Andrea Matošević: “If you want to survive and preserve your life even in a place where it has already been taken away from you, in a place where you are already dead, you must not accept your own disappearance.”

 

From 27 November to 6 December this year, more than 100 authors, writers, philosophers, theoriticians and artists from Croatia, its surrounding regions and the the world will gather at the Home of the Croatian Homeland War Veterans in Pula for the 32nd Book Fair(y) in Istria, focusing on the topic La vita è bella  and exploring its echoes across literature, philosophy, visual arts, photography, performance, and film. 

At a time when people fear impending threats, find courage in simple formulas for a better and more peaceful tomorrow, and find comfort in the absence of alternative solutions, a fundamental question arises, which Emir Imamović Pirke formulates in his essay Tehnike zapisivanja života, dedicated to this year’s Fair's topic. “Is there a meaning, and, if there isn't any, can there be beauty in life in which, according to Meša Selimović' novel Derviš i smrt, every person is always at a loss? And is there any better metaphor for that life, with everything it encompasses, than the one Abdulah Sidran chose for his autobiography Otkup sirove kože?“

Through literary presentations, round table discussions, exhibitions, screenings and live storytelling, guests of this year’s edition of the Pula Book and Authors Festival will find answers to this question through literary, theoretical, artistic, and cinematic works. As Andrea Matošević illustrates in his essay Oksimoron iz Coyoacána, drawing on the cult film classic that made this catchphrase famous, La vita è bella will be explored in all the ambiguity of its different intonations, as a sense of nausea at a scene presented as normal, but also as a defiant smile containing the last trace of humanity: “Perhaps it is precisely in this heightened oxymoron, forced, feigned laughter or happiness that we should also see the figure of Guido Orefice, Giosuè’s father, who repeatedly laughs or plays with his son precisely because he cannot and must not do so. Guido Orefice and Primo Levi tell us exactly this: if you wish to survive and preserve life even in a place where it has already been taken away from you, a place where you are already dead, you must not accept your own disappearance. If death began with shoes, perhaps life was preserved at the corners of the mouth.”

Under the motto La vita è bella, the 32nd Istria Book Fair(y) will celebrate, through each of its hundred events, cries of defiance, rare flashes of meaning and truth found in the works of art and scholarship. In the words of Mauricio Ferlin, a longtime collaborator of the Book Fair and the author of this year’s design: “Many people around the world, including those in my own circle, find this year’s topic La vita è bella unrealistic, provoking sarcasm or, at the very least, irony. However, I was interested in seeking out the truth of this claim. Not in the light of some dolce vita or a hedonistic understanding of life, but rather across the full width of human experience we carry within us. I believe that life, even when it seems difficult to accept, when it is written in sad, incomprehensible sentences, when it is hard and sorrowful, at its core is beautiful. Beautiful, because of the truth and meaning we seek within it. Doesn't the same also hold true for a well-written book? Does it not remain beautiful even when it speaks of terrible and painful events and circumstances?”

The 32nd Istria Book Fair(y) is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Pula, the Istrian County and the National Foundation for Civil Society Development, while its longstanding sponsors are Zagrebačka banka d.d. and Arena Hospitality Group. For more information, visit the official website at www.sanjamknjige.hr and follow Book Fair(y) in Pula on social media (Facebook and Instagram).