“Today dystopia is very easy to imagine, utopias hardly.” They are the words of the collective Sukar Horia, but they are an example of the concern that has spread to the Left in general in recent years, more accentuated since the pandemic. This very impossibility makes it difficult today to fight for a just society. The reasons are diverse, but one has to look for it in the entertainment industry and in cultural creation: the products located in dystopian futures (often very close) have multiplied and had a great expansion: Series Black Mirror and L'Effondrement (The Collapse), Gattaca, Lobster or Snowpiercer, Hunger Games or Story Narration of the maid (both on screen)... Some from the uncritical recognition of reality, others from a critical point of view; from the left or the right; but in common with one point: the future is fearsome (even more so than the present). Is it by chance that the audiovisual multinationals make millionaire investments to bring the most critical dystopias to the screen?

If it is impossible for us to imagine other futures, the struggle to change society today loses meaning; on the contrary, the mere dreaming of utopias and sharing brings us closer. Against this hegemonic tendency to dystopia, initiatives emerge from the very scope of creation. An example of this is the Sketches initiative and after a long trajectory born in 2019. For this summer, the Eva Forest Bibliotekopia library and the Sukar Horia movement have proposed an exercise to imagine new futures through the letters and the Basque language.

New verses to utopia

This is called the competition organized by the Vitoria-Gasteiz Library. Until 5 September, persons wishing to do so may present between six and twelve berts, in tone and free size, both individually and in group. Of the papers presented, three groups will be selected and the authors of them will have to sing their poetry at the Bertxoko Eguna table, to be held on 21 September. Next, the organization will release the final winner of the test. Prize (in addition to food for the Bertxoko Eguna): the winning selection of bertsos will be offered in the Library itself during a time of “show and reading”, and you will be able to bring home a work of narrative, comic and essay. Specifications in the lower poster:

Imagining future stimulants

“The papers presented should describe those situations that make life more livable in the future, whatever the scope of life,” explained the organizers of the literary competition Imaginando futuro habitables. The competition has been promoted by the environmental group Sukar Horia in three ways: literary creation; youth work (for authors under 18 years of age, but they can also participate in two other modalities); and translations. The conditions for the first two modalities are the same: they must be original and unpublished texts, in any of their forms (narration, poetry, verse, theatre...). In the case of translations, the texts should be unpublished in Basque. The ceiling for the three modalities is five sheets and work must be submitted by 15 September. The winners of the forms of literary creation and translation will receive EUR 300 for prizes and EUR 150 for young people. Here's the details.

A significant jury composed of literary professionals and experts, journalists or militants was created for the competition: Amaia Apalauza, Aiora Jaka, Danele Sarriugarte, Elena Olave, Lizar Begoña, Eli Pagola, Iñaki Barcena, Iñaki Petxarroman and Jenofa Berhokoirigoin.