International Belgrade Book Fair
The Belgrade International Book Fair is one of the oldest regional book events in Serbia .
Both national and regional Serbian publishers present their annual publishing output at the fair. Its basic aim is to enable publishers, authors, librarians, book distributors and multimedia companies to socialize, exchange experiences, open businesses and develop other forms of business and cultural collaboration. In addition to the exhibitor program, an accompanying program with conferences, round table discussions, writers' encounters, discussion forums and workshops will be organized at the fair. The founder of the book fair is the city of Belgrade . The event is led by the Buchmesserat, the executive organizer is the Belgrade Fair . The fair traditionally takes place in October in Belgrade's exhibition halls 1, 1A, 2 and 4, on an area of 30,000 m² and lasts eight days.
background
The book fair is the most visited cultural event in Serbia. In 2012 the fair had 150,798 visitors. Based on the organizer's data, the fair was followed by 1,275 recognized journalists in 2012, 71 of them from abroad. According to the survey conducted by Strategic Marketing among Belgrade citizens in 2010, the book fair is considered to be Belgrade's largest trademark .
Award ceremony
During the Belgrade Book Fair, prizes will be awarded in the categories of “Publisher of the Year”, “Publisher Project of the Year” and “Children's Book of the Year”. These awards are given to publisher productions and works that, in terms of their quality and the value of their scientific and artistic achievement, represent an extraordinary effort by publishers, editors and writers. All publishers from Serbia participating in the fair can apply for the award. Since 2007 the Dositej Obradović Prize has been awarded to an international publisher for his constant contribution to the publication and promotion of Serbian literature. The previous winners have been the Austrian Wieser Verlag from Klagenfurt (2007), the French publisher Gaia Editions from Bordeaux (2008), the Hungarian publisher Jelenkor from Pécs (2009), the Italian publisher Zandonai from Rovereto (2010) and the Bulgarian publisher Siela Sofia and the Slovak publisher Kaligram from Bratislava .
Guest of Honor
Since 2002 the Belgrade Book Fair has also had a guest of honor: a guest country whose literature and publisher's productions are specially presented. The guest country of honor has a special place in the book fair, in the arena of Hall 1. The guest country of honor has the opportunity to present its publishing industry and its culture on its stand and in the exhibition promotion rooms. The previous guest countries of honor have been Norway (2002), Canada (2003), France (2004), Great Britain (2005), USA (2006), Italy (2007), Japan (2008), Greece (2009), Sweden (2010), Portuguese (2011) and Hungary (2012).
Authors
The book fair includes all major authors and writers from Serbia and the region. The fair is traditionally opened by local authors. Among them were personalities such as David Albahari , Milovan Danojlić , Dragan Velikić and László Végel . International guests were Alain Robbe-Grillet , Erica Jong , Claudio Magris , Charles Simic and Peter Handke .
school day
Since 2005, the so-called school day has been held at the fair, which includes organized visits by schoolchildren, students, professors and school librarians as well as accompanying programs tailored to these groups.
history
The first book fair took place in Zagreb in Yugoslavia in 1956 under the patronage of Josip Broz Tito . There were writers from the country, including Ivo Andrić and Miroslav Krleža . Around 12,000 books from all Yugoslav publishers were exhibited, including publishers from Austria, Czechoslovakia , the Netherlands, Great Britain , France, Italy, China, Hungary, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, Romania, the USA, the Soviet Union and Switzerland .
In the following year, the fair moved to Belgrade, where the construction of an exhibition center was completed. The books were exhibited by 60 local and 36 foreign publishers from 16 countries in Europe, America and Asia. It was agreed that the International Book Fair should last six days and be represented in a catalog. The first Belgrade Book Fair in 1966 took place in Belgrade Exhibition Hall 3 at the end of October and was opened by Rodoljub Čolaković, Vice President of the Federal Executive Council. On the occasion of the trade fair festivities, the revue Das Buch und die Welt was launched . The International Book Fair in Belgrade gathered more and more publishers from Yugoslavia and the world every year, so that after the Frankfurt Book Fair and the International Book Fair in Warsaw, it became the largest meeting place for publishers from Europe, America, Asia and Africa.
Opinions
"Већ на први, површан поглед може се видети жеља да Сајам буде отворен прозор са двоструким видиком, са видиком за нашег човека у страни свет књиге и видиком за странца на пут и развитак књиге у књижевностима наших народа. Поред издања на језицима свих наших народа и народности, на њему учествује око 70 излагача земаља из 18 ... У вези са Сајмом организована је, уз сарадњу стручњака, изложба у част 100 годишњице В. И. Лењина, затим међународна изложба славистичких издања наших кућа и станова […]. "
“Already at the first superficial glance you can see the wish that the fair becomes an open window with a double view, one for our people on the foreign book world and the other for a foreigner on the way and the development of books in the literature of our people. In addition to the editions in the languages of all our peoples and nationalities, around 70 exhibitors from 18 countries are taking part [...]. In this regard, in cooperation with experts, the exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of V. I. Lenin was organized, then the international exhibition of Slavic editions of our houses and apartments [...]. "
"Погледајте ову огромну количину тајни око себе!" На Сајму књига се увек осетим више тужна него радосна: Да поживимо стотине година, не бисмо стигли отворити све ове шкољке бисера људске мисли, пуне ватре срца и олуја маште [...] ".
“Look at this huge amount of secrets around you! At the book fair I always feel more sad than happy. Even if we lived hundreds of years, we would not have time to open all these bowls of pearls on human opinions, full of heartfires and storms of fantasy [...]. "
"Данас књижевност живи од покојних класика и од живих читалаца који сада постављају ново питање: можемо ли волети једну књигу, а не колико је ценимо или колико је лепа [...]. Тражите, дакле, овде, вечерас, књигу коју ћете моћи да волите. Тиме можда помажете овој планети да преживи. ”
“[…] Literature today lives from dead classics and living readers who are now asking a new question: Can we love a book? And not how much we value it or how beautiful it is […]. So find a book here tonight that you can love too. In doing so, you might help this planet to survive [...]. "
"Сајам књига представља једно дивно средишно место на којем могу само да сретнем писце које познајем и да видим, прегледам и упознам се са целокупном домаћом продукцијом. Дакле, Сајам књига је најдивније време за мене у Београду. ”
“The book fair is a wonderful hub where I can easily meet writers I know as well as see, look and learn about all of the local production. So, the book fair is the best time for me in Belgrade [...]. "