Cartonero Book Workshop

Kesäkuu 18 l klo 10-13 Kirjatyöpaja   –   June 18 I 10-13h Handmade Book Workshop

Arts Promotion Centre Finland. (Taike) was the place where Sivuvalo § [Radiador] – Fanzine Digital organised a first workshop to make Sivuvalo cartonero books.  Sivuvalo coordinator with our book designer and editor Daniel Malpica with the valuable help of Rosamaría Bolom (Salasanat project) visited Lidl to save from the garbage cardboard to make book covers.

Roxana Crisólogo focused her talk about the history and process of the Cartonero Movment (aka “copyleft rush”) in Latin America. Cartonero book, an autogestionary project, appered as an alternative to publish books at low cost during Argentina´s economic crisis. The experience was repeated by other Latin American countries that found in this alternative a way to publish books that maybe will never be published because of lack of editorials and budget.

This cartonero movement created also an alternative market of book distribution and selection of authors both in many ways discrepant with the business centered Spanish speaking literature offical structure.

To Daniel Malpica was important to emphasize that if at the beginning the quality of the books were not the best with the time techniques  to make Cartonero book became more sophisticated, many of the most important Latinoamericans authors are published in Cartonero format. Now Cartonero books take part in Book fairs.

The workshop to make the book was actively directed by Daniel Malpica, who has been envolved in Cartonero books project in Mexico.  

 

As a conclusion we can say that writers with immigrant background living in Finland and writing in other languages than Finnish or Swedish are in an scenario where is impossible to publish in Finnish literature spaces (editorial, reviews) because of the language and most of our work is not translated, but there is another reason: these writers are not yet known by readers. Cartonero book wants to make some of these authors known.

Sivuvalo book is a Cartonero book, a handmade product of a community of authors´s autogestionary work.

The workshop was a rich experience of discussion and exchange of ideas about what is a book, what people use to think is a book. What does literature structures has defined as a book. Author Diana Mistera, who took part in the workshop wrote an interesting article inspired on her participation that you can read in her blog.

The discussion is open.

* More articles about “Akademia Cartonera“.