Wednesday, September 9 at 8:00 pm

Please join us for a reading of extracts from Eden, Eden, Eden by Pierre Guyotat. Since its release with the legendary publishing house Gallimard in 1970, this book by Guyotat – a young author then in his thirties – has provoked scandals, fascinations, and marvels. Deemed a “Saharian fiction,” it was published with forewords by Michel Leiris, Roland Barthes and Philippe Sollers, and was instantly praised by Michel Foucault; upon being censored, it gained immediate international support by the likes of Joseph Beuys, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Pierre Boulez, Italo Calvino and Jean-Paul Sartre. Fifty years later, the work of Pierre Guyotat – who passed away this year – exerts an ever-growing impact, having proven to be prescient of a world on the verge of transformation, through violence, sexuality, decolonization, cosmology.

To celebrate Eden Eden Eden and his author, CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo will join a consortium of private and public partners (full list below) in order to manifest the life of this great visionary text. The readings will take place in French, in the languages of existing translations (English, German, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Russian among others) or provide an opportunity for new translations (Arabic, Hebrew, Italian). The reading is organized by the Association Pierre Guyotat – and supervised by its Chairman Donatien Grau – with the exceptional participation of Gallimard and the exceptional collaboration of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

The event will be held in Hebrew, Arabic, English and French.

Self-portrait of Pierre Guyotat in Algeria in 1962, just before his arrest by the army