When the magazine L'Avenç published the 500th issue last April, many put their hands to their heads because they had announced that it would be the last, although they left "the door open to a third life". And so it could be seen on Tuesday at the Alibri bookstore, where they celebrated the rebirth, now with number 501 and a new direction with Simona Škrabec at the helm.
Núria Iceta, editor with the now ex-director Josep M. Muñoz, thanks the possibility of going back to the publication, especially for "the decisive contribution of an individual and to the Department of the Presidency of the Generalitat", because "a magazine without readers it's a magazine, and a project without money is just an idea." Muñoz admits that he was skeptical about the future, and then he praises the magazine as a concept based on Patrick Radden Keefe's preface to his book Canalles (Periscope), where he writes that he fell in love with magazines in high school, in eighties, when "they were ubiquitous and it seemed that they would be there forever"; believed that "a long magazine article could be the best format". Muñoz does not surprise anyone when he says that the magazine "filters and hierarchizes", and talks about the "culture of metabolizing the printed word", and alludes to slow journalism that, paradoxically, has been saved thanks to the internet, because now we have the article to one click to win the "war against mediocrity", and quotes the article of the collaborator Martí Gallén: "The only war worth fighting is the war against human stupidity".
The room is full of friends, such as the editor of Chronos Gonzalo Rodríguez ("we had to come to support them", he says) or the editor of Les Hores, Maria Sempere, the writers Carles Torner, Joan Todó and Jordi Puntí - member of the editorial board with Cristina Massanés, David Fernàndez, Ana Sánchez and Julià Guillamon, who could not be there -, the literary researcher Mita Casacuberta, the president of the CoNCA Vinyet Panyella, the director of Literature of the Ramon Llull Institute , Joan de Sola or the businessman Jaume Roures.
While Škrabec – “the magazine is a relegated section of time” – and Massanés – “the magazine is a device of thought” – are still talking, I rush out to the Gabriel García Márquez library in order not to make it to the masses said at another rough celebration: the 800 number of El Ciervo. Newspaper journalism often demands urgency.
Mayor Jaume Collboni opened the event by defining El Ciervo as a "school of coexistence, dialogue, respect for others, openness to the world and opposition to dogmatism and fanaticism" which are so needed in times like the present, and he explains amusingly that when he was born the magazine already existed, and it continued now that he is mayor, and he hopes it will be like this when he retires. The director of the publication, Jaume Boix, goes further and after the usual thanks dares to wish: "I would love to have my obituary in El Ciervo!". In front of the Deputy Director General of the Book of the Ministry of Culture, Jesús González González, and the manager of Libraries of Barcelona, Ferran Burguillos, Boix asked, and more so having recently won the National Prize for the Promotion of Reading, to increase the presence of the magazine in libraries, "a natural place". He also explains that they are modernizing and looking for new readers, "without ceasing to be who we are", that "we cast the nets but the fish is expensive", although he wonders if perhaps it is not actually better "to wait for these young people grow a little".
Afterwards, he invites the writer Eduardo Mendoza, the journalist Xavi Ayén and the poet, translator and musician José María Micó to speak. They talk about the magazine, humour, Comedy and Dante – Micó is an expert – and superagent Carmen Balcells – a few months ago the square next to the library was named after her. Ayén highlights the selection of topics and the style of the magazine - "irony and clarity" -, pointing out that it can encourage young people - "my daughter was talking to me about a very interesting article the other day", she says -.
Among so many people, there is the commissioner of Culture and Creative Industries of Barcelona, Xavier Marcé, the director of Librújula, Antonio Iturbe, and the editor-in-chief of Serra d’Or, Joaquim Noguero, Xavier Roig of Política
The following day, Wednesday, at the Horiginal of the Calders Bookstore, Raquel Santanera and Laia Carbonell will announce that at the end of this month the series will move, hopefully permanently, to a new home, in Sants, at the Deskomunal. But today is today and they are celebrating the book that the digital magazine La Lectora has published with Barcino as a result of its Carner Project. There is an audience and readers of poems, but the book is not there, due to technical problems. They pass the stage to read and celebrate the prince of poets, the hard core of this new magazine that also delves into the things of old, with Gerard Cisneros, Gemma Medina, Jaume Coll Mariné, Marc Rovira, collaborators such as Artur Garcia Carpenter or Adrià Targa, or the poets Enric Casasses, Joan Todó, Víctor Obiols, Raquel Pena, Jordi Florit - the idea for the book came from one of his tweets - or the actor - and now bookseller of the house Héctor Mellinas –, until Rovira and Targa set up the Carner Consultancy, the exact science of Carnermanship: a question is asked, a page and a verse are said at random, and the answer is always correct. Like magazines.
