediciones, a company from Corrientes that has resisted the many crises in the industry for more than 20 years, and is the main publisher of authors from Corrientes that publish the most varied titles, fiction and non-fiction, passing for poetry and essays. Moglia has a stand with more than a thousand titles and more than 300 novelties from 150 authors.

Similar is the preponderance of the Contexto publishing house, from Resistencia, Chaco, which also publishes authors from Corrientes. The rest of the regional offer is given by the publishing house of the Universidad del Nordeste, Eudene, by the publishing house of La Sade Corrientes and by other smaller firms such as the Fecobip of the Popular Libraries, which together provide the fair with an offer voluminous and varied literature from the northeast, provincial literature, although not necessarily provincial.

Independent, self-published writers also participate, who applied to the call launched by the organization, which markets its copies at the stand of the Institute of Culture, in the publishing sector.

Also, the big publishers are present, and especially those that sell children’s literature, which occupy an important part of the two sheds recovered from the former Power Plant of the city, the same space where weeks ago the ArteCo was also held with great success. the contemporary art exhibition of Corrientes.

There is a very prominent space for different institutional stands, for artisans, another to see theater, to listen to music, and a large food court that completes the offer of the event, organized by the Government of Corrientes through the Institute of Culture, which It began this Thursday and will run until Sunday the 24th.

The Corrientes Book Fair has more than 40 stands from the publishing sector and will close this year’s event with some 60 book presentations from the province and the regionplus the presentations or master conferences of the guests, a billboard that includes, in addition to Ana Maria Shuaa Florence Canalewho this Friday presents his book A sinner. The passion of Camila O’Gorman. Mariano del Mazo will also be with Between lust and repression: Serú Girán: the band that changed everything; Fernando Noy, who will perform a poetic performance reading in homage to Pizarnik, Orozco and Biagioni. The presence of the writer and journalist Norma Morandiniwho will dialogue with the public about his latest book Silences, noisy memory of the silencedand a conference by the economist Roberto Cachanosky.

A special space has the axis “Malvinas 40 years” with book presentations, talks and samples. This axis will be addressed by institutions such as the Ministry of Education, in addition to the Municipality of the city of Corrientes and the Institute of Culture itself.

The Mobile Cinema of the Institute of Culture will carry out projections of local and regional titles during the fair, in addition to the National Theater Institute, which is present through the staging of plays by casts from all over the province, designed for the public children and youth and the winter break season.

Within the complex there was also a sector called “Illustrators Walk”, where some twenty artists exhibit different works illustrated in books and stories, under the tutelage of their peers Eugenio Led and Darío Ojeda, and which aims to raise awareness of climate change. Live music and crosses between music and literature will be an important part of the programming.

to schedule

Organized by the Corrientes Institute of Culture, the fair opened on Thursday and will run until July 24 at the Ex Usina, located on Costanera General San Martín Avenue and Edison Street. From Friday the 15th to Sunday the 24th, the space will be open to attendees between 2 pm and 9 pm. Admission is free and free.