Ja! Festival 2024

PRESENTATION

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, castle-less land surveyors, cat- lambs, builders of the great wall, dung beetles, epistolary love enthusiasts, father-fearing children, hunger artists, law-gate keepers, countryside doctors, girls and their missing dolls, prison colony executioners and secret defendants to the Kafka Year at Ja! Festival 2024.

We couldn’t help but take the bait encountered in a dark, gloomy alley in Prague: the worldwide celebration of the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka’s death. This is why the imprint of the great German-language writer, who is like no one else, runs through most of the events in the programme from different angles.

Of course, Kafka’s humour, the unique humorous view of the author who invented everything without making a big deal out of it and whose literary universe is as small as it is vast, is a perfect fit for our festival’s focus on literature and humour.

Beyond Kafka, if that is possible, we are delighted that the great Zadie Smith has finally accepted (as a result of sheer exhaustion) our invitation. We are also delighted that Juan Villoro, Bernardo Atxaga, and Carlos Areces, this time as a star interviewee, will all be back. Reiner Stach will share his immense biography of Kafka with us. And Monika Zgustova of Milena of Prague, ahead of her time and one of Franz’s crucial women in his life.

By the way, this is our fifteenth edition, Ja’s fifteenth year! One of us came up with the brilliant idea to use Dúo Dinámico’s song ‘Quince años tiene mi amor’ (‘My love is fifteen years old’) in the video presentation of the programme. As soon as he said it, an immense and threatening scarlet K immediately appeared in the sky.

Once again, Javier Jaén has designed an excellent poster for us. This insect-eating portrait makes you want to devour the bugs. Kafka galore. Happy Ja!

Juan Bas & Carolina Ontivero
Ja! Directors

Ja! Festival 2024

PROGRAM

The 15th edition’s programme will be held in different venues between 10 and 20 October.

Click on the link to find out about all the events and detailed information: participants, venues, schedules, etc.

PROTAGONISTS

Zadie Smith, Carlos Areces, Reiner Stach, Juan Villoro, Bernardo Atxaga, Manuel Vilas, Monika Zgustova, Rodrigo Cortés, Andrés Barba, Bárbara Mingo, Juan Tallón…

Check here for the complete list of guests.

Ja! Festival 2024
Ja! Festival 2024

EXHIBITION

The exhibition ‘Kafka Kaleidoscope’ will be on display rom 2nd to 29th October in the Etxepare and Axular halls of the Bizkaia Aretoa – UPV/EHU (Abandoibarra, 3 – Bilbao).

It is presented together with ten large-format illustrations that can be seen in some Metro Bilbao stations. Click on the link for more information.

SPONSORS

This festival could not take place without the support of its sponsors and supporters.

Find out about the institutions and organisations that are behind the 2024 edition of Ja!

STREAMING

You can follow the conferences by streaming if you can’t attend them. All events, except ‘Kafka goes to the cinema’ and ‘Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón’s Top 10 Humour Sequences’ can be watched live at the following link.

EUSKADI TOURISM