The famous Sect of the Dog left no written work. And if it did, it has been lost almost in its entirety... The Cynic philosophers willingly died for philosophy, but were reincarnated as something else: the adventures of the beggar Diogenes and the feminist Hipparchia (or her partner Crates, who threw his riches into the sea) soon embodied them as popular anti-heroes. And a new plebeian literature was born from their gestures and sarcasm.

For what if cynicism was precisely the secret countercultural tradition that helps us to understand modern fiction, its contradictions and dead ends? What if contemporary art were, as Foucault suggested, ‘the cynicism of culture’?

This workshop, coordinated by the writer and critic Carlos Pardo with the participation of the novelist Brenda Navarro and the comedian Joaquín Reyes, will develop this hypothesis over a two-day period. Unravelling contemporary fiction by using the clichés of this underground current as a key: sarcasm, ‘parrhesia’ or truthfulness, the trend of scandal, the animalisation of thought, the impudence of the dandy, the novel form... We will also use the cynical imaginary of other artistic disciplines to do this.

A ‘cynical constellation’ in which figures as diverse as Annie Ernaux and Denis Diderot, Salvator Rosa and Marcel Duchamp, Pedro Lemebel and María Moreno coexist. And in whose (at times extemporaneous, at times domesticated) ambivalence, forms of creation with a subversive capacity continue to be at stake.

THURSDAY 19

6 pm - 'Carlos Pardo: Genealogy of Cynicism: A Subversive Tradition'

Repassarem algunes de les fites fundacionals de la ficció il·luminant-nos amb la llanterna cínica: des del naixement de la novel·la com a gènere literari fins al dandisme o la implosió dadà, passant per sants idiotes, bruixes i passejants.

7:30 pm - Joaquín Reyes: 'Encounter with Diogenes the Cynic'

Primícia a Barcelona. Un diàleg (clàssic) amb el filòsof cínic Diògenes de Sinop sobre la seva escola filosòfica i les posicions d’alguns artistes contemporanis (la majoria conceptuals) que ha conegut a l’Hades.

FRIDAY 20

6 pm - Carlos Pardo: 'Little Cynical Hell: Between Provocation and Cliché'

La creació actual, no estrictament la literària, sembla que se sent especialment còmoda en una sèrie de tòpics cínics: la provocació, l’exposició autobiogràfica, la corporalització, etc. En aquesta sessió analitzarem aquesta cruïlla entre el clixé i les possibilitats de disrupció.

7:30 pm - Brenda Navarro: 'Momus: From Exile to Laughing at the Truth'

Seguint el bromista déu Momus, que convida a ridiculitzar les bones voluntats, en aquesta conversa amb l’autora de Ceniza en la boca revisarem diversos creadors que, a través de la burla/culpa, han posat de manifest que tot equilibri s’ha de trencar: María Luisa Puga, Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Copi, Pedro Lemebel, Dolores Reyes, etc.

CARLOS PARDO: Writer and literary critic of the cultural supplement Babelia, he has won several prizes for his books of poetry, such as Hiperión, Generación del 27 and RNE’s Ojo Crítico. His most recent novel is Lejos de Kakania (Periférica).

BRENDA NAVARRO: Her first novel, Empty Houses, won the 42nd Tigre Juan Award and was published in 7 languages. She has collaborated with media such as El País, Pikara Magazine, La Marea and Milenio. Her second novel, Ceniza en la boca (Ash in the Mouth), was published in 2022.

JOAQUÍN REYES: To think of the comedian Joaquín Reyes is to think of some of the most brilliant, innovative moments in recent comedy: La hora chanante, Muchachada Nui, Museo Coconut. A student of Fine Arts in Cuenca and Slavophile writer, he published his first novel, Subidón (Rush), in 2020.