Julien Vinson´s Flight

Patxi Zubizarreta

Julien Vinson´s Flight

Alberdania 2019
155 Pages
Original title: Julien Vinsonen hegaldia
ISBN: 978-84-9868-509-1
Translated into: click here

Julien Vinson, an unorthodox French philologist, embarked on a journey in 1875 aboard the Saturno hot air balloon. The flight, which started in Bayonne in the Northern Basque Country, concluded in Pamplona during times of war. In 2015, Chiara, an Italian, began studying the Basque language in the Department of the Basque Language and Culture at the University of Bologna. Later, in 2018, she travelled to Hendaye every four weeks to work on a project about Basque speakers who arrived in the Basque Country in a similar manner.

Julien Vinson´s aerial adventure encompasses poetry, resembling a visual poem in flight, incorporating narrative, history, folklore, and linguistics. Learning a language offers the opportunity to live two lives. Moving forward with symmetries and parallelisms, intertwining fables and eras, here you have Saturno the airship, ready for you to climb into, ascend, and take flight.

Patxi Zubizarreta

Patxi Zubizarreta was born in the Basque Country and lives in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where he finished his studies of Basque Philology. The Basque tradition -the roots- is present in Urrezko giltza (The Golden Key) —a work included in the IBBY Honour List— and in a book about the Spanish Civil War, Hiru gutun Iruñetik (Three letters from Pamplona). This topic was reflected in his performance titled Ants, horses, elephants at the Bologna Children´s Book Fair in 2015. Different types of journeys and migrations —the wings— are also shown in Zubizarreta´s prizewinning pieces like Usoa and Korri, Kuru, korri! (Xia Tenzin´s Wonderful Journey), a theme reflected in his performance titled Flying Over Paper at the IBBY congress in London. His translated piece from French to Basque, Le Petit Prince (Printze Txikia & The Little Prince) is also on the Honours List.

Patxi Zubizarreta

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Patxi Zubizarreta

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