Frankfurt Book Fair 2012 in The Eye of The Insider or Guidelines on Enjoying the Buchmesse
This year my dream came true and I finally made it to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest event in Europe's literary and publishing world. Last year I preferred Festival of Lights in Berlin, which triggered my total isolation from the current situation in the field I love so much. This time I decided to seize the day and embrace the world of books from the pespective of the insider. I took part in a new project of the Book Fair called Travel Gallery - an area uniting several partners to do with travel guides, maps and newest travel applications for smartphones. Besides, this part of the fair dealt with travel photography and, of course- the new trend of travel blogs. Working at the Travel Gallery appeared to be a surprisingly pleasant coincidence, since I used to write a
city-guide blog about Frankfurt and Germany (in Ukr, but you can still flick through the pics).
Needless to say, that the area of the Book Fair is huge with an immense quantity of exciting events running at the same time. I diligently tried to work out some sound plan, but there seemed to be no way to be present everywhere.
I hereby offer a very personal, but an easy quide to cope with the exhibition's tricky nature which may come in handy if you would come to visit Buchmesse next year.
1. Visit the Hall of the Guest of Honour.
Every year different and unpredictable, this part of the expo guarantees the most memorable moments you might experience during the Fair. This year's guest was New Zealand and its performance fully lived up to the expectations. Not only did New Zeland prove its image of a country rich and fertile in all its resources- be they belonging to the world of pure nature or to the complex world of human thought, but also remained a mysterious and multifaceted part of the world still to be discovered.
New Zealand's motto was 'While You Were Sleeping'. Having entered the
area of the pavilion, one would plunge into the atmosphere of the
complete detachment from the outer world, provided by the darkness,
stars shining seemingly just above your head, a shimmering oval of the
fool moon reflected in the set of water channels which cut the smooth
space of the the hall and make you trod carefully trying to find the
ground under your feet and do not end up swimming there...and all this
on the background of the sounds of nature...
Occasionaly there appeared the actor Matu Ngaropo: walked in the water,
took showers of the rain pouring down just from the 'skies' and read excerpts from New Zealand's literary heritage...an awe-inspiring perfomance.
2. Hungry? Pop up to Gourmet Gallery!
The Gourmet Gallery gives an overview to what gastronomy and recipe books have in store for us. The good thing is that you can always find fancy snacks, wine testing or watch some funny cook shows. A wonderful place to take a break among the hectic haze of the Fair.
I personally found plenty of material which made Gourmet Gallery worth visiting:
3. Run to your country's stand!
If you do not come from Germany, seeing your own country represented at the Fair is someting special. Aiming just to step by, I ended up talking to our people, meeting our most famous publisher and holding Ukrainian books in my hands. And I of course could not avoid getting some presents from hospitable Ukrainians: mostly a bunch of maps of our country...ehm...and not only maps:
Besides, the International pavilion is normally full of cosy corners for meetings or just a cup of tea and a good read:
4. Reconsider graphical novels
Graphical novels and comic pavilion of the fair are often misunderstood because of the crowds of those freakishly disguised in heroes of the comics clogging the area of the hall. However, there are two reasons I like this pavilion: first,comic illustrations are sometimes real masterpieces and might be a wonderful inspirational tool when you like pop-art drawing. Second, there are always worthy novels represented, like this year's fresh graphical novel
The Man Who Wanted To Meet The Moon by Helena Hormiga (originally in Spanish:
el hombre que quiso conocer a la luna). The novel seems to resemble the noted cartoon
The Old Man and the Sea (
Старик и море) : a 1999
paint-on-glass-animated short film directed by
Aleksandr Petrov. This graphic novel, however, seems to revolve around a the search for the sense of life and the essence of the dream. The illustrations are amazing! When the book would be available on amazon, I am ordering it!
5. Take a break
The area of the Fair is huge, but always full of break-points: you could have enjoyed a read on the hammock or drink some coffee at the Reading-Tent just in the center of the Fair's territory.
6. Buy books and learn!
Simple as it may sound...but many do forget that it's all about reading and allow themselves getting distracted with some other activities at the Book Fair. I visited numerous lectures on traveling, or rather was obliged to be there due to my participation in Travel Gallery and I absolutely did not have time to buy books or at least get a good picture of this year's top books. Instead, I had to remain on one place, but I got to learn a lot from it, too. I was excited with the report of travel-bloggers and decided to add extra travelous flair to my blog. Moreover, I got a wonderful tip for the new book- the bestseller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The action takes place in my beloved Barcelona and the book seems to have promising references so I already grabbed it in the library and will comment on it later!
But my advice would be: if you really want to experience more of the Book Fair, don't try to get involved in it, but rather come as a visitor and enjoy your 2 full days of the paradise of words and the power of texts.
