Writer João B. Ventura, from Portimão, will present on September 26 in Paris his new book "O Flâneur de Paris", at a session that will include musical moments featuring accordionist from the Algarve Gonçalo Pescada. The presentation takes place at the Maison du Portugal – André de Gouveia, integrated in the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, an initiative carried out in partnership with the Lindley Cintra Chair of Université Paris Nanterre and the Readership of Portuguese Language and Culture of Université Paris VIII, from Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua.
The work, published by The Poets and Dragons Society, draws from the author's experiences in the French capital and constructs a journey through different spaces of the city, from the Quartier Latin to Goutte d'Or, passing through cafés and cemeteries. The book interweaves personal experience and literary references, summoning authors such as Baudelaire, Benjamin, Aragon, Hemingway, Queneau, Perec, Cortázar, Roubaud and Vila-Matas. The presentation has particular significance because João Ventura was a resident of that institution and now returns to Paris to present a work dedicated to the relationship he maintains with the city.
João B. Ventura was born in Portimão in 1956, holds a degree in Modern Languages and Literatures from the University of Lisbon and was a reader of Portuguese Language and Culture at the University of the Sorbonne (Paris III). Gonçalo Pescada, born in Faro in 1979, holds a doctorate in Music and Musicology from the University of Évora, where he teaches as an auxiliary professor. At the session, Gonçalo Pescada will perform on accordion pieces by Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, José Afonso, Carlos Paredes, Ferrer Trindade and Richard Galliano.
