Bucharest International Book Fair - 11-th edition.

Guest of honour: Spain

 

Place: Etaj 3/4 Art Galleries and 1st floor lobby of the National Theater, Bucharest
Date: May 21-25, 2003
Organizers: artexpo Foundation together with the Romanian Publishers Association (A.E.R.), the Professional Writers Association of  Romania (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 Bucharest City Hall
Collaboration with: TVR Cultural - sole TV media partner, RDS - sole Internet partner, UTI Group, the 22 
review, daily Ziua, the magazine Observator cultural, and Cotidianul.
Rent for a furnished place: the ROL equivalent of EUR 60/sq.m. for Romanian publishers, and EUR 100/sq.m. for foreign exhibitors; for foreign book distributors - EUR 80/sq.m.
Number of participants: 306, i.e. 201 from Romania and 98 from foreign countries: Spain, France, Germany, the U.K., the Republic of Moldova, Poland, Hungary. The exhibitors participated directly or were represented by cultural centres, book distributors and importers or other book promotion bodies.
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 This year the Fair's guest of honour was Spain. The Spanish presence at the Fair was organized by Instituto Cervantes of Bucharest and Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de España - Secretaría de Estado de Cultura, Dirección General del Libro, 
Archivos y Bibliotecas. The about 100 sq.m. Spanish booth on the 4th floor hosted an exhibition of books by the best-known Spanish and Hispano-American authors, in Spanish or in Romanian translation. The events marking Spain's presence included roundtables and lectures on contemporary Spanish literature and other relevant topics, such as "Meeting with Spanish Publishers. Publishing Prospects in Spain and Romania" (May 21), the debate "Translations and Translators" (May 22), the lecture on "Hispano-American Literature Issued by Spanish Publishers", "Romanian and Spanish Contemporary Literature" (May 23). The events also included meetings with publishers from Spain, readings and book launches, films as well as a photographic 
exhibition entitled Escritores y sus letras (Writers and Their Literature), jazz music and fashion.
The inauguration of the Spanish booth was attended by H.E. Jesús Atienza Serna, Spain's Ambassador to Romania, Mrs Carmen Basauri Cebrián, head of the office of the director of the Cervantes Institute in Spain, Mr Iñaki Abad Leguina, director of the Culture Division of the Cervantes Institute in Spain, and Mrs Ioana Zlotescu Simatu, director of the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest. During the Fair the Spanish guests Carlos Álvarez-Ude - editor with the review Ínsula, member of the Board of ARCE (Association of Cultural Reviews in Spain), Esperanza Moráis - director of Metáfora Publishers, Blas Matamoro - director of the review Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, Joaquín Garrigós - translator, Ignacio Echevarría - literary critic with the review Babelia, a culture supplement of daily El País, poet Julia Barella, Argentinean author 
Rodrigo Fresán, author Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, and Félix Romeo - literary critic with the magazine Blanco y Negro Cultural, a cultural supplement of daily ABC, held lectures, had talks with Romanian publishers and read from their works. Romanian authors, translators and publishers joined in this programme aimed at promoting knowledge of the Spanish and Romanian publishing markets.

The German Book Centre, which represented the Frankfurt Book Fair, and the Goethe Inter Nationes Institute arranged a meeting with German author Thomas Brussing, who read from his novels, followed by the film Sun Alley. Once Upon a Time in the East, based on the young writer's novel, screened in the evening at the "La Motor" rooftop pub.

Another event was the exhibition "Superbooks II" - over 150 titles that won awards in 2002/2003 at book design contests in Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Romania - organized by the Publishers Association of Romania (A.E.R.), British Council Romania, the German Book Center, Idea Design & Print, ARTEXPO Foundation, the Idea Foundation, and ProHelvetia.

The organizers of the French participation, the Cultural Services of France's Embassy and France - Office the promotion internationale, offered a programme including book presentations, with the participation of author Olivier Rolin. With H.E. Philippe Etiènne, France's Ambassador to Bucharest, in attendance, they also launched the Eugène Ionesco literary award, designed to encourage contemporary Romanian literature.

Representatives of the Warsaw International Book Fair came to the Bookarest Fair with materials on their latest edition and information about next year's one.

As far as the Romanian participation is concerned, the fewer Romanian participants with individual booths, publishers having favoured collective booths instead (publishing houses, autonomous educational subsidiaries or divisions, distributors, etc.), created an impression of "more space," which both the media and the visitors noticed. 

Another fact that the organizers, exhibitors and visitors noticed and that generated arguments was the increasingly visible commercial aspect of the Fair. To the exhibitors a successful fair means many books sold while for the audience it means many books bought at the lowest possible prices. This is one more reason why, according to the organizers and analysts, BOOKAREST acts as the best barometre of the book market in Romania. Further on, it is the task of organizations in this industry to analyze and formulate conclusions on the information - figures, statistics, criteria and categories - about each edition of the Book Fair.
The principal organizer, ARTEXPO, maintains what it has repeatedly stated both on its own limits when it comes to offering more room for the booths at the same rates and on the need for a serious professional approach to the cultural potential of the Fair, this being a must with regard to assessments and conclusions in the field of publishing.

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 Besides the titles and collections launched, there were practical demonstrations of CD-ROMs, interactive learning methods, project presentations, debates and roundtables.

This year again the Fair hosted several award galas: the prizes of the Publishers Association of Romania were awarded for publishing, printing or editorial performance, rewarding the Romanian publishers selected for the 18 sections (best collection, best translation, most beautiful book, editorial excellence, bibliophile edition, etc.). The books nominated were displayed at the Association's booth.

The Professional Writers Association of Romania awarded prizes, in five sections - literary genres plus the debut section, to Romanian authors for the works they published the previous year. 

The Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs again awarded the Annual National Book and Culture Prizes. Eleven prizes went to graphic artists, publishers and editors.

This year for the second time the ARTEXPO Foundation awarded the annual Radu Steflea Prize for book illustration.

Another major event was on May 25 when the Cultural Service of the French Embassy, the Concept Foundation and the Passarela French-Romanian Cultural Foundation launched the Eugène Ionesco literary award, aimed at promoting Romanian culture abroad and providing an incentive for publishers to issue works by new Romanian authors. The contest for all categories of this prize remains open until the end of 2003.
Media coverage and publicity: The articles in the print media, radio announcements and interviews, and the interviews aired by TV stations prompted the organizers to consider the latest edition of the Fair as adequately supported in the media. This resulted in a greater interest of both the audience in general and public figures (the President of Romania visited the Fair on two occasions; the Prime Minister, diplomats, ministers and parliamentarians also visited). The TV station TVR Cultural was the exclusive partner of the Fair. The magazine Observator cultural devoted an entire issue to the programme of this major publishing event and another two pages in the following issue. The review 22 issued a supplement presenting the exhibitors and their books. Another six publications - dailies and cultural weeklies - carried articles, commentaries and pictures on/from the Fair and its events.

The catalogue of the Fair, the poster and invitations were printed with financial support from the Bucharest City Hall through the ArCuB Cultural Projects Centre.
Visitors: over 60,000 visitors
Cost of the entrance ticket: 20.000 lei (approximately 60 cents); free entrance was offered to children and schoolchildren, and 50% reductions for students, senior citizens and soldiers.