The artist Pablo Little and the writers Fernández Mallo, Silvia Hidalgo and Laura Ferrero, protagonists of the quarterly program of the Library of Contemporary Cultures.

The activities, which will include workshops, conferences, book presentations and recitals, will be free of charge until full capacity is reached upon registration at bcc@estepona.es.

More than 4,000 users have passed through the facilities of the new library since its opening.

The Estepona City Council has presented the cultural programming that the Library of Contemporary Cultures, located in the Mirador del Carmen Cultural Center, will offer during the first quarter of 2025. Among the most prominent names are the artist Pablo Little and the writers Fernández Mallo, Silvia Hidalgo and Laura Ferrero.

The head of the Library of Contemporary Cultures, Alejandro Simón, explained that this center is more than just a library, as the aim is to turn it into a transversal space that generates cultural, informative and creative synergies.

The program, which covers a wide range of activities, will begin on January 22 with the knitting workshop that the expert in knitting and natural dyeing Inma Aragón Tapia will give from 20.00 hours.

On Wednesday 29 January it will be the turn of writer, essayist and poet Agustín Fernández Mallo – winner of the Biblioteca Breve and European Literature Prize – to present his new novel ‘Madre de corazón atómico’ (Seix Barral).

February will kick off with the reading club, which will deal with Sara Mesa’s novel ‘Un amor’ (Anagrama), which was made into a film by writer and screenwriter Laura Ferrero and won the Gaudí Award for best adapted screenplay (2024), as well as a Goya nomination. It will take place on the 5th at 19.00 hours.

Precisely the writer and screenwriter Laura Ferrero will give the workshop entitled ‘From The Astronauts to the adaptation of A Love’, in which she will talk about the process carried out to bring to the cinema the work of Sara Mesa. The activity will take place on the 6th at 8:00 pm.

On Saturday the 15th, at 12 noon, filmmaker Raul Mancilla will conduct the short film workshop ‘From story to screen’, preceding the philosopher, editor and poet Raul Alonso and his lecture ‘Divine madness: music, poetry and spirit’, scheduled for the 18th at 8 pm.

On Wednesday, February 19, writer Silvia Hidalgo, winner of the Tusquets Novel Prize, will present the workshop ‘Lo que no se dice: la narrativa desde lo inconfesable’, a new opportunity to get a closer look at literary creation with one of its leading names.

The month of March will inaugurate its calendar within the program of the Library of Contemporary Cultures with the activity of the reading club on ‘The Vegetarian’, a work of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2024) Han Kang. It will take place on the 5th at 18.00 hours.

The same Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 will also be dedicated to cinema, with the session ‘The classic romantic cinema reinvented: on how the film Brief Encounter (1945) has influenced the romantic cinema to the present day’, a dynamic activity led by the film distributor Alberto Vandenbroucke. It will take place at 8 p.m.

On March 12, at 8:00 p.m., the poet Antonio Ríos, from Estepona, will launch the Poetry Classroom of the library.

March will close the programming of the first quarter with the painting workshop ‘Drawing to understand the world’, taught by the renowned Andalusian artist Pablo Little. It will be held on Saturday 29 at 12.00 noon.

Attendance to these activities is free of charge, prior registration by sending an email to: bcc@estepona.es

Users

The programming of the Library of Contemporary Cultures will be divided by quarters and will present around fifty activities in various artistic disciplines, highlighting art, music, literature and film, among other genres.

Since its opening, more than 4,000 people (an average of 121 per day) have passed through the facilities of the new library, which this week has released extended hours. It is from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., uninterrupted, from Monday to Friday.

The Library of Contemporary Cultures, located on eight floors of the Mirador del Carmen, was inaugurated on November 21 with a program of events that included the participation of the filmmaker and former Minister of Culture, Ángeles González Sinde, the director general of the Botín Foundation, Íñigo Sáenz de Miera, the poets Antonio Lucas and Ben Clark, and the musician Alejandro Pelayo (Marlango). The event was attended by close to 600 people.

The first major event hosted by the library facilities was the Estepona Literary Festival (FLEST), which brought together some twenty big names in literature, music, gastronomy and artistic creation, and which was attended by more than 2,000 people. The City Council of Estepona is already working on the program of the second edition of this festival to be held during this year and in the programming of children’s activities.