Under the motto "sparkling creativity", Spain, as Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, will be presenting the linguistic diversity inherent in the southern European country. Even the royal couple appears to open the composition of literary potpourri and modern technology on display in the pavilion.
As Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Spain presents itself in a colorful and modern way. In the guest country pavilion, interactive installations invite you to get to know language and literature in a playful way. With King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia had a very important visitor on the opening night.
"It's a privilege to be here," said the monarch at the opening ceremony in front of hundreds of international guests. It is an honor that Spain has been invited once again to show its literature, its languages and its "sparkling creativity" - in this "European and cultural showcase". Frankfurt had already been a guest country 31 years ago. The appreciation for books is deeply rooted in Spanish society, the king said.
The Spanish royal couple is on a three-day state visit to Germany. At the start on Monday, it was greeted with military honors by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin in front of Bellevue Palace. "What is happening here, what you can see and hear here," said Steinmeier, "is of such great importance that the king and queen are honoring us and wanted to be present at the opening today."
The couple then met Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Chancellery, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas in the Reichstag building and Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey in the Red City Hall. In Frankfurt, the couple was not received by the mayor: Mayor Peter Feldmann was accused of corruption in court in the morning.
On Wednesday, the royal couple will continue with culture: After a stroll through the fair, an appointment at the "Instituto Cervantes" is planned, which promotes Spanish culture and language abroad. Later on, the European Central Bank is on the agenda.
Spain is an important market for bookmakers: in 2021, almost 80,000 new titles were published in Spain, and 600 new publications in German translation will be presented in the guest country pavilion. The Spanish delegation at the book fair numbers around 200 people, including Irene Vallejo and Antonio Muñoz Molina, who gave the literary speeches at the opening. 320 exhibitors present themselves at the fair, 50 events are planned in Frankfurt.
At the press conference in the morning, Book Fair Director Juergen Boos emphasized Spain's multilingualism: a quarter of the authors who came write in a different language, he said - in Catalan, Galician or Basque. He also emphasized that the trade fair should be a place for debate and togetherness, especially in times of crisis. It is about strengthening democratic discourse, giving diversity a stage and negotiating controversial issues with mutual respect. "The Book Fair is the opposite of an echo chamber," said Boos.
Each guest country traditionally presents itself with a pavilion at the book fair. Spain uses state-of-the-art technology: A huge LED wall reacts to touch, words drift through the immersive space in a labyrinth of fabric panels. Tablets make suggestions for the translation of untranslatable phrases, microphones transform speech into colorful images. Robotic arms write an endless poem that is sent into space, a printer transforms writing into a haptic form for the blind.
