Conversations with Eduardo Grüner, Leandro Katz and Mariano Mestman
Screening of the documentary film “The Day You’ll Love Me” (1997. Dir. Leandro Katz. 30′)

Saturday, May 8th, 6.00 pm
Auditorium - Fundación Proa. Free entrance

The artist, writer and filmmaker Leandro Katz presents his latest book, The Ghosts of Ñancahuazú, a collection of images, installations and texts by artists and writers that interchange ideas about Freddy Alborta´s photographs on Ernesto Che Guevara´s corpse, after his assassination in Bolivia in 1967.

A screening of Leandro Katz´s award-winning documentary essay The Day You’ll Love Me (1997), will be held during the presentation. The film reflects on death and the power of the image, taking as its starting point the picture taken of Che Guevara as he laid dead surrounded by his captors.

The author will dialogue with sociologist and essayist Eduardo Grüner and researcher Mariano Mestman, authors of the texts included in the publication, along with the commentaries by John Berger, Jean Franco and Jeffrey Skoller

The book´s title refers to the name of the guerrilla group led by Che Guevara in Bolivia, yet Katz main focus refers to “the ghost of the dead guerrillero”.

In addition to the texts analyzing the impact of photography on contemporary Latin American history, The Ghosts of Ñancahuazú presents the The Day You’ll Love Me DVD, reproductions of Katz´s works and installations, and never before seen images by Freddy Alborta, the famous Bolivian photographer that captured Guevara´s death with his lens.

The Ghosts of Ñancahuazú (2010)
Ed. La Lengua Viperina
300 pgs. / English and Spanish texts
ISBN 9789872458119

Available for purchase at Fundación Proa’s library:
libreria@proa.org / +54 11 4104-1005
http://proa.org/eng/library.php

On July 26th, Moira Irigoyen will comment on her new book “That summer” through an open interview. This book is a new project from  Editorial El fin de la Noche that works with a PoD platform (Print on demand). This means that the book is printed only when solicited  by the buyer, which is an interesting method that favors the demand over the offer.

Sur de Babel says about Moira Irigoyen´s writing style: “It is characterized by a warm narrative that gives special attention to detail through the use of fine language charged with energetic stories, strength and identity”.

The author describes “That summer” as a short novel narrated in first person. Julia is character presented from two perspective simultaneously, that of a teenage girls and of an adult woman. She is hunted by her years and her memories. She is a foreigner that keeps remembering from her window in Canada, her childhood, her space, her summer, that summer. The narrative brings together these two women: the girl that feels and plays from the sunny days, the sand, the warm winds, and on the other hand the woman that survives inside her room, through the cold winter and the piles of snow accumulated in the canadian landscape.

The structure of the story is based through the reconstruction of her memories. Memories that move away from the sad and melancholic thoughts in order to present the reality of a foreigner, that sees her self expropriated from her space and observes the limits of her own identity through her window. Memory becomes the bond of the two tales and towards the end of the novel, the grown up version of Julia gains importance in order to overcome through her writing, the burdens of her memories from a foreign country. Language takes form, and in the final pages the hidden photographs and the new buds begin to re-appear from the cold.

The author was born in Buenos Aires in 1965. She graduated with a BA in Literature from the University of Buenos Aires. Her published work includes “En el fondo de la materia crece una vegetación oscura”, by Paradiso editorial, the storybook “Combustible” (Longseller) and other children tales. In 2006 she participated on the compilation “Una terraza propia” a selection of new argentinean female authors by Florencia Abatte (Norma Editorial) . The work “That summer” took her to the finals in the Concurso Novela Página/12 2007, and in that same year the novel was recognized  by the Fondo Nacional de las Artes.

For more information about the book and the author, click here.

Proa Foundation Choose Sur de Babel to be part of their activities. Both companies will work together to bring to their readers the best books.

Sur de Babel born to bring a more visible platform to the smaller, national editorials and to make room for the various authors that are usually outside of the commercial circuit.

Currently, they publish novels and short-story books but they are planning to soon publish poetry and children’s books.

The system is very simple. To be part of it, you only have to register and you will be able to receive one book each month at home at a much cheaper cost than in the regulary bookstores. In addition, Sur de Babel counts with its own catalogue from which it is possible to choose from and receive the books at home.

The  project works with thirty editorials and is in constantly expanding. Besides publishing each book in the catalogue, they interview each author and editor.

In a talk with its two creators, Josefina Heine and Victoria Rodriguez Lacrouts, they  commented that the project has thirty publishers, and is in constant expansion and also to publish new works in the online catalog, Sur de Babel make an interview with the author and the editor when a new work appears in the catalog.

This project stems from a personal concern of its creators. Both are avid readers and they usually had to invest a lot of time in bookstores trying to find interesting books. They wanted to give visibility to the smaller projects, their authors and editors.

The members of this project are very different. There are some advanced readers and others not so much, but who are still interested in receiving a monthly reading reccomendation.

The Foundation’s library is also attempting to give more visibility to independent editorials, which is why they are granting a space to to Sur de Babel to expose each month the selected work.

In June, Sur de Babel will hold live interviews in Proa, allowing to hear the thoughts of the author, that sometime gives another pespective to the readings.

The first talk was with Fernanda García Lao, author of Muerta de hambre, the selection of May.

Starting in June, Proa will participate in all live interviews, which will be followed by the author signing copies of the book for the audience.

The book will be presented in Proa Foundation on July 26th, 16 hs.

For more information, click here.