Indómitas is the prelude to the POETAS Festival, a party within another party, a publishing fair within the Book Fair. A matryoshka game that blurs the meanings and signifiers, just as it juggles the content and the container. Because that is POETS: not all poetry is in the word poetry, nor is every book a book, what happens when nothing is the norm and everything is an exception?
On May 26, 27 and 28, the POETAS collective brings together the most exotic and strange publishers on the publishing scene in a venue, within the Book Fair. A commitment to continue transgressing the limits and calling things by other names. “More than twenty publishers, from here and there, that are difficult to hold, that are difficult to tame, that expand the concept of the book,” says Eva Orúe, director of the Book Fair.
Indómitas will occupy an open modular structure of 8x10m. Visitors to the 82nd edition of the Madrid Book Fair will be able to enjoy a space where creativity, innovation and new formats will come together; a unique opportunity to learn about national and international initiatives that explore formulas such as the fanzine, the assembled magazine or the artist’s book.
La Más Bella will make a special edition of an assembled magazine, Pasapágina, with 300 copies that will be on sale during the three days of Indómitas. Artists of the stature of Alberto García-Alix will pass through this pavilion, signing their book at the Cabeza de Chorlito stand, artists who are already benchmarks in the city such as Ajo, Javier Corcobado or Violeta Gil will be booksellers at the stand for a few hours, as well as the The public will be able to see live productions from several of these publishers.
In the words of Olona, who coordinates POETAS and Arrebato Libros –one of the labels participating in Indómitas–, “we are very happy to now open this new door together with the Madrid Book Fair, so that, for the first time, these publishers that are another way of seeing editorial production, are also present in a large-scale event and that allows the vision of the public visiting the Fair to be broadened”.
But Indómitas is only the starting gun, Indómitas is the wick, after which comes the POETAS Festival on September 30. And it will be at the Ateneo de Madrid. More than eight hours of uninterrupted programming in one of the most emblematic places in Madrid.
To whet your appetite, there are the words dedicated to the POETS Festival by the former Uruguayan president Pepe Mújica, who gives up his image on the poster of its 17th edition: “Dear POETS of Spain, that homeland of brass bands and tambourines, the years have piled up and It’s hard for me to travel, but take my breath from the South; if poetry exists, surely it will be flying around and I hope that the magic of words allows us to communicate in some way; until always, forever, for hope, for always starting again and until the end.
Poets is a festival that has always gone beyond the very word that defines it. He has never wanted to remain in this reducing description and has searched for poets where there were only painters, writers, cooks, comedians, musicians, architects, dancers, singers, artists, charlatans, madmen or misfits. The festival advances from recognizing those who made other editions possible and consolidating the columns on which to continue building its present and future with new poets and artists who promote art and poetry in all its expression.
A cultural initiative organized by Arrebato Libros with the support of Acción Cultural Española, the Ramon Llull Institute, the Ministry of Culture, Creative Europe and Versópolis.
