VIDALA and the poets
On its touring and cross-country paths, in the heart of media libraries or libraries, public reading or book events, literature or poetry festivals, VIDALA had the pleasure of meeting two great writers and poets who became friends and regular traveling companions: Patricio SANCHEZ (Chile) and Eduardo BERTI (Argentina). They were both wonderful scouts in building our latest creation "Una historia americana".
At their side, it is an immense joy to share the stage with them, to punctuate their stories, their poems and their readings with a few songs, a few notes, a few musical colors which echo and showcase their travels. ..
Patricio SANCHEZ - Chile
Born in Chile, he has lived in France since 1977. He is a poet, translator, and teacher. He has published around ten books, artist books, and poems in numerous magazines and anthologies. He is also a presenter at the "Les Voix Vives de Méditerranée en Méditerranée" Festival in Sète, which has hosted numerous poets from around the Mediterranean for around eight days in July for over 20 years. Travel is at the heart of his poetry, the theme that invigorates his poems. "My suitcase knows all the stations in the world. / (...) / It is made of leather, Patagonian leather. // It accompanies me on all my journeys." Travel is also a forced exile: "In every exile there is a potential poet." Indeed, his personal history is closely linked to History, of Chile, of course, and of the World. For Patricio Sanchez, writing as a poet consists of connecting memories of childhood moments—his singularity—with the universalist dimension of Humanity. Likewise, his poems outline a geopoetics of the Earth: "It is time to go home, / To open the door / Of your room / Which leads to Cape Horn." Thus, for Patricio Sanchez, writing becomes a "geopoethics" of which "I share my bread with you, / just to weave a link with life" is one example among others.
“I know nothing / about the sea / but the sky sparkles / when I open the door of the sun.” “Wherever I go, I carry / my house and a bag / filled with feathers / and apples.”
Bibliography
Cahiers de la Méditerranée/Cuadernos del Mediterràneo, Domens, 2019-2020. The Disappeared, La rumeur libre Éditions, Lyon, 2017. Journal of a Second, with a preface by Jean Joubert, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2015. Land of Fire, followed by Nuages, Domens, Pézenas, 2013. The Red Umbrella, with a preface by Jean Joubert, Domens, Pézenas, 2011. Nuages, Obsidiana, Virginie, 2008. El Calendario de la Eternidad, Sociedad Internacional de Escritores (SIE), Virginie, 2007. Breve Anthología Personal y otros poemas, Los Andes, France, 2000. Montpellier, three minutes of stopping, Los Andes, France, 1996. Poems written in a café, Imprimerie Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier, 1991. Sea la luz, Marana-Tha, Chile, 1990.
Eduardo BERTI - Argentina
E duardo Berti was born in Argentina in 1964. A Spanish-speaking writer, as well as a French-speaking one, he is the author of several collections of short stories and novels. He has been translated into eight languages, including French, where almost all of his work can be found: the short stories in La vie impossible (Libralire Prize 2003), the short stories in L'Inoubliable and the novels Le Désordre électrique, Madame Wakefield (finalist for the Prix Fémina), Tous les Funes (finalist for the Prix Herralde 2004), L'Ombre du Boxeur and Le Pays imaginaire (Emecé Prize 2011 and Las Américas Prize 2012), not to mention two texts that are difficult to classify: Les Petits miroirs and Rétrospective de Bernabé Lofuedo.
Bibliography
His books are published, mainly, by Actes Sud and translated by Jean-Marie Saint-Lu. His first novel written in French was published in 2017 by Flammarion: Une présence idéal. His latest books in Spanish are the novels Un padre extranjero and Faster, and the short stories Círculo de lectores. His latest books published in France are Inventaire d'inventions (inventées), the result of a collaboration with the Monobloque collective, Poèmes de babyfoot and L'Ivresse sans fin des portes tournantes. After the release (January 2021) of the translation of his novel A Foreign Father (La Contre Allée) and his book "Tomorrow Announces More Calm" (éditions do), A Foreign Son (La Contre Allée), an extension or echo of 'A Foreign Father', has just been published. He has been a member of Oulipo since
June 2014.
