The Literary Festival Prima Vista Discusses the Future with Cory Doctorow, Lydia Sandgren and Halõna Kruk

This Spring, from May 6 to 10, the international literary festival Prima Vista will host the The Grand Futurological Congress where ten authors of international renown will use their magnifying glass to look at the future. What do they see there? What do they fear and hope to see there? What do they warn us against and in which direction are they steering us? How is the future embedded in their creative activity? How does literature shape our relationship to the future? And what is the future of literature itself like? Each writer has the freedom to devise a one-and-a-half-hour session at the Congress, and anything can happen according to their best discretion: speeches, conversations, readings, choral songs, pantomimes, performances, dinners, interventions, accelerations, transgressions, transformations, transitions, and so on. Because after all, who knows what the future holds?

The Congress will give floor to very different authors. We can only assume that Cory Doctorow (USA) will focus on the future of the internet, Lydia Sandgren (SWE) on the future of literature, Halõna Kruk (UKR) on how war changes the perception of the future, Isaac Rosa (ESP) on the future of love, Tõnis Vilu (EST) on the writer’s late period, Lesley-Ann Brown (USA) on the future of minorities, Julia von Lucadou (GER) on the future of surveillance society, Emmi Itäranta (FIN) on science fiction’s power to see the future, Josh Sawyer (USA) on the future of literarity in video games, Preiļu conceptualisti (LV) on the future of the fighting word of poetry.

„It’s no surprise that we live in a volatile and elusive world, where the future is difficult to envision as anything other than crises, disasters, and unpredictable change. Such a situation can make one feel perplexed, powerless, and disheartened. It’s increasingly challenging to think comprehensively. It’s becoming more difficult to make long-term plans and carry them out together. It’s even more challenging to look into the future at all. But I think literature helps us do that and I hope the Congress will show how,“ says Jaak Tomberg, the curator of the Congress. 

The Grand Futurological Congress will take place in the confines of The Translation Agency, opened during the festival by the Institute of Meetings and Non-Meetings. The Translation Agency, just as the name suggests, translates. But translates what? It translates sentences especially brought to Tartu by the writers presenting at the Congress. Translates them into possible futures, into languages and states, into clouds and dances, spells and winds, sewers and chimneys, into distances and heights, depths and understandings. Translates because none of us know what awaits us. Translates, because maybe you can’t take a toothbrush or clean socks into the future with you. And, of course, the translations will also be presented.