From Sunday 18 May until 31 August 2014, Sala Mendoza at the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas will play host to Manifiesto: país, a creative response to the wave of protests which have hit Venezuela over the past few months. The exhibition brings together 66 responses to the idea of país from the country’s leading writers, poets, intellectuals and journalists, and accompanying artwork.
The exhibition is organised by Lisbeth Salas, currently resident in Barcelona, who runs La Cámara Escrita publishing house. She explained to El Nacional:
I made the same request to each of them: define the word country.The ideas was that they speak about how they see it, what they hope for from the future that we seemingly don’t have, how to rescue the idea of nation from memory, reminiscence and even exile. We are all living through the same thing, regardless of where we reside; what’s certain is that Venezuela is no longer what it was and we don’t know what it is now either.
A todos les hice la misma petición: que definieran la palabra país. La idea era que hablaran sobre cómo lo ven, qué esperan de ese futuro que al parecer no tenemos, de cómo rescatar la nación desde la memoria, el recuerdo y hasta desde el exilio. Todos estamos viviendo lo mismo, independientemente de dónde estemos parados; lo cierto es que Venezuela ya no es lo que era y tampoco sabemos lo que es.
Each text has been transformed into a visual artwork inspired by Soviet posters, advertising, Dada, and mass movements, a fusion of words and images conceived by Salas and developed by the design duo Pedro Quintero and César Jara. The director of Sala Mendoza, Patricia Velasco, told El Nacional:
It’s a project for the city, but also for the student movement, which is leading the protests. It’s an exhibition to make us think, to think about Venezuela in a positive way, to dialogue, because that’s what we all want.
Es un proyecto para la ciudad, pero también para el movimiento estudiantil, que es el que está al frente de las protestas. Es una exposición para pensarnos, para pensar en Venezuela en positivo, para dialogar, porque eso es lo que todos deseamos.
The book, Manifiesto: país will be launched in July. I hope to bring you more news on that soon!
As part of CLAW Festival (Contemporary Latin American Writers), which takes place at the Cervantes Theatre in London from 3-9th July, there will be daily performances in English of Montague Kobbe’s play Tales of Bed Sheets and Departure Lounges. 
Books from Oasis is the new publishing venture from environmentalist turned novelist Cinzia De Santos which aims to publish books from Venezuelan authors here in London.
, as well as an English translation, 
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Venezuelan Literature 