The outstanding French novelist Dominique Fernandez, inducted into the French Academy in 2007, is its first openly gay member. He has received such important awards such as the 1974 Médicis Prize for Porporino: Or, the Mysteries of Naples, which tells the story of a castrato in Italy in the 18th century, and the 1982 Goncourt Prize for Dans la main de l’Ange (“In the Hand of the Angel”) an imagined life of Pier Paolo Pasolini. He has also published many travel books, illustrated by the photographer Ferrante Ferranti, with whom he shared his life for 15 years. A great lover of Catalonia, Fernandez spends much of the year between Argeles and Ceret. His latest novel, Le peintre abandonné (“The Painter Abandoned”) revolves around a visit by Pablo Picasso to the house of some friends in Perpignan after he had left Françoise Gilot. In this little-known episode in the painter's life, Picasso puts down his brushes momentarily to talk about politics, art and love, and to remember lost friends and the geniuses of his century.

The meeting with Dominique will provide an occasion to talk, not only about his long career, but also about homosexuality in literature and the arts in general..

"..., (“Dressed in Blue. Social and Cinematographic Study of Transsexual Women in the Spanish Transition”), by the journalist Valeria Vegas (author of a hit biography of La Veneno), takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the lives of the stars of the documentary Dressed in Blue (Antonio Giménez-Rico, 1983). This was one of the first Spanish films to focus on transsexuality, and also avoided the thrill-seeking and sensationalism that marked other approaches to the theme in the early-1980s.

Since it premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, Dressed in Blue has become a cult film and an essential document for understanding the transsexual experience in the times of the Spanish transition to democracy. This year, 2019, marks the 35th anniversary of its premiere, an excellent occasion for the publication of Vestidas de azul, a social and cinematographic essay in which, through interviews with the surviving cast members, their families and the director of the documentary, Valeria Vegas investigates what became of those women. The book also discusses how attitudes to transsexuality have evolved in our society over the last few decades.

Enrique Álex has spent the last three years travelling around the with his boyfriend with no plans to return home. Every week, he recounts his experiences and discoveries on an extraordinary YouTube channel that has won hundreds of thousands of followers. A gay couple travelling the world? Some think that’s great, while others find it shocking, but Enrique has no doubts: this is a way of fighting against prejudice and homophobia! He will demonstrate all this at this meeting, showing a few videos before talking with the audience about something very close to our heart at FIRE!!: the value of video as a tool to break down barriers and combat prejudice.

The comic book has always been a form of expression deeply engaged with its time. Since its origin, the comic has, by turn, investigated, innovated, criticised, narrated and protested, as well as raising awareness about affective diversity. This exhibition is a hall of mirrors that revives stories, experiences, experiments, dreams and so on. It focuses on different authors, countries, styles and graphics, but all its participants are artists whose illustrated tales are aimed at sharing something different with the reader. The selection, which is neither exhaustive nor restrictive, is an invitation to discover. Because, by definition, the Ninth Art is transgressive.

In cooperation with Casa Mariol, we invite you to meet the organisers of FIRE!! over a good vermouth and getting a taste of the festival!

On Sunday, June 9, on the terrace of the French Institute, enjoy the sun and good company, chat about films and have a good time generally before the first session begins that day.