The poet, video artist and cultural agitator Ester Xargay died a few days ago, at the age of 63, after a long fight against cancer. Xargay stood out for her experimental will and for her research in the audiovisual field, and especially for a public aspect with recitals that brought together the poets of the moment and those of later.
She was born in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, but grew up in France, where she got an exotic accent, and she returned at the age of 18 to study Art History and embark on a career as a poet and audiovisual director.
His work, whether in the form of a poem, action, or audiovisual, always free, plays with language and is transgressive in forms, with books of poems such as Els Àngeles soterrats (Cafè Central, 1990), Trenca-sons (Books of Segle, 2002) or Desintegrar-se (Meteora, 2019), with which he won the Cadaqués prize for Rosa Leveroni.
Much of his work was written with Carles Hac Mor, such as the play Tirant lo Blanc, or La perfección és facista, or La construcción del socialisme (Entreacte, Editorial AADPC, 2000), the novel Carabassa a tot drap or Amor livre , use and abuse (Pagès Editors, 2001), or the poetry books Epitom infra un o no (Ombres de poemes de Marcel Duchamp) (Pagès, 1997) or Zooflèxia (the truest bestiary of all) (March Editor, 2007) .
His documentary The working group received the Espais al crítico de arte prize in 2000, and was anthologized on several DVDs such as Videopoesia catalana del segle 20, by the Habitual Video Team -with the long-awaited Lis Costa and Josep M. Jordana- (Proposal. org, 2001) and participated in initiatives such as the CD-Rom Paraparèmies, displacements, reifications... with Adolf Alcañiz, Barbara Held and Carles Hac Mor, and which in 1999 received the Navarra audiovisual creation award. He also collaborated in numerous publications, such as Avui, Papers d'Art, Reduccions, Transversal, Talp Club, Without title or Barcelona Review.
But saying all that is not explaining anything, if we do not talk about how, first in a duo with Carles Hac Mor, and alone after the death of her partner, she gathered around her for years a group of poets of art, of lyrics , of voice and action which he encouraged to do. It is not known who she pushed whom, but she was always there. They were poets who were already established, like Víctor Sunyol, Enric Casasses or Dolors Miquel, or those who were just starting out, transversal, and inter(ter)disciplinary like David Ymbernon, Meritxell Cucurella-Jorba, Eduard Escoffet, Josep Pedrals, Núria Martínez-Vernis , Martí Sales, Francesc Gelonch, Miguel Ángel Marín or Eduard Carmona and so many others felt how his breath gave them wings. Magazines recited, walks, walks, cycles in the extinct Metronome, now here or there, later when they coordinated the cycle Poesia als Parcs de la Diputació de Barcelona or, alone, in recent years, directing the new facility La Pahissa del Marquet , in the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park. She also co-directed Barcelona Poesia, first with David Castillo and later with Eduard Escoffet and Martí Sales.
Everything he organized was open, integrating well-known names, emerging names or simply whoever wanted to sign up, because he believed that art is for everyone and from everyone. Cultural right, we would say now. And always with a smile, reciting with a laugh and even singing.
After a long illness, on December 1st he presented a presentation at the International Congress of Catalan Literature of the Postmodernity of the University of Barcelona: Literature and art of my time. From a time that is and will also be ours.
