Romania at the London International Book Fair 10-12 April 2018

Romania participates for the 11th consecutive time at the London International Book Fair, scheduled for 10-12 April at the Olympia Exhibition Center. Romania’s presence at the biggest book fair in Britain reminds of its participation in the Great War and the subsequent unification of all Romanian provinces in 1918.

Event is organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute’s National Book Center and the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, with the support of the Romanian Embassy in the UK, London Book Fair’s Literary Translation Center, National Museum of Romanian Literature and Romanian Publishers Association. Project is funded by the Romanian Cultural Institute.

At the Romanian stand at Olympia Exhibition Center, there will be a series of events ranging from book launches and dialogues to a multimedia poetry show and an exhibition. Romanian program will also showcase the newest crop of translations from Romanian literature.

Protagonists of the Romanian program at the London Book Fair 2018 are writers and academics Christian Moraru, Andrei Terian and Marius Turda, authors Magda Cârneci, and Arabella McIntyre Brown, literary critic Ion Bogdan Lefter, poets Claudiu Komartin, Michael Astner, Andrei Dósa, Robert Gabriel Elekes, Matei Hutopila, Henriette Kemenes, Mihók Tamás, Aleksandar Stoicovici, Livia Stefan and Victor Țvetov as well as musicians Ioana Foma, Andriana Cristea and Nikolay Ginov. Visual identity of the Romanian program is created by graphic artist Radu Manelici.

Romanian events - that will take place under the generic title "Writing and Making History: Remembering the Great War Generation" - evoke, first of all, participation of Romanians in the First World War and the Great Union, through the literary-artistic echoes of these crucial historical moments.

Central theme of the program is illustrated by the concept of the stand, which translates visually the connection between literary creativity and history, by using symbolic images and portraits of writers such as Liviu Rebreanu, Queen Maria, Camil Petrescu, Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, Octavian Goga, Martha Bibescu, who made from their experience of World War I the substance of their literature; through an exhibition of the most important works inspired by the Great War, opened by a thematic conference, as well as by a performance of contemporary poetry, bringing together young poets from different ethnic-cultural groups in a diversity that reminds of the Romania created back in 1918.

"Polyphonic" event: Animated Poetry and Music brings together ten Romanian poets of Hungarian, German, Serbian and Ukrainian ethnicity in a polyphonic conversation meant to celebrate the Romanian cultural diversity of today, as well as that of the United Romania created at the end of the First World War - at ICR London, 1 Belgrave Square.

Event also includes a collective poem created by the ten poets for the centenary anniversary, presented for the first time in London. Participants: Claudiu Komartin, Michael Astner, Andrei Dósa, Robert Gabriel Elekes, Matei Hutopila, Henriette Kemenes, Mihók Tamás, Aleksandar Stoicovich, Livia Stefan and Victor Tvetov. The project, included in the European Poetry Festival, is curated by Simona Nastac and produced by the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest.

At 20:30, critic and literary historian Ion Bogdan Lefter opens the exhibition entitled "Wounded Words: Romanian Writers and the Great War", at ICR London, 1 Belgrave Square, in the Brancusi gallery. Exhibition – showcasing some of the best works of poetry and prose produced during and after the First World War by one of Romania’s greatest literary generation, is produced by the National Museum of Romanian Literature and ICR London. It will be opened for the public until 20 April 2018.

Full program of the Romanian presence at the London Book Fair:

http://www.icr-london.co.uk/article/writing-and-making-history-remembering-the-great-war-generation-romania-at-the-london-book-fair.html

Source:Romanian Cultural Institute London