Spain – a country at a crossroads | NON-FICTION at CCI

January’s Non-Fiction meeting will take us on a reportage journey to Spain. Our guides around the country will be reporters Katarzyna Kobylarczyk and Aleksandra Lipczak, and the conversation will be moderated by Joanna Wiśniowska.

“We are going to forget all about the beautiful, sunny sites and beaches. Spain is a country with an experience of a civil war that has divided the society for decades. And those recurring, unsolved conflicts from the past will be the subject of our meeting on January 20^th, at 6 p.m., at the City Culture Institute,” says Ana Matusevic from the CCI.

Spain managed to shed the baggage of history and transform itself into a model of economic success. Yet, as if overnight, it turned into the “sick man of Europe”. Unsolved conflicts from the past returned, as did questions about the price of growth and the gigantic leap that proved to lead towards crisis.

Participants of the January meeting are:

Katarzyna Kobylarczyk – reporter and author of books Strup. Hiszpania rozdrapuje rany, Pył z landrynek. Hiszpańskie fiesty and Baśnie z bloku cudów. Reportaże nowohuckie. She has written five collections of historical reportages for the Małopolska Institute of Culture. Her texts have been published, among others, in Dziennik Polski, Gazeta Wyborcza and Tygodnik Powszechny. She is the winner of journalistic prizes: “Zielona Gruszka” and “Za różnorodnością, przeciw dyskryminacji”. She was born in Kraków’s Nowa Huta district, and still enjoys living there.

Aleksandra Lipczak is a journalist, reporter, and author of Ludzie z Placu Słońca (Dowody na Istnienie, 2017) – a collection of reportages about contemporary Spain rooted in the economic crisis. The book was nominated for the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Prize. Lipczak spent six years living in Barcelona, and has recently spent four months in Andalusia. She is currently working on a book on Spain’s Islamic past and its modern echoes.

The conversation will be moderated by Joanna Wiśniowska – journalist working with Gazeta Wyborcza Trójmiasto, Wysokie Obcasy, Tygodnik Powszechny and Krytyka Polityczna.

Non-Fiction at CCI is a series of meetings and debates with the most important authors of non-fiction and documentary literature. Between December and May, the City Culture Institute turns into a meeting place, where one can get to know and talk to authors of the most famous Polish non-fiction books. They become our guides to the world of reportage, introducing us to behind-the-scenes aspects of their work and their most intriguing topics. The subjects are cross-sectional, and the books and reportages merely serve as a point of departure.