Bucharest International Book Fair - 10-th edition.

Guest of honour: Switzerland

Focus theme: "Swiss Literature in Romania"
Place: the art galleries Floor 3/4 and the hall of the National Theater, Bucharest
Date: May 22-26, 2002
Organizers: artexpo Foundation in collaboration with the Romanian Association of Publishers (A.E.R.), the Romanian Association of Professional Writers (A.S.P.R.O), and the Center for Cultural Projects of the City of Bucharest (ArCuB), with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the City of Bucharest
Collaboration with: Organizers of the focus theme: the Swiss Association of Publishers and Bookstore Owners - SBVV and the cultural foundation PRO HELVETIA;
Sponsors:  UTI Group and the the INTERCONTINENTAL Hotel Company;
Media partners: "Radio 21" broadcast station, the newspapers and cultural weeklies "Observator cultural", "Independent", "Cotidianul", "22";
Official Internet partner: ARTWEB DESIGN;
Official Internet provider: RDS.
Rent for a furnished place: the equivalent in local currency of $ 60/square meter for the Romanian publishers, and $ 100/square meter for the foreign participants; $ 80/square meter for foreign book agents in Romania.
Number of participants: 328 (as compared to 262 at the previous edition), of which 194 from Romania (171 in 2001), and 134 from other countries (91 in 2001), that is, France, Germany, Hungary, United Kingdom, Republic of Moldova, Spain, Switzerland, either by direct participation, or by participation through representatives (cultural centers, book agents and importers, other organizations involved in book promotion).
Comments:

 

Writers from Switzerland at
BOOKAREST 2002

 Kurt Aebli      Prof. Urs Alternmatt

      

 Francoise            Catalin Dorian
 Choquard            Florescu

 Christian Haller    Werner Lutz

 Eugene Melitz    Marius Popescu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Switzerland, the guest of honor at. this edition of the Fair, had a stand located in the main hall of the 4th floor (approximately 140 square meters), conceived by the Swiss Association of Book Dealers/Sellers and Publishers in collaboration with the Bucharest team of the cultural foundation Pro Helvetia, which assisted in setting up contacts, organizing meetings and talks between the Swiss representatives and the Romanian publishers, writers and readers. In addition to the bookstand, two exhibitions of photography ("Swiss Writers" and "Switzerland - The Land and The People") were on show. The program included talks and debates ("Romania as mirrored by Swiss literature", "The minority is a majority abroad"), a lecture by Professor Urs Altermatt on "Swiss Multiculturalism as a Model for Europe", held at the New Europe College-Institute of Advanced Study, and introduced by its rector, Professor Andrei Plesu, a panel discussion on the Swiss publishing system, book launchings, meetings between Swiss and Romanian writers, readings. The Swiss stand was officially opened by the Ambassador of Switzerland in Bucharest, Dr. Dr. François Chappuis, who also offered a dinner on this occasion.
Other events connected with the Swiss presence at the fair were the launching of the book "Echoes From Troubled Times: Swiss Documents 1940-1944", published by the Hasefer Publishing House in Bucharest, and the launching of a special issue on Switzerland by the Cluj cultural magazine BALKON.

The stand of France Editions, the official representative of France at the book fair, had 49 square meters and was situated on the 4th floor as well. It offered a large selection of books in a wide range of fields. The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Bucharest organized a number of events connected with the presence of French books and of translations from French in Romania: book launchings, autographing of books by the art critic and writer Catherine Millet, a lecture on Jean Genet, the presentation of the book inaugurating Collection 2001, a series initiated in collaboration with Concept Foundation in Bucharest. A number of Romanian booksellers (the NOI association of publishers, Prior Books, Euromedia) had on show books by French authors, ranging from literary writings and scientific literature, through art books, to dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc. The French UNIPRESS Stand and the Messenger service Little Paris in Bucharest offered reduced price orders for French journals and magazines.

The German stand provided information on recent publications in Germany by means of a thematic exhibition: "One Hundred Authors - One Hundred Titles", organized by the German Books Center, the representative of the Frankfurt Book Fair, with the support of the library of the Goethe Institute Internationes in Bucharest.

The Republic of Moldova was represented by four publishing houses and associations of publishers. In collaboration with the Association of Book Dealers Pro-Noi based in Bucharest, they presented books and collections published over the last few years; among them high school and university textbooks, dictionaries, complete works of Romanian authors (the complete works in 8 volumes of the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu, published by the GUNIVAS Publishing House, to give an example), e-books on CD-ROM (140 titles by Litera International), books for children, etc.

The stand of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and of the Cervantes Institute, located in the Round Hall on the 4th floor, presented books published by several Spanish institutions, and acquainted the Romanian public with the services offered by the library of the Institute, while GAD photo-gallery hosted a number of book launchings by Spanish authors.

The British publishers showed their production in several halls on the 4th floor, through such representatives of publishing houses as Macmillan-Romania, and through a number of book sellers and importers: Books Unlimited, Prior Books, Sitka Alaska, Oxford Educational Centre. As for the British Council in Romania, it focussed its participation on the presentation of collaborative projects on the analysis of the book market in Romania, such as the catalog and CD "The Book Market in Romania - Statistics 2001. Who Are Those Who Don't Read Books?" (a project initiated by the Romanian Association of Publishers), or the first edition of the catalog of the libraries and centers of information in Romania, in partnership with Softlink Romania and the journal "Biblioteca".

Hungary was represented by Alfoldi Printing House, as well as by a number of publishing houses within Romania: The Hungarian Book Guild, Koinonia, Kriterion, Pallas Akademia.

The organizers set up and maintained throughout the book fair an internet connection enabling the book importers, the representatives of bookshops and the public to consult their data bases so as to speed up book ordering.
As for the 194 Romanian participants (publishers and publishing groups, book sellers and importers, representatives of printing houses, providers of IT services, cultural journals and papers, museums, foundations, teaching institutions), it is worth noting that under the precarious economic conditions of a never-ending transitions they made every effort to present as attractively as possible the results of their activities over the past year.
The economic, social and political context in our country put its imprint on the 10th edition of the book fair. One may remark on the predominantly commercial character of the book fair, which also told on the relationship between the organizers and the participants, producing on occasion rather tense bargainings over location and space. One of the topics that elicited a general interest (and influenced the conception of some of the stands - Macmillan-Romania, e.g.) was that of the involvement of the state in the market for school text books, more specifically the conditions imposed by the state on the publishing houses wishing to take part in the competition for textbooks publishing. Such questions as legislative hindrances, the impact of economic conditions on book sales, the inability of the educational system to establish a bridge between the users (pupils, students) and the textbooks destined for them, were subjects of debates and panel discussions at the fair. It must be said that providing an opportunity for debates, surveys and assessments, and fostering common objectives, in the hope of contributing to the the development and the quality of the book market in Romania, has been and is one of the main concerns of the organizers of the Bucharest International Book Fair.

Events:

 

 More than 300 new titles and collections were launched at the fair; there were CD-ROM demonstrations, presentations of interactive projects and methods of learning, debates, panel discussions.
The many festivities during which prizes were given underscored the special character of this edition of the fair, the 10th one since its start, and were widely covered by the press. Among the prizes offered at the fair one might mention the Prize of the Association of Romanian Publishers (a prize given each year on this occasion for the publishing activity since the previous edition of the fair); the Ministry of Culture, who gave prizes for the first time at this edition of the fair, offered the annual National Prize for the promotion of books and culture within and outside the country; the "Center Education 2000+" Foundation gave prizes to the promoters of education in Romania; while artexpo Foundation, the main organizer of the fair, decided to offer starting with this year the Radu Steflea Prize for education through image, named after the initiator and organizer of the first International Book Fair in Bucharest.
Most of the galas and readings took place at "Laptaria Enache" bar, on the premises of the fair; for launchings and debates the organizers set up conference halls on floors 1 and 3. As on previous occasion, in order to avoid excessive crowding and noise provoked by the large number of launchings and their rapid succession, most of the book launchings took place at the stands proper.
artexpo Foundation organized for this fair three exhibitions of photography: "Feramenta" by Irina Radu, "Context" by Raluca Ionescu, "Sky" and "One Hundred Hearts" by Cristina Ciser, and an exhibition of book illustrations by the graphic artist Mihaela Schiopu.
Media coverage and publicity: over 80 articles in the press, 56 ads, 56 broadcast announcements and interviews, 10 interviews on television, have made of this fair the most actively covered one by the media so far. The effects of this media coverage showed through an increase of interest on the part of the general public and (to a more modest extent) of the political class towards the fair, which was visited by the President of Romania.
The fair had as media partners "Radio 21" and six cultural publications (newspapers and cultural weeklies). The cultural weekly "Observator Cultural" published a special issue with the program of the fair and allotted a whole section of its next issue to the events of the fair. The weekly "22" published a supplement presenting the fair.
The catalog, poster, invitations, etc. for the fair were printed with the financial support of the City of Bucharest through its Center for Cultural Projects ArCuB; the catalog, in Romanian and English, includes information on the participants, and their locations at the fair, indexing them by categories and fields.
Visitors, VIPs: over 60,000 visitors, among whom members of he parliament and of the government, representatives of embassies and cultural centers in Bucharest, party leaders, distinguished representatives of Romanian culture, etc. However, both the organizers and the participants couldn't help noticing the relatively small number of represenatives of state and government institutions among the visitors.
Cost of the entrance ticket: 10.000 lei (approximately 40 cents); free entrance was offered to children and schoolchildren, and 50% reductions for students, senior citizens and soldiers.