For five days, more than 70 authors interacted with an “enthusiastic” public, said organizers satisfied with the results, who were counting on 2,000 to 2,500 visitors, i.e. attendance for the first edition in October 2021. The event grew and switched to the festival side, while becoming more professional.
“It’s proof that the festival model is the one that’s going in the right direction. I’m overjoyed by the number of sold-out events and very proud of my organization team, which was perfect,” noted Matthieu Corpataux, the director of Textures, quoted in the press release issued on Sunday.
Literary diversity
The increase in attendance therefore attests to the scale taken by a festival “anxious to give voice to the literary diversity of Switzerland and beyond”. “Multilingual, ambitious and committed”, the program has reserved “very nice encounters”. In addition, 200 students participated in school mediation programs.
The event took place in six locations in Fribourg. The evening dedicated to the Swiss Prizes for Literature made it possible to hear the voices of the Romansh poetess Leta Semadeni, the Ticino author Prisca Agustoni and the Vaudois writer Fanny Desarzens.
Attentive to the diversity of contemporary literary forms, Textures gave pride of place to writing in the cinema, with the commented screening of “La Ligne” by director Ursula Meier by its screenwriter Antoine Jaccoud. The latter also participated in a round table on the profession of screenwriter.
A confirmed third edition
New places taken over by Textures, the Fri-Son and New World stages attracted many spectators. Born from the ashes of the Romand Book Fair, refocused around its programming and guest artists, Textures has also made it possible to discover several emerging voices.
“I wanted to transform the Romand Book Fair into a festival and put artists at the heart of this event. The idea was really to create events, strong cultural artistic encounters on stage and also to explore the diversity of literature and forms of writing”, explained Matthieu Corpataux as part of the program “Quartier Livre” which was held on Sunday live from the demonstration.
The festival also highlighted the challenges of translation, the new territories of comics as well as the writings of migration with the Ivorian writer Gauz. The committee of the Textures association has confirmed the organization of a third edition. The dates will be communicated later.
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