Ja! Festival
Exhibitions
Welcome to Ja!
International Festival of Literature and Art with Humour

New York, capital of the XVI Ja! Festival
We will be holding the sixteenth edition between 9 and 20 October. Most of the 2025 programme will take place in Sala BBK and Bizkaia Aretoa – EHU
The most international edition, with a tribute to ‘The New Yorker’ for its centenary
Jonathan Lethem, Peter Kuper and Samanta Schweblin will be some of the featured authors
‘Saul Steinberg, el signo errante’
An artist mostly known for his drawings published on the covers and interiors of The New Yorker, Saul Steinberg (Râmnicu Sărat, Rumania, 1914 – New York, 1999)
EDITION 2025
9 – 20.10.2025
This year we travel to New York and not by chance. On 2025 the city celebrates three iconic anniversaries quite close to our spirit: the fifty years of ‘Saturday Night Live’ (cradle of comedy legends such as Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell), the centenary of ‘The Great Gatsby’ – Scott Fitzgerald’s satire that turned New York into the stage of the American Dream – and especially one hundred years of ‘The New Yorker’, the magazine that made an art from irony and proved that the best stories are born from a mixture of humour, literature and good journalism.
Jonathan Lethem, Samanta Schweblin and Peter Kuper are among the main names in a programme that will be fully unveiled in September and in which New York will be much more than a guest city. We will turn the metropolis into a mindset: an imaginary made up of books, films, comics and other artistic works that form part of the universal heritage. All enwrapped in that unique combination of humour and melancholy that could be called ‘New York State of Mind’.
We also anticipate that on Saturday 11 October we will have a very special double session: the first live show in Bilbao of the programme ‘El Sentido De La Birra Live’, presented by Ricardo Moya, followed by a New York party with Joaquín Reyes as host and DJ. Tickets will be on sale from 18 July through this website.
Since New York is the world capital of contemporary art, we could not miss an exhibition such as ‘Saul Steinberg, el signo errante’ (Saul Steinberg, the wandering sign), an exhibit that we are bringing to Bilbao thanks to the Fundación Juan March, the support of The Saul Steinberg Foundation and the sponsorship of Iberdrola. More than one hundred pieces – including drawings, paintings, collages, books and photographs – that cover the life and work of this multifaceted and singular artist, known mainly for his sixty-year link with the magazine ‘The New Yorker’. The exhibition will be open free of charge throughout the month of October in the Sala Axular of the Bizkaia Aretoa-EHU.
This year’s poster is once again an artwork by graphic artist Javier Jaén, who brilliantly captures the essence of the New York we aim to convey. It does so through a New York yellow-taxi background on which emerges an amusingly ferocious King Kong, drawn with a dotted pattern reminiscent of both classic cinema and the newspapers of the golden age of New York journalism.
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PROGRESS OF THE 2025 PROGRAMME

Photo: Cartel ESDLB live / El Sentido de la Birra Live / Malencia
EL SENTIDO DE LA BIRRA ‘LIVE’
RICARDO MOYA | SURPRISE GUEST
Saturday, 11 October
19.00 Sala Bilborock
ADMISSION WITH TICKET
‘El Sentido De La Birra Live’ is the on-stage version of the successful YouTube channel of the same name, an interview programme in which Ricardo Moya chats with a guest in an intimate and relaxed atmosphere. Live, the format adds a festive vibe and an element of surprise: both the subject and the guest are not revealed until the day of the show. On tour since 2021, this is the first time the show comes to Bilbao.

Photo: Joaquín Reyes ©Javier Tébar
‘STUDIO 54’ PARTY
JOAQUÍN REYES
Saturday, 11 October
22.00 Sala Bilborock
ADMISSION WITH TICKET
Joaquín Reyes will be the host and DJ of a party inspired by the iconic STUDIO 54, the legendary Manhattan nightclub that in the late 70s gathered together personalities such as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, David Bowie, Cher and Salvador Dalí. Be inspired by Bianca Jagger on a white horse and join us in costume to relive that irresistible mix of glamour, fun and freedom that made shaped history in New York.
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