“Buch Wien” starts with the host country Russia and without masks

Philosopher Isolde Charim will give the opening speech, Attwenger will play an opening concert. The first guest country is Russia. A choice with potential for controversy.

In the previous year, the “Buch Wien” had to be canceled due to the corona. This year it will take place again. The thirteenth edition of the book fair opens today, Wednesday, in the Messe Wien not only with a speech, but also with a concert: first the philosopher Isolde Charim speaks to invited guests, then the Upper Austrian two-man band Attwenger also plays for the normal Audience.

The 2G rule applies to the book fair: only vaccinated and convalescent people are allowed into the hall, but you can move freely without masks. On the very first evening, top-class authors, Eva Menasse, Doris Knecht, Sebastian Fitzek and Michael Köhlmeier, are waiting for the visitors. Florian Illies will present his new book “Love in Times of Hate – 1929 to 1939” in Vienna on Thursday at 2 p.m.

Russia is the first guest country in the history of the “Buch Wien”, which two years ago counted 55,000 visitors. Until Sunday, 323 exhibitors will be represented on 12,000 square meters. There is not only a program in the exhibition hall: over 500 authors and contributors are expected at a total of 23 venues. For the first time this year there is a program focus “Book Vienna Debate”.

No debate about Putin’s Russia

“In the last few years we have been relying more and more on a top-class debate program,” announced program manager Günter Kaindlstorfer in advance. “There is discussion about ‘Orban’s Hungary’ as well as about ‘radicalized conservatism’, which the political scientist Natascha Strobl sees at work in Austria and the USA, among others. And the China of Xi Jinping is of course also a topic – Stefan Aust and Adrian Geiges will present their biography of the Chinese authoritarian. “

A controversial discussion about Russia under Vladimir Putin is looking in vain in the program. “I don’t want to comment on Russia”, the program manager lets know, however, that this is “not my building site”.

In fact, the idea of ​​introducing guest country appearances in Vienna, similar to Frankfurt and Leipzig, had long been considered. “Russia wasn’t so much our own wish,” admits Buch Wien managing director Patrick Zöhrer. “That came about in 2019 through the Sochi Dialogue.” At that time, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen was accompanied on his trip abroad by a cultural delegation around the Salzburg Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler. And the idea was born that Russia should present itself at the book fair in Vienna and Austria vice versa at the fair in Moscow.

Spatially, the first guest country appearance is rather modest: Russia has a 120 square meter stand (that’s twice the size of the usual exhibition stands). But at least there is its own exhibition, its own stage and around 30 events on and off the fair.

The program comes from the “Institute of Translation” in Moscow

The stand is financed with 47,300 euros by the Russian “Ministry for Digital Development”, which has recently also been responsible for literature. The content is designed by the “Institute of Translation” in Moscow. This is not formally a state institution, which is why, according to the head of the office Director Yevgeny Resnichenko is also able to work with the US, for example. The desired international encounter is not always frictionless. French President Macron wanted to avoid a Russian stand at the Paris Book Fair in 2019, they say.

Managing Director Zöhrer assures that he “did not go into it naively”: “The political issue has accompanied us from the beginning, so it was extremely important to us to do it in step with the Foreign Ministry, where the experts are located, and not to try to go it alone. Of course, we didn’t want the Russian government to make a propaganda appearance at Buch Wien, but at the same time we were aware that we wouldn’t be able to go completely into opposition, “says the Buch Wien managing director. “The principle of Buch Wien is that 100 percent of the program is curated. Every suggestion is checked and discussed by us. We would definitely have had the opportunity to raise objections. But we have found that this is a well-thought-out program and that there is no need to intervene. “

Much fiction, few non-fiction books

When selecting authors, the “Institute of Translation” focuses on fiction, which helps to avoid any controversy in the field of non-fiction, and on authors whose works have been translated into German. There are no black lists of writers who are unpopular for political reasons, insist Resnichenko and Nina Litvinez, program director of the Russian state. They explain that their institute also supported translations by opposition writers such as Dmitri Bykow, Dmitri Gluchowski and Lyudmila Ulitzkaja.

Several well-known authors such as Evgeni Wodolaskin, Gusel Jachina or Viktor Remizov are represented at Buch Wien, but none of them could disturb the Kremlin.

“I don’t choose anything for political reasons,” says Resnichenko. “We can be put under pressure, but not in the same way as a government agency. We position ourselves for literature as an art.”