A book festival dedicated to the human and social sciences, this is the latest festival in Prades.
Cinema, classical music, now books and perhaps soon contemporary music, the sub-prefecture can be proud of a very active festival activity. The Prades book festival will therefore make its debut Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 September. A first edition on the theme of exile. An exile embodied by the German philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) who died in Port-Bou. The festival begins on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in the Foirail hall, an event that will continue all day Sunday from 10 a.m. “Its main objective is to popularize the human and social sciences without degrading them, to make them more accessible not by simplifying them but by taking them out of their academic straitjacket.”
Book presentations, discussions, round tables
Lionel Pourtau, sociologist, researcher at the Leiris Montpellier department and above all a great reader, is behind the initiative. “It all started with the desire to support the Libambulle bookstore, which makes a lot of effort to have eclectic proposals on this theme. And then, because of my training, I had some facilities for creating this book festival. The idea is to make it a recurring annual event like, and I say this modestly, the Rendez-vous de l’histoire de Blois or the Banquet du livre de Lagrasse.” Events that can attract a lot of people (30,000 people for the Rendez-vous de l’histoire).
Exile therefore, the theme of this great first in the company of authors who have dealt with this subject in particular around the 1D and 2e World War. Presentations of works but also exchanges and other round tables are on the program. “We will try to imagine how, starting from the past, to echo rather contemporary subjects. Following the presentations and debates around the works, we wish to give the floor to institutions, professionals and people who experience the question of exile in its most burning actuality.”
Among the guests, six authors: Teresa Dalmau and Marie Grau, Marie Cheminot, Sébastien Ledoux, Annalisa Lendaro and Geraldine Stringer. “We have made a point of inviting national and local publishing houses. This year we have chosen the theme of exile, in the coming years we will see, we are open.” A literary festival that aims to be friendly and festive. A concert is also planned for Saturday at 9:30 p.m. with the trio House in the desert.
