Hay Festival Forum Sevilla 2025
The third Hay Festival Forum Sevilla will take place from February 12 to 15, 2025, at various venues in the Andalusian capital. The program includes 27 events where topics such as literature, architecture, the environment, and more will be discussed.
Event 1
The culture of the Polígono Sur starring young people
Opening ceremony of Hay Festival Forum Seville
– Biblioteca Pública Infanta Elena - Hemeroteca
The Polígono Sur district of Seville is one of the neighborhoods with the lowest per capita income in Europe. However, many people work to promote the talent of the youngest. Hay Festival Forum Sevilla organizes two events along these lines.
Part One: Flamenco show with young people from the neighborhood. Sponsored by the Alalá Foundation, this is a small flamenco show, where a group of students can express the knowledge acquired in the Foundation's workshops. Dance, singing and percussion will be the main threads of this show. The Alalá Foundation has been working for more than 10 years for the social integration of minors, young people and their families in the neighborhood of Tres Mil Viviendas in Seville and in Estancia Barrera in Jerez. It supports culture, art and sports through free workshops held every week, benefiting 400 direct users.
Part Two: theatrical performance. Encouraging reading among young people and vulnerable groups has an undoubted power of social transformation. In this event, the José Manuel Lara Foundation is carrying out a project -together with the Entreamigos Association- with students from the CEIP Paz y Amistad School, in the Polígono Sur area of Seville. The young people will carry out a dramatization of the book Doiz travels to Earth, a collective work of the students themselves, which talks about respect for the differences of the people around us. The José Manuel Lara Foundation's mission is to contribute to the promotion of reading and support for education. It believes that a child who reads will be a child with more knowledge, more critical, with greater possibilities for the future and, therefore, happier.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the José Manuel Lara Foundation, the Alalá Foundation, the Infanta Elena Public Library and the Junta de Andalucía and the collaboration of the Mapfre Foundation
Event 2
Journalism Workshop with Helena de Bertodano and Laura Ventura
The magic of a good interview
– Campus Cámara de Comercio de Sevilla (S/ Isabel, 1)
A good journalist should approach any interview in the same way that Albert Camus approached his urge to write: ‘as if my need were infinite and nothing and no one could satisfy it’. Each question should be a challenge, not to make the interviewer look good or to impress the audience, but rather to allow the interviewee to take us, step by step, into his or her inner world, and reveal what lies beneath. What matters is to engage the interviewee with questions that lead to a coherent story, and that, without fighting with the individual, force him or her to say more than they expected. In this workshop, two renowned journalists will unravel the essentials of a good interview, whether for the traditional paper or digital format, or for social media.
The workshop will be given by Helena de Bertodano and Laura Ventura. De Bertodano is a journalist specialising in celebrity interviews and profiles, as well as features and travel articles for publications such as The Sunday Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Observer, Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire. She has interviewed over a thousand people in the last 25 years, including the Dalai Lama, Meryl Streep, George Soros, Ringo Starr, George Best, Yehudi Menuhin and Jacinda Ardern. Laura Ventura holds a PhD in Hispanic Philology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and teaches Literature at the Universidad Carlos III. She has also written several sections in the Argentine newspaper La Nación for the past two decades. She has interviewed personalities such as Joaquín Sabina, Elena Poniatowska, Paul Auster, Javier Cercas, Pedro Almodóvar, Joan Manuel Serrat, Isabel Allende and Mikhail Baryshnikov, among others.
The young people taking part in the workshop will be able to choose one of the celebrities taking part in Hay Festival Forum Seville, conduct a one-minute interview with them using their mobile phone, and share it on social media.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the Cámara de Comercio de Sevilla
Event 3
Guided tour of the exhibition of Coro López Izquierdo
Invisible Architecture
– Fundación Valentín de Madariaga
Artist and architect Coro López Izquierdo will give a guided tour of her latest exhibition, Invisible Architecture, at the Valentín de Madariaga Foundation. In this latest work she shows her interest in experimenting with architecture, the natural and the urban environment. His style within modern realism describes a constantly changing reality through a deep study of light, color and form.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the Valentín de Madariaga Foundation
Event 4
Susana Martín Gijón and Laura Hojman in conversation
Women without complexes
– Real Fábrica de Artillería de Sevilla
A Namibian policewoman who lives in Extremadura and investigates crimes of gender violence; it is fiction, but it could very well be reality. The writer Susana Martín Gijón writes crime novels starring women, her great passion, and actively defends women's rights, her great commitment. Her literary career and her profession are intertwined. She is the author of two crime sagas starring Annika Kauda and Camino Vargas. She debuted in 2013 with Más que cuerpos, to which, among others, Náufragos; Expediente Medellín; Planeta, La Babilonia 1580.
Martín Gijón studied law and went on to work as a legal advisor for NGOs, in addition to having been general director of the Youth Institute of Extremadura (2007-2011). She has also collaborated in national and international platforms in defense of gender equality and in the network of Young African and Spanish Women.
Martín Gijón will talk with Laura Hojman from Seville; screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, producer and film director, in 2018 she made her directorial debut with Tierras solares, a documentary inspired by the work of Rubén Darío. Antonio Machado. Los días azules, her second feature film as a director, is centered on the figure of the Sevillian poet and has obtained great critical and public recognition. She has won the Imagenera Award from the Andalusian Studies Center, six ASECAN Andalusian Film Awards (Direction, Screenplay, Editing, Music, Photography and Sound) and has been nominated for the Forqué Awards in the category of Best Documentary. In 2020 he received the RTVA Award for Best Filmmaker in Andalusia and is currently preparing his next feature film, María Lejárraga, la autora en la sombra (María Lejárraga, the author in the shadows). Hojman is the president of the Andalusian Association of Women in Audiovisual Media (AAMMA).
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the Seville City Council
Event 5
Alberto García Alix
Absence as Stimulus
– Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo
Absence as a Stimulus is a new production by National Photography Prize-winner Alberto García-Alix. In the event, designed to be a type of visual conference, the author reflects on how absence, in its existence and as a vitalising stimulus, influences and is reflected in his work, and acts as a guiding thread and catalyst in his photographs. García-Alix presents 68 images, most of them unpublished, taken over the last 15 years, interspersed with his own narrative. The photographer reflects on how absence is present in everything we encounter: in nature, in architecture, in objects and even in portraiture "because something always escapes us from the model". In the words of the author, absence is a stimulus.
Alberto García-Alix was born in León and lived in Madrid from the age of 11. His first images date from the late 1970s. He established himself professionally as a photographer and held his first solo exhibitions in Madrid and London in the 1980s. He gained acclaim at the first edition of PhotoEspaña (1998), and was awarded the National Photography Prize in 1999. He began to work with both photographic and video images at the beginning of the 21st century, exhibiting in some of Spain and Europe's principal galleries and museums, such as the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Photographer's Gallery in London, the Prado Museum, and the Maison Europée de la Photographie in Paris.
The event will be moderated by Dr. Jimena Blázquez Abascal. With a PhD in Contemporary Art, she was director of the Fundación Montenmedio Arte Contemporáneo NMAC in Vejer de la Frontera for 22 years, and now directs the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo. In addition to being a noted art collector, she has curated more than 40 projects by artists such as James Turrell and Marina Abramovic. She received the National Award for Collecting in 2022. At the end of the event, Ricardo León Moro, with long experience in the field of cultural management and exhibition curatorship, will introduce some questions.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo and the Junta de Andalucía
Event 6
Eric Loontjens in conversation with Nuria Canivell, presented by Hannah Schildt
Culture transforms cities
– Fundación Cajasol - Sala Salvador
Cities are undergoing unprecedented transformations that are transforming them, with greater or lesser success, into friendlier and more livable spaces. Better use of natural and energy resources, attention to sustainability and digitalization are elements that seek to meet the needs and demands of citizens; to this is added culture as a dynamic element. The question is whether the efforts are bearing fruit or need to be redoubled.
Eric Loontjens is a member of the Oostkerk Foundation, a cultural organization located in Middelburg, the Netherlands, that is in charge of managing the cultural use of the Oostkerk, an impressive monumental building that is listed among the 100 most important monuments in the Netherlands. This historic church has become a vibrant center for cultural and artistic events in the city. Loontjens will speak about culture and heritage as drivers of social and economic development, focusing on how cultural projects can transform a region by connecting local culture with the international sphere. Besides, he will share his experience in organizing cultural events at historical monuments and the logistical and financial challenges associated with creating large festivals.
The event will be presented by Hannah Schildt, Cultural and Press Attaché at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Spain, and Nuria Canivell, Dean of the College of Architects of Seville.
Schildt has led the Communication and Culture team at the Embassy of the Netherlands since 2020, aiming to foster collaboration between Spanish cultural institutions and Dutch artists. Canivell represents 50% of the Román & Canivell studio and has been the Dean of the College of Architects of Seville for just over a year. A registered architect since 1994, she brings more than 30 years of professional experience, with significant projects such as the Abba Hotel in La Encarnación, the restoration of the Cádiz Station, the Galia Nervión building, and the Ballena Housing development.
Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish
Co-organized with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Spain
Event 7
Simon Armitage and his band Lyr in concert
Rhythms and poems
– Real Fábrica de Artillería de Sevilla
Simon Armitage, one of the most renowned and widely read poets in the United Kingdom, has always believed that poetry offers more possibilities than just a book. This openness to collaborating with other genres led to his involvement with the music band Lyr, which also includes producer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Pearson and musician Richard Walters. Many of the band's song lyrics are written by Armitage. Their critically acclaimed albums, Call In The Crash Team and The Ultraviolet Age, have garnered over five million streams, and their UK tours have included major festivals such as Green Man and Blu Dot. At this event, attendees will be able to experience the sound of this “post-rock with jazz influences” band, interspersed with poetry readings by Armitage himself.
Simon Armitage, originally from Huddersfield (UK), was named Poet of the Millennium in 1999 and was elected to the Royal Society of Literature in 2004. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to poetry in 2010, and in 2012, he was presented with the Hay Medal for Poetry at the 25th Hay Festival. As part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in Great Britain, while serving as a resident artist at London’s Southbank, Armitage conceived and organized Poetry Parnassus, a gathering of poets and poetry from all Olympic nations. This iconic event is widely regarded as the largest gathering of international poets in history. He is also a member of the Poetry Foundation.
Event in English
Co-organized with the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Spain and the City Council of Seville
Event 8
A life-changing book
Project of the José Manuel Lara Foundation
– IES Ramón Carande, barrio Tres Mil Viviendas del Polígono Sur
The José Manuel Lara Foundation is very clear that the promotion of reading is a clear driver of social transformation, especially among the most vulnerable groups, which focuses this project starring students of IES Ramón Carande, located in the neighborhood of Polígono Sur, better known as the Tres Mil Viviendas, which has the lowest per capita income in the European Union. The children of this school will be able to talk to a writer of their choice. The aim of the meeting is to open them to reading, but not only as a mere lever of entertainment; but to prove that reading will allow them to improve their education and thus be able to choose their future with more freedom. The José Manuel Lara Foundation seeks social transformation through reading, since it is considered that a child who reads will be a more knowledgeable, more critical child, with greater possibilities for the future and, therefore, happier.
Event in Spanish
Event 9
Odile Decq in conversation with Martha Thorne
Building different worlds
– Escuela de Arquitectura (Campus Reina Mercedes de la Universidad de Sevilla)
The French architect and urban planner Odile Decq is internationally recognized as a teacher, entrepreneur and advocate for women in the profession. She will speak on global design, in this conversation in collaboration with the Seville School of Architecture (ETSA-Seville). She will present museums in Italy and China, a residential tower in Barcelona and two single-family houses in France. Through these seemingly diverse projects, it will become evident how this architect approaches place, client needs and cultural, political, legal and construction contexts that are often different and difficult.
Her multidisciplinary approach was recognized with the Jane Drew Award in 2016, and she was honored with the Architizer Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 for her pioneering work, but also for her commitment and contribution to the architectural debate. In 2018, she was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, in recognition of her outstanding contributions in building science, design and education, and of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. A professor of architecture for over 25 years, Odile Decq was director of l'École Spéciale d'Architecture (ESA) in Paris from 2007 to 2012, and has taught and lectured at numerous international universities, including Bartlett (London), Kunstakademie (Vienna and Düsseldorf), SCI-Arc (Los Angeles, CA), Columbia University (New York, NY) and, most recently, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA). In 2014 he created his own school, now located in Paris: the Confluence Institute for Innovation and Creative Strategies in Architecture, accredited by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
She will discuss his career with Martha Thorne, urban planner and former executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Event in English
Co-organized with the School of Architecture of the University of Seville
Event 10
Poetry gala
Voices for the generation of ’27
– Biblioteca Pública Infanta Elena - Salón de Actos
The Spanish poets of the Generation of ’27 left an indelible mark. Such a constellation of inspired and talented young and not-so-young people may never be seen again. It was Seville itself that hosted the tribute to Luis de Góngora on the tricentenary of his death, an event which led to the idea of a new literary generation to replace that of ’98. This generation included, among others, Federico García Lorca, Pedro Salinas, Luis Cernuda, Manuel Aleixandre, Jorge Guillén, Gerardo Diego, Dámaso Alonso, Rafael Alberti, and Miguel Hernández.
Almost a century later, Hay Festival Forum Seville pays tribute to those great writers through the voices of artists and intellectuals in Seville, who will read some of their favourite poems by poets of the Generation of ‘27. Amparo Graciani, Helena de Bertodano, Carlos Aganzo, Nuria Canivell, Beltrán Gambier, Miquel Molina, Laura Ventura, Félix Losada, Gioconda Scott, José Vallecillo, Nacho Orovio, María Limón, Pablo Morillo and Sheila Cremaschi will be participating. Members of the many reading clubs hosted by the Infanta Elena Public Library will also take part in the event, reading from works by their favourite poets of the Generation of ’27. José Félix Valdivieso will be the master of ceremony.
Event featuring readings in Spanish
Co-organized with the Infanta Elena Public Library, Junta de Andalucía and Universidad de Sevilla
Event 11
Carlo Ratti in conversation with Javier Moreno and Martha Thorne
Intelligence to build
– Fundación Cajasol - Teatro
Building with intelligence... human and artificial. This is the challenge facing architecture today and will be discussed by architect and engineer Carlo Ratti. He teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Politecnico di Milano. He is a founding partner of the architecture and innovation firm CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. A prolific writer, speaker, academic, and entrepreneur, he shares his innovative ideas through many formats. His experience as an international exhibition director spans many countries, from Germany to China and from Italy to Portugal. He is currently the director of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2025). He graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and later did his master's and doctoral work at Cambridge University, UK, completing his doctoral thesis as a Fulbright scholar at MIT.
Ratti will talk about the connections between human, artificial, and collective intelligence for our built environment. After presenting some examples of the different types of intelligence he uses to create his architectural projects, he will talk with Javier Moreno (renowned journalist and former editor of El País) and Martha Thorne (urban planner and former executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize) about intelligences for improving the built environment.
Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into spanish
Co-organized with the 'Tendencias' supplement of El País and the Cajasol Foundation
Event 12
María Larrea in conversation with Jesús Vigorra
Who is born where they want?
– Biblioteca Pública Infanta Elena - Hemeroteca
The famous phrase ‘People from Bilbao are born where they want’ becomes a book in the hands of María Larrea, a multifaceted writer, screenwriter, and film director who, yes, was born in Bilbao, though she has lived in France. This first autobiographical novel – first published in French – is marked by a life that is far from easy to understand: at 27, she discovered that her parents were not her biological parents and that she had been sold. Rather than curse her fate, she chose to reflect it in writing that is as dense and direct. In just one year, a cascade of awards followed, including the 2022 First Novel Award in France, the Best Novel Award from France Télévisions, and the Best First Novel Award from Les Inrockuptibles. In her film career, in 2018, the author received the Audience Award for a first feature film screenplay at the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers, granted by the French radio station France Culture, for the film she co-directed with Catherine Paillé.
Larrea will discuss her work and the influences of her tumultuous life on it, with members of nearly twenty book clubs that meet at the Infanta Elena Public Library. She will do so in the company of journalist and actor Jesús Vigorra. His journalistic work in radio and television and, especially his involvement in cultural dissemination, has been recognized with the National Award for the Promotion of Reading in 2006, from the Ministry of Culture; the Spanish Publishers Award in 2003, for the promotion and dissemination of books; the LIBER Award 2007, from the International Book Fair; the Communication Award from the University of Seville and the Aljabibe Journalism Award, among others. He has collaborated in several media, especially in Canal Sur and Diario Córdoba. The event will be presented by Isabelle Berneron, book attaché of the French Institute.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the Infanta Elena Public Library and the Junta de Andalucía, and with the collaboration of Alianza Editorial
Event 13
Ángel Cárdenas and Ricard Frigola in conversation with Miquel Molina
Water and culture transform cities
– Fundación Valentín de Madariaga
The positive transformation of cities has developed over time thanks to culture and, more recently, to renaturalization projects. The aim is to improve the quality of life of citizens, but also to deal efficiently with the ever-increasing climatic emergencies. And in this transformation framework, water plays an essential role. As was the case with the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, which led to the development of its sewerage system and water network under the cover of a cultural event. Almost 100 years later, answers are still being sought to make cities environmentally sustainable spaces, to solve supply and sanitation deficiencies and to include a cultural story that explains the past and argues for the future.
Ángel Cárdenas, manager of Urban Development, Water and Creative Economies at the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), will speak at the event. In this unit, he leads a portfolio of more than $8 billion in urban operations focused on the sectors of mobility, water and sanitation, citizen security and creative economies. And Ricard Frigola, economist, associate professor of Economics and Regulation of Public Services at the University of Barcelona and between 2010-2019 was professor of Urban Management at the School of Architecture and Design at IE University. He was financial director of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Organizing Committee (COOB'92), and is currently director of Institutional Relations at Agbar.
The event will be moderated by Miquel Molina, deputy director of La Vanguardia and writer. He is the author of two novels and several essays; the last one, Cinco horas en Venecia. Award for non-sexist journalism.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF)
Event 14
James Ellroy in conversation with Helena de Bertodano
Autobiography in noir genre
– Fundación Cajasol - Teatro
James Ellroy (Lee Earle Ellroy) is one of the most renowned writers of crime novels, with a long work that has been successfully adapted, twice, to the cinema. A direct heir to the geniuses of the genre such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Ellroy's style is direct, with few words, dry as a bourbon, which gives his main characters a personality that leaves no one indifferent: they sharpen their words while caressing the gun. His life, marked in his youth by the unsolved murder of his mother, has inspired some of his novels.
He was born in Los Angeles in 1948 and after the separation of his parents, and when he was only 10 years old, his mother was murdered. Over time he became a thief and alcoholic, which earned him jail time. After giving up drinking and finding a job as a Caddy on a golf course, he began to write. His first novel, Requiem for Brown recreates his own life. Other crime novels followed, such as Suicide Hill, The Angel Quartet and The Black Dahlia. Shortly after, in 1990, came the internationally renowned Los Ángeles Confidencial, which prolonged his success in the cinema with a version that is already considered a classic of the noir genre. This month he publishes the novel The Seducers, the third volume of his quintet about Los Angeles, an absorbing story about Marilyn Monroe and her controversial death.
His work and his life will be reviewed in this event through the conversation that Ellroy will have with Helena de Bertodano, journalist specialized in interviews and celebrity profiles, as well as in reports and travel articles for publications such as The Sunday Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Observer, Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire. She has interviewed more than 1,000 people over the past 25 years, including the Dalai Lama, Meryl Streep, George Soros, Ringo Starr, George Best, Yehudi Menuhin and Jacinda Ardern.
Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish
Co-organized with Fundación Telefónica and with the collaboration of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial and Fundación Cajasol
Event 15
Boris Izaguirre in conversation with Ana Gavín
An innate talent
– Real Fábrica de Artillería de Sevilla
Boris Izaguirre made his way by penning an irreverent social column in his native Venezuela as well as writing soap opera scripts before settling in Spain, where over time he has carved out a unique niche for himself as a public figure. Behind that seemingly innate talent lies hard work and a lot of dedication.
He is one of the most well-known faces on the Spanish celebrity scene. Journalist, television presenter, scriptwriter, actor and writer; behind his light-hearted style lies an extremely cultured background. He found media stardom on the now legendary programme Crónicas marcianas, garnering much audience acclaim. Then came roles as presenter and contestant in a slew of entertainment programmes across an array of channels, such as MasterChef Celebrity, on La1, and El desafío, on Antena 3. He is a regular contributor to Bailando con las estrellas (Dancing with the Stars) and Tarde AR, both on Telecinco. He has also explored the realms of literature, having made his debut at a very young age with the novel El vuelo de los avestruces ; followed by notable novels including Azul petróleo and Planeta prize finalist, Villa diamante .
Izaguirre will talk about himself and his rise to the top with Ana Gavín, director of Editorial Relations at Grupo Planeta.
This event is supported by the Open Society Foundations
Event in Spanish
With the collaboration of Grupo Planeta
Event 16
Emilio del Río in conversation with Carlos Aganzo
Carpe diem: help yourself with myths
– Biblioteca Pública Infanta Elena - Hemeroteca
History remains in our memory for the great events. But also for the small stories with small letters and legends. The latter include myths, which help us to explain our western culture and its behaviors, heroism, generosity, selfishness, bravery, envy... The gods of Olympus and the heroes of classical antiquity are the protagonists of a fascinating series of myths that never cease to amaze us. In this event, Emilio del Río will talk about modernity and the validity of myths in our lives, in conversation with the writer and journalist Carlos Aganzo.
Del Río holds a PhD in Classical Philology from the Complutense University of Madrid, is an academic, writer, and professor of Latin Language and Linguistics at the Complutense University of Madrid. His program on RNE Verba Volant has been among the favorites of the radio cultural scene for more than a decade; he is the author of successful books such as Latin lovers, Calamares a la romana and Locos por los clásicos. Aganzo is the author of some twenty books of poetry and as many travel books. He has been director of Diario de Ávila and El Norte de Castilla and is currently director of the Vocento Foundation.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the City of Seville and the Infanta Elena Public Library
Event 17
Rashid Diab in conversation with Sema D’Acosta
Painting a a Revulsive Force
– Fundación Valentín de Madariaga
Sudanese painter Rashid Diab reflects in his work the twists and turns of his tumultuous life, landscapes and people from his homeland, colors and sensations that bring us closer to his world. He also captures the disastrous effects of the wars and conflicts that ravage his country and have forced him to leave it and settle, for the second time, in Spain. The first time was for his studies; the second, out of necessity. He uses his painting as a catalyst against violence.
Rashid Diab was born in Wad-Medani, on the banks of the Blue Nile in Sudan, an environment that inspired his early works using rudimentary and improvised materials. He studied at the School of Fine Arts and Applied Arts in Khartoum, where he graduated in 1978 and received a scholarship to travel to Spain, where he earned a degree in painting and printmaking from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1991, he obtained his PhD on traditional and contemporary art from Sudan, still the only one of its kind. Over the next 9 years, he taught at the same university. In the mid-1970s, his works began to be collected by national museums, libraries, and private collectors, and more recently, by the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute and the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF). In 1999, he moved back to Khartoum and in 2005 he opened the Rashid Diab Art Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating cultural illiteracy, offering courses for children, artist residencies, and exhibitions of Sudanese artists. The war that broke out in 2023 in Khartoum forced Diab to flee his home and return to Spain.
Diab will discuss his life and work with Sema D'Acosta, art critic, researcher and professor of Communication, Realization and Production. He is a member of the Consejo de Críticos de Artes Visuales de España, the IAC and the Asociación de Periodistas Culturales de Andalucía José María Bernáldez. He is also a regular contributor to El Cultural, the international magazine Arte-contexto and Diario de Sevilla. He is the author of several books on art such as The tip of the iceberg and Reflections on current art.
Event in Spanish
Supported by the Open Society Foundations
Event 18
Carmen Mola in conversation with Manuel Pedraz
The three-handed crime
– Real Fábrica de Artillería de Sevilla
One crime, two, three... a whole symphony of deaths on paper interpreted with one, two, three hands... Those of the writers who hide behind the pseudonym of Carmen Mola and who are already part of the imaginary of the crime novel in Spain, with thousands of copies sold and read. Three men with women's names and who have given life to the inspector Elena Blanco, capable in her investigations of many things that even she could not imagine.
Behind the pseudonym Carmen Mola are Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero. Everything was discovered when they won the Planeta Prize in 2021 with La bestia (The Beast). It was preceded by the trilogy starring the inspector Elena Blanco, which has given rise to two more novels. The three writers decided to root themselves around Carmen Mola, to give free rein to their desire to write under the influence of the greats of the noir genre such as Fred Vargas or Dashiell Hammett. The experiment went well.
The trio will discuss their work and influences with journalist Manuel Pedraz. With a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid, he has been an associate professor at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Seville and is president of the José María BernáldezAssociation of Cultural Journalists of Andalusia. His professional career has long been linked to cultural programs on RNE.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with Grupo Planeta and the Seville City Council
Event 19
Pascal Bruckner in conversation with Santiago Herrero
Forsaking our world
– Fundación Cajasol - Sala Murillo
Writer and philosopher Pascal Bruckner is currently one of the most respected and widely followed thinkers in his native France. Fascinated by human beings and their innermost peculiarities, in recent times he has been reflecting on the position that people in the West should take in a changing world that is beyond our understanding. Through very clear arguments in which he agrees neither with unethical capitalism, nor with its opposing utopian radicalist approaches, the philosopher considers whether battling against so many disruptions (Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, climate change, and so on) is worth it, or whether it would not be better to retreat to the last safe haven we have left: home. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Paris VII. He has been awarded the Renaudot, Montaigne and Medicis Essay prizes, and regularly participates in public debate in media including Le Point, Le Figaro and Le Débat. Roman Polanski made a film of his novel Bitter Moon under the title ‘Bitter Moons’. His works include The Paradox of Love, The Wisdom of Money and A Brief Eternity, which are now followed by The Triumph of the Slippers, in which he examines the notion of giving up or battling on in a world that we no longer recognise.
Bruckner will discuss these issues with Santiago Herrero, director of Cultural and Scientific Relations at AECID. A professional diplomat, he has made his mark as a cultural agitator in the roles he has held across a variety of countries. He has been Cultural Consul in New York; Director of Programming at Acción Cultural Española AC/E; Advisor for Cultural Affairs in the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Cultural Attaché in Tokyo. He was also in charge of Cultural and Consular Affairs in Islamabad and Oslo. The event will be introduced by Isabelle Berneron, Attaché for Books at the French Institute.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with AECID and the collaboration of Editorial Siruela and the French Institute
Event 20
Consuelo Varela in conversation with Ignacio Camacho
Waiting for Columbus
– Fundación Valentín de Madariaga
Christopher Columbus is the protagonist of this event. Sailor and European discoverer of America, history has conferred upon him the status of conquistador. But the man elevated to the rank of hero was also a person, in the most private sense of the term. A leading expert on Columbus, historian Consuelo Varela, will speak about the human side of the sailor, a side perfectly captured in the exhibition she is curating, Letters from Columbus. The Americas in the House of Alba, which can be visited in Madrid until next January. The letters she has analysed reflect Columbus's concerns for his children, his personal tastes, and his dismay at injustices. Consuelo Varela, a Seville-born historian, is a researcher at the School of Spanish-American Studies, which belongs to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). A specialist in Christopher Columbus, she was the first woman director of the Reales Alcázares historic royal palace in Seville. Recipient of the 2009 City of Seville Medal, she has published a dozen books and hundreds of articles on the Americas and on Christopher Columbus.
She will discuss this with the Sevilliano journalist Ignacio Camacho. A graduate in Hispanic Languages and Literature from the University of Seville, after working in newspapers such as El Correo de Andalucía, Diario 16 and El Mundo, in 2000 he joined ABC, which he went on to direct between 2004 and 2005. He is a contributor to talk shows on media channels such as Cope and Antena 3. Author of several books of political analysis, he is a member of the Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras (Royal Academy of Literature), and has been awarded the González-Ruano prize; Mariano de Cavia prize; and the Miguel Delibes National Journalism Award.
Event in Spanish
Co-organized with the Casa de Alba Foundation
Event 21
Sevillian Talent – Creativity, Innovation, and Future
Round Table
– Real Fábrica de Artillería de Sevilla
This round table brings together prominent Sevillian leaders from various fields to reflect on the city's talent as a driver of creativity and innovation. Through their personal and professional experiences, we will explore how Seville projects itself to the world through culture, technology, and entrepreneurship, while addressing both global and local challenges. An enriching dialogue about the present and future of Sevillian talent, aimed at inspiring new generations and strengthening our commitment to development and excellence.
Event 22
Simon Armitage in conversation with Antonio Rivero Taravillo
Everyday verses for the world
– Fundación Valentín de Madariaga
Simon Armitage is one of the most original, respected and beloved poets in the UK. From the school of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes, he has been breaking the canons of lyrical production for more than 30 years, and now, for the first time, his verses land in Spanish, with an exquisite translation and bilingual edition by Jordi Doce. An incredible work of craftsmanship, at the height of verses that shoot with aim and beauty. In Avión de papel are gathered the best texts of his poetic production over more than a quarter of a century, between 1989 and 2014. Armitage is Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to poetry. An absolute lyrical institution in the islands. He has established himself as one of the leading representatives of the current lyrical scene and continues to exert a decisive influence on his contemporaries. These verses transform the local into the universal, digging to the heart of every image and every feeling.
The poet will talk with writer, essayist, poet and translator Antonio Rivero Taravillo. He is the author of 16 collections of poems and several travel books and novels. He has translated important poets in the English language and is a specialist in Irish literature. His biographies of Luis Cernuda and Juan Eduardo Cirlot won him the Comillas and Antonio Domínguez Gil awards, respectively. He has also won the Andalusian Prize for Literary Translation Rafael Cansinos Assens and the Seville Book Fair Prize.
The event will be complemented by readings of his poems in English and Spanish by Isabelle Berneron, Julie Finch and José Félix Valdivieso.
Event in English with consecutive translation into Spanish
Co-organized with the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Spain and Editorial Impedimenta
Event 23
Teodoro León Gross, Rubén Amón, Ketty Garat, Juan Soto Ivars and Estefanía Molina in conversation
The Mud Machine: Politics versus Journalism
– Fundación Cajasol - Sala Murillo
The singling out of the media has become a hallmark of populism. Trump branded journalists as the No. 1 enemy of the people, linking them to the establishment. Indeed, the attack on the press and the courts - with the very doctrine of 'lawfare' or judicial dirty war - is inseparable from the populist drift that has eroded the standards of liberal democracy.
The Andalusian journalist Teodoro León Gross will talk about this complicated relationship between journalism and politics with four outstanding professionals of his profession: Juan Soto Ivars, Ketty Garat, Estefanía Molina and Rubén Amón. León Gross has collaborated with newspapers such as El País, El Mundo and ABC and the different newspapers of the Joly Group in Andalusia. He currently directs and presents the news program Mesa de análisis, on Canal Sur Televisión. Soto Ivars, recent winner of the Jovellanos 2024 International Essay Prize for La trinchera de letras, has become one of the most widely read columnists in Spain. He has published novels, essays and a children's book, and collaborates with media such as Onda Cero, Antena 3, El Confidencial and elPeriódico. Garat is The Objetive's journalist of reference for everything that happens in Moncloa and the PSOE. She is the author of Bajo las alfombras del Congreso and collaborates in different radio and television media. Molina is a political analyst, journalist, and writer who contributes to various television and radio programs and writes for El País; she is the author of Berrinche político. Amón is a writer and journalist with a long career that includes his chronicles as a correspondent in the Balkan War; he collaborates in Onda Cero, with Carlos Alsina, and Antena 3 and writes in El Confidencial and is the author of a dozen books.
Event in Spanish
With the collaboration of Fundación Cajasol
Event 24
Erica Benner in conversation with Geoffroy Gerard
Is Democracy in danger?
– Fundación Cajasol - Sala Murillo
Political debates in many countries focus on the immense polarization and the necessary fight against populisms that seek to undermine democracy. Contributing to this are the outcomes of certain elections, climate change, and advances in artificial intelligence, which leave us with a sense of helplessness. Therefore, it is important to reconsider what tools those defending true democracy —one that grants representation and rights to all, without exclusion— might have.
In this event Erica Benner will explain why she believes that the fight against autocracy must involve mobilizing people, but that there is no need to frighten them with visions of dark characters. She argues, “We need to counterattack by thinking more creatively. We must focus on ordinary people and engage them, regardless of their position, rather than only thinking of those already polarized.”
She was born in Tokyo and grew up both in Japan and the United Kingdom. She is a political philosopher who has held academic positions at St Antony’s College at Oxford, the London School of Economics, and Yale University. She is the author of books such as Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli’s Lifelong Quest for Freedom, nominated for Book of the Year by The Guardian. Her latest work is Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of Popular Power. She is president of the European Society for the History of Political Thought.
Benner will be in conversation at the event with Geoffroy Gérard, general manager of the IE Foundation.
Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish
With the collaboration of Fundación Cajasol
Event 25
Thomas Schlesser in conversation with Elena Garrigues
From art to comfort
– Fundación Cajasol - Sala Murillo
Thomas Schlesser teaches us that there are certain human wounds that cannot be healed. However, drawing on personal experiences, this French art historian and writer teaches us that art can bring us comfort in extreme situations, in such a way that it might help us take the first step towards the stages of overcoming them. Since 2014, Schlesser has been the director of the Hartun-Bergman Foundation (Antibes, France), whose main mission is to preserve the archives and objects of artists. He has just published his first novel, Lex Yeux de Mona (Mona's Eyes), after a string of essays on the history of art and aesthetics. He is also a lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. First through realism and now through fiction, He attests that an attentive look at any artistic expression is an apprenticeship to life, to its beauty, to know oneself, "to how big the small can be, to believe in miracles, to put the world on pause, that there is no weaker sex, to live the throes of death, to listen to your inner voice, to fight and persevere, that love is desire and desire is deprivation...’".
Schlesser will talk to Elena Garrigues, who works as a professor of Ethics at IE University. With deep cultural concerns, he began his career as a correspondent for several media outlets. She is a trustee in three foundations, inclusive entrepreneurship (Nantik Lum), human rights (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Spain) and aid to children and adolescents (ANAR). Isabelle Berneron, book attaché at the French Institute, will present the event.
Event in French with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish
With the collaboration of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial and the Institut Français
Event 26
Xu Tiantian in conversation with Martha Thorne
Closing event Hay Festival Forum of Seville
– Fundación Cajasol - Sala Murillo
Xu Tiantian is an internationally recognized architect and the founder of DnA Design and Architecture. She has been extensively involved in the process of rural revitalization in China. Her innovative “Architectural Acupuncture” is a holistic approach to heritage and the social and economic revitalization of rural China. UN-Habitat has selected this work as the 'Inspiring Practice' case study on urban-rural linkages. Its social design approach is aimed at maximizing benefits for both the location and its people. The traditional building culture in rural areas differs significantly from that of urban areas. By integrating communities with their environment and considering the cultural and economic context, architecture becomes a fundamental tool for improving agrarian village life.
Born in Fujian China, she received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing and her Master of Architecture degree in Urban Design from Harvard University - GSD. She has received numerous awards, including the WA China Architecture Award in 2006 and 2008, the Emerging Architects Award from the Architectural League of New York in 2008, the Design Vanguard Award in 2009 from Architecture Record, the Moira Gemmill Award for Emerging Women Architects in 2019, and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2023, among others. In 2020, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Tiantian will discuss his work with Martha Thorne, urban planner and senior advisor to the international cutting-edge award for people and planet, the OBEL Award; she was executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The event will be presented by Nuria Canivell, dean of the Official College of Architects of Seville.
With the collaboration of Fundación Cajasol and supported by the Open Society Foundations
Event 27
James Ellroy
Autobiography in noir genre
– Espacio Fundación Telefónica (Madrid)
James Ellroy (Lee Earle Ellroy) is one of the most renowned writers of crime novels, with a long work that has been successfully adapted, twice, to the cinema. A direct heir to the geniuses of the genre such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Ellroy's style is direct, with few words, dry as a bourbon, which gives his main characters a personality that leaves no one indifferent: they sharpen their words while caressing the gun. His life, marked in his youth by the unsolved murder of his mother, has inspired some of his novels.
He was born in Los Angeles in 1948 and after the separation of his parents, and when he was only 10 years old, his mother was murdered. Over time he became a thief and alcoholic, which earned him jail time. After giving up drinking and finding a job as a Caddy on a golf course, he began to write. His first novel, Requiem for Brown recreates his own life. Other crime novels followed, such as Suicide Hill, The Angel Quartet and The Black Dahlia. Shortly after, in 1990, came the internationally renowned Los Ángeles Confidencial, which prolonged his success in the cinema with a version that is already considered a classic of the noir genre. This month he publishes the novel The Seducers, the third volume of his quintet about Los Angeles, an absorbing story about Marilyn Monroe and her controversial death.
Event in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish
