At tonight’s Frankfurter Buchmesse Opening Ceremony, the 76th edition of the world’s largest trade show in book publishing is being opened by a mix of music and speakers in Messe Frankfurt’s Congress Center Harmonie Hall. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Opening Ceremony: The 76th Frankfurter Buchmesse
At the start of this writing, the 2020 Frankfurter Buchmesse Opening Ceremony is still going on in a packed 2,200-seat Harmonie Hall on in the Messe Frankfurt’s Congress Center.In addition to the introductory comments you see above being made by Frankfurt president and CEO Juergen Boos, Germany’s state minister of culture, Claudia Roth—an unfailing advocate for Frankfurt and other German cultural assets—has spoken, as has Boris Rhein, Hesse’s minister; Mike Josef, mayor of Frankfurt am Main; Karin Schmidt-Friderich, head of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s publishers and booksellers association; Allesandro Giuli, the Italian minister of culture; plus author Susanna Tamaro; physicist Carlo Rovelli; and philosopher Stefano Zechhi.
The wrap-around stage screens at Harmonie Hall in Frankfurts Opening Ceremony. Image: Publishing Perspectives, FBM
The opening show used enormous screens to wrap the Harmonie’s shallow stage in vast imagery and speaker cutins for dramatic effect, and to emphasize both the “Roots in the Future” slogan of the Guest of Honor Italy program, and the slogan of this year’s trade show, FBM24 is Read!ng – Read. Reflect. Relate.
The Opening Ceremony’s declaration of the start of Buchmesse 2024. Image: Publishing Perspectives, FBM
And at the conclusion of the Opening Ceremony those screens projected to the invited audience the official opening of Buchmesse, audience members invited to tour the Guest of Honor Italy pavilion in the Messe’s Forum, the piazza-inspired design work of Stefano Boeri Interiors. (Our preview story is here, and see our interview with Boeri in our Frankfurt Book Fair Magazine, releasing on Wednesday (October 16).
Opening Press Conference
Juergen Boos; Elif Shafak, center; and Karin Schmidt-Friderichs at the Opening Press Conference of Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Johannes Minkus
In his comments to the news media in the morning’s (October 15) Opening Press Conference, Boos told members of the news media at Frankfurt Pavilion, “Frankfurter Buchmesse is always changing. We pick up on new developments in the market and make them visible in Frankfurt.
That is why we have established the New Adult area this year for publishers and the public. Everything there is more akin a convention than a traditional fair.
“It ‘s a fan-driven event, all about signing books, taking selfies with authors and stars from special genres. We’re offering this reading experience, this fandom a suitably large stage in the new Hall 1.2.”
Tuirkish-British author Elif Shafak speaks at Frankfurt’s Opening News Conference. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Johannes Minkus
And the Turkish-British author and activist, a winner of some of the world industry’s most prestigious awards, warned the press starkly against the fact that “We have too much information but little knowledge. …
“When was the last time we might have said, ‘I don’t know.'”
Her point was that in an era of ubiquitous information—much of which could be disinformation, let alone misinformation—it’s too easy to grasp at found data rather than conceding that one may simply not know something. This, Shafak contends, is an opening and a responsibility for book publishing today.
At the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024 Opening Press Conference in Frankfurt Pavilion, Image: Publishing Perspecties, Johannes Minkus
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more on the Italian publishing market is here, and more on Guest of Honor Italy at Frankfurt is here.