The objects that we use every day keep something of us inside. Based on this premise, the writer María José Ferrada proposes a journey that begins with an abandoned cup of coffee in a kitchen. As the reading progresses, we discover that its owner is one of the more than 3000 Chileans who, between 1973 and the mid-eighties, left from homes, offices, places of study, never to return. A book that invites us to review our political history from the little stories that were left unfinished. The images of great poetic content, by the Spanish illustrator and designer Pep Carrió, invite the reader to reflect on fragility, absence and the construction of memory.
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FORMAT
Recommended for 12+ years
Binding: Hardcover
Size: 21 14,8 cm x
Pages: 28
Vintage: 2017
ISBN: 978-956-364-029-8
REVIEW
Moving prose poem that suggests a reflection on the importance of rescuing small and large events to preserve the memory of those who are absent. The work alludes to the more than three thousand Chileans who died and disappeared between 1973 and the mid-1980s; but, beyond that historical trigger, words and illustrations speak to us, in a more comprehensive way, about the survival of memories and the intimate relationship of human beings with their everyday objects.
Cuatrogatos Foundation, 2018.
The sadness of things is the second book by María José Ferrada and Pep Carrió, and its title is well reminiscent of the first in which these two creators worked together: The Language of Things, Ediciones El Jinete Azul, Madrid, 2011. that few visual artists have approached the work of María José Ferrada with such efficiency and subtlety as Pep Carrió. Most of the time, the books by this Chilean writer are closed universes. I am referring to his poetic works. Thus, they work like a music box, with the exact mechanism of the machinery of a handmade watch. But is La tristeza de las cosas a book of poems? Are your short texts poetry or fragments of poetic prose? Or fragments of a larger text broken into pieces illuminated by the magic and intelligence of Pep Carrió's compositions. These texts could well be named after a verse by Benedetti: they brought in their hands the bits of the things they wanted. Yes, this book is composed with that, with bits of sensations, fragments of memories. With them, in that alembic in which María José distills her poetic universes, she forged a small world in which things are the protagonists, and at the same time they are a metaphor for the absence of their owners. This silent proposal of his has made us notice the sadness of things; Pep's images, which illuminate his words, contain the whispers that still accompany these objects.
AUTHORS
Maria Jose Ferrada She was born in Chile in 1977. She has a degree in Social Communication from the Diego Portales University. He studied Linguistics applied to Translation at the University of Santiago de Chile and did a master's degree in Asian Studies from the University of Barcelona. His books have been published in various publishing houses, both Chilean and foreign. She has been awarded numerous awards, such as the City of Orihuela for Children's Poetry, the Cuatrogatos Foundation Award, the Banco del Libro de Venezuela Award, the Academy Award for the best book published in Chile 2013, the Municipality of Santiago Award, the 2014 Youth Category, the Marta Award. Brunet and Colibrí Medal 2014, awarded by IBBY Chile.
Pep Carrio He is a graphic designer, illustrator and visual artist. He has a wide and recognized career in both the artistic and cultural fields. He combines his work as a graphic designer, especially focused on the cultural and editorial field, with his work as a visual artist.
