PROGRAMME 2024


In 2024, we are thrilled to announce a new cycle of Panoramas, comprising three vibrant events in Berlin. SIESTA FESTIVAL invites you to join us in the discovery and reimagining of literature, sound, art, and dialogues surrounding these subjects. Each Panorama serves as a platform for a unique array of Latin American writers, translators, and media artists, bound together by our exceptional moderators. Alongside them, the DJs invited for each event will guide us through this panoramic experience hosted by LETTRÉTAGE, a curated space that has been providing innovative impulses for the literary metropolis of Berlin since 2006.

“Panoramas of Latin American Performative Literature in Berlin”


PANORAMA#1


JANUARY 27th

SIESTA FESTIVAL will embark on a captivating literary journey through the words of three authors: Ingeborg Robles, a German-Spanish writer, will explore everyday ironies and paradoxes, bringing Greek myth into the home kitchen and intertwining high culture with shoes. Juan Ignacio Chávez, a Peruvian writer, delves into a colonial nightmare, navigating the journey towards identity amid confinement. Bolivian writer Martha Gantier reflects on the forgotten god, the city as a port of suitcases, and the profound themes of death and rebirth. The event will be enriched by the translations of Monika Jorge Mateo, Laura Rogalski, and Jacqueline Schauer, with Carmen Volpe moderating and DJ Costalero providing the musical backdrop.

AUTHORS_Ingeborg RoblesJuan Ignacio Chávez;Martha Gantier.
TRANSLATORS_ Monika Jorge Mateo; Laura Rogalski;Jacqueline Schauer.
MODERATOR_ Carmen Volpe.
MUSIC_ DJ Costalero.


ARTISTS PANORAMA #1

AUTHOR_ Ingeborg Robles is a German-Spanish writer, translator, and literary organizer. She has lived in Berlin since 2014 and is active in the Spanish-language literary scene. In 2021, her poetry collection Auriculares para Ulises was published by Valparaíso Ediciones. Together with Pepe Pizzi, she curates and hosts the Salón Berlinés - live Salon and the podcast Salón Berlinés en la Ninfa Eco.
©Ruthe Zuntz
TRANSLATOR_ Monika Jorge Mateo is a Catalan-German-Argentine writer and translator. She is part of the feminist magazine SNACK and has published several short stories and poems. She also translates scientific and poetic texts into Spanish and German.
©Rodrigo Morales Schaack
©Erika Stehli

AUTHOR_ Juan Ignacio Chávez is a Peruvian writer and researcher. After a long wait for the pandemic, he recently published the poetry collection "Isla del Gallo" (Nueva York Poetry Press, 2022), partially translated into English by Rachel Whalen. He now lives in Berlin and is a PhD candidate at Humboldt University, where he is researching Latin American nation-building in poetry, travel writing and cartography.
©Franziska Hauser
TRANSLATOR_Laura Rogalski studied sociology and political science in Berlin and Bogotá. She is currently working on her doctorate at the Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts at Freie Universität Berlin. She is editor of the magazine alba.lateinamerika lesen, translates from Spanish into German and writes prose
AUTHOR_ Martha Gantier is a poet and storyteller born in the territory of the Leca nation, in the district of Tipuani, Bolivia. Some of her books are: De algún lugar de algún cielo, (2000); Remigia la muñeca de trapo, (Children's story, 2002); Las andariegas de Albalucía: una lectura sin armas ni armaduras (Essay, 2007). In 2021 she was invited to the Medellín International Poetry Festival.
©Maria Rapela
TRANSLATOR_Jacqueline Schauer studied Romance languages and literature in Germany and France. She works as a foreign language teacher and author in Berlin. In 2016, she started with poetry slam and founded her own reading stage. She gives writing and theater workshops. She writes in German, English, French and Spanish.
©Luca Morgantini

“Panoramas of Latin American Performative Literature in Berlin”


PANORAMA#2


APRIL 13th

SIESTA FESTIVAL returns with an thrilling exploration of literature and performance, ensembling the voices of three authors: Antonio Ungar, renowned for his acclaimed novels, cuts through the excess and fortunes of Eva, a biblical figure caught between the jungle and the city. While Giuliana Kiersz, poet and playwright, offers a daring insight into the human condition through multimedia landscapes. Closing the 2nd Panorama, Felipe Sáez Riquelme challenges the norms of poetry and performance through an etymological odyssey of the word “Ursprung”, while the memories of a colonization linger in the background. 

Their works will be translated by Susanne Lange, Timo Berger, & Laura Haber, who bring experience and linguistic fluency to expand languages, exploiting the richness of the texts-performances. Adding a visual dimension to the experience are Rocío Rodriguez, & Ian Kornfeld, infusing the event with an immersive aesthetic backdrop. Moderator Regina Riveros will walk us through the night, while the Musician Mauricio Fleury will make us celebrate the closing of another unforgettable journey. 

AUTHORS_Antonio Ungar,Giuliana Kiersz, &  Felipe Sáez Riquelme
TRANSLATORS_Susanne Lange, Timo Berger, & Laura Haber
VISUALS_Rocío Rodriguez, & Ian Kornfeld
MODERATOR _Regina Riveros
MUSIC_Mauricio Fleury

ARTISTS PANORAMA #2

AUTHOR_Antonio Ungar is the author of novels translated into seven languages and short stories included in more than twenty-five anthologies in five languages. His novel “Tres ataúdes blancos” won the Herralde Prize in 2010 and was a finalist for the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 2011. His two latest novels, “Mírame” (2019) and “Eva y las fieras” (2022) are being translated into French and German.
©Vasco Szinetar

TRANSLATOR_Susanne Lange lives between Barcelona and Berlin. She has translated, among other authors, Fernando del Paso, Juan Rulfo, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Luis Cernuda, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Alejandro Zambra and Javier Marías. For his new translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes she received the German Academy of Language and Literature Award.
©Rogelio Saunders
©Dirk Skiba

AUTHOR_Giuliana Kiersz is a poet, playwright, artist and playwright. Her texts have been translated into English, French, German, Portuguese and Tsotsil, and published by Rara Avis Editorial, Libros del Rojas, Fondo Editorial ENSAD, Editorial INTeatro, Espejo Somos, Libros Drama, Archive Books / Editions Solitude and Editions Espaces 34.
©Maria Rapela
TRANSLATOR_Timo Berger is a journalist, translator of Spanish and Portuguese, and co-curator of the Latin American Literature Festival Barrio | Bairro Berlin (2024) and the Latinale Poetry Festival between 2006 and 2022. In 2022 he founded the company Matchmaker, dedicated to the promotion of contemporary literature. His collection of poems "Hecho en Perú" will be published by Siesta in 2024 in Berlin.

©Ian Kornfeld
VISUALS_Ian Kornfeld is an audiovisual artist dedicated to experimentation in the fields of video, visual arts and sound. He co-founded the music-visual group Pornois (2000-2005) and since 2014 he has been carrying out his audiovisual experimentation project ANTIPLAN.

AUTHOR_Felipe Sáez Riquelme is a poet, performance artist, and writer. In his work, he approaches literature as performance and explores voice and listening as forms of writing. As part of a research on the limits of the book format, he published the work "Una vez" in 2021. Together with Franco Marcucci he founded SIESTA Verlag, a publishing house for Spanish-language authors living in Germany.
©Maria Rapela
TRANSLATOR_Laura Haber studied for a Master's degree (2015-2016) in Literary Translation at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. In addition to translating literature from Spanish, Portuguese and French, she is a member of the editorial staff of the literary magazine Alba, Lateinamerika Lesen and also moderator and coordinator of translation workshops.
©Santiago Engelhardt

“Panoramas of Latin American Performative Literature in Berlin”


PANORAMA#3


JUNE 15th

SIESTA celebrates its third and final Panoramas of Latin American Performative Literature in Berlin 2024, bringing together, for one last time, the emerging voices of three authors: Angélica Freitas opens the night with a vibrating and sharp performance on alopecia, sagging boobs, and menopause, pushing us to talk about how to survive the passage of time in a world made for men. Later, Franco Marcucci invites us to look through a deep cut into bacteria, fungi, & putrefaction, presenting living words that grow into a network of breathing matter. Closing this last Panoramas, Cristian Forte brings us back to the stage with open ears, diving into the sound archives made of found footage-style words-turned-into-poems.

Their works will be translated by Odile Kennel, Monika Raič, & Jordan Lee Schnee, who bring experience and linguistic elasticity to expand languages, exploiting the richness of the texts-performances. Together, this third and final universe of Latin American literature promises an unforgettable dive, inviting you to be bathed in these new horizons and perspectives. Adding a visual dimension to the experience are Rocío Rodriguez, & Valeria Solari, infusing the event with an immersive aesthetic backdrop. Moderator Felipe Sáez Riquelme will guide us through the night, while DJ Amuleto Manuela will make us celebrate the closing of this unforgettable journey. 

AUTHORS_Angélica Freitas,Franco Marcucci, & Cristian Forte
TRANSLATORS_Odile Kennel, Monika Raič, & Jordan Lee Schnee
VISUALS_Rocío Rodriguez, & Valeria Solari
MODERATOR _Felipe Sáez Riquelme
MUSIC_DJ Amuleto Manuela

ARTISTS PANORAMA #3

AUTHOR_Angélica Freitas is a Brazilian poet and the author of three books of poetry, including Um útero é do tamanho de um punho (2020), translated into German by Odile Kennel and published by Elif Verlag. Questions about nationality and belonging, women and the feminine, culture and literature recur in her poems. In 2020, she moved to Berlin with a DAAD Künstlerprogramme grant.
©Pedro Strelkow

TRANSLATOR_Odile Kennel is a poet and translator. She has translated “Rilke Shake” (2011) and Um útero é do tamanho de um punho (2020) by Angélica Freitas. In 2022 she received the Paul Scheerbart Prize of the Rowohlt-Ledig Foundation for her poetry translations. Latest publications: Lust (2021) and irgendetwas dazwischen (2023).
©Jan Beumelburg
©privat

AUTHOR_Franco Marcucci was born in Argentina, where he studied sociology and political science. In 2019 he moved to Berlin and now waters the writing plant, helps people publish books in his publishing house Siesta Verlag and trains to be a yoga teacher.
©Monika Raič
TRANSLATOR_Monika Raič is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of Romance Literatures, Humboldt University Berlin. She is a casual translator and is part of the editorial team of the journal ENTKUNSTUNG.

©Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez
VISUALS_Valeria Solari is a chilean artist and designer based in Berlin, has been exploring new media since 2020, focusing on the elaboration of biodegradable materials and the cultivation of microorganisms. In 2023, she presented her solo exhibition "Skin Tags" at Molt Berlin.

AUTHOR_Cristian Forte is a poet, and once part of the art group Etcétera in Buenos Aires. Between 2010-2016 he coordinated the non-editorial Milena Berlin. He is currently co-founder of the experimental electronic music and sound poetry label Carrots Tapes.
©Billy Kenrick
TRANSLATOR_Jordan Lee Schnee holds a BA in Translation and Linguistics from the University of New York (NYU). Since 2011 he has been living in Berlin where he received his M.A. in English Philology from the Freie Universität Berlin. He currently works at the university as an assistant professor of English literature. He also works as a curator for Haus für Poesie (House of Poetry).
©Natalia Reich

“Panoramas of Latin American Performative Literature in Berlin”