{"id":3277,"date":"2012-01-12T19:01:02","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T18:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icdublinlibrary.wordpress.com\/?page_id=3277"},"modified":"2012-05-11T12:03:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T11:03:57","slug":"virtual-interview-with-yolanda-castano","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/encuentros-digitales-virtual-interviews\/virtual-interview-with-yolanda-castano\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Interview with Yolanda Casta\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/p><\/div>\n


\nVersi\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol <\/a>\/ English version<\/strong><\/p>\n

Virtual interview with Yolanda Casta\u00f1o, Instituto Cervantes Dublin Library<\/a>, 8th December 2011.<\/p>\n

David Carri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good afternoon, Yolanda. We always ask this question to our interviewees: which book made you become a reader and why? Which book or author made you become a writer? We know you mentioned Gloria Fuertes in an interview.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It seems you know a lot about me! You just hit the nail on the head: when I was a child, Gloria Fuertes\u2019 poem books (P\u00edo-P\u00edo Lope, el pollito miope<\/em> among many others) came my way and I was astonished by the way she writes without reaching the edges of the paper. Since then, I\u2019ve always tried to imitate her creative way of expression.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your three first poem books,<\/strong> Elevar as p\u00e1lpebras<\/em> (1995), Delicia<\/em> (1998) and Vivimos no ciclo das Erofan\u00edas<\/em> (1998) are compiled in Erofan\u00eda<\/em>, reissued in 2009. Were you tempted to correct the texts? In which way has your poetry changed since then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t not correct the texts\u2026 but there was no point neither to rewrite them: although at present I barely identify myself with the poems I wrote at the age of 17, 18 and 19, I don\u2019t regret writing them. I feel them far away but they also inspire me tenderness.<\/p>\n

I think every passed day nourishes our present, the person we were in the past builds who we are today. In spite of that, the time goes on and we forget our old successes and failures to make way to new ones. It\u2019s necessary to keep on searching, even though sometimes we manage to find.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Body, love, eroticism\u2026 Which other topics would you highlight from Erofan\u00eda<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Actually those three topics represented a very fertile land to give rise to reflections on other subjects: the way we are in love sometimes reveals the way we behave with others or even the way we face life. It was also a good material for literary exercises in order to accomplish all the objectives related to style that I aimed at that time. The meta-poetry (the reflection about the sense of literature) was also a main topic in my first works.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

O libro da ego\u00edsta<\/em><\/strong> [The book of the selfish<\/em>] was released in 2003 and then translated by yourself and published in a bilingual edition [Galician and Spanish] in 2006. It was awarded the Premio Nacional de la Cr\u00edtica [Spanish National Literary Criticism Prize] in 2007. Why that title? Is it a self-criticism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is an irony and also a provocation. On one hand, poetry is the most selfish literary genre: either directly or indirectly, the poetic ego necessarily ends up talking from itself. On the other hand, this book is the result of one of those periods that pedantic people call \u201cpersonal crisis\u201d. It\u2019s one of those moments in which we \u2013absurdly- \u00a0feel that we can just rely on ourselves.<\/p>\n

The fact of getting alone with myself in front of the mirror made me aware of the best and the worst features of myself. The book Libro de la Ego\u00edsta<\/em> reflects on the identity; however, through my own identity it can reflect on yours or others\u2019 identities.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Libro de la ego\u00edsta<\/em><\/strong> is a book about one\u2019s identity, which you question with \u201cself-criticism, sharpness and despair\u201d. How does Yolanda get along with that \u201cemigrant of herself\u201d? Will that voluntary emigration become a forced exile? Who runs away from who and who stays?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Whew! I hope I answered all these complicated questions in the book, even though poetry usually brings up new questions when trying to answer questions.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re right: the book sets out a continuous dialogue among the several egos we all have: the one we intimately feel, the one others perceive, the one others bring back to us. There is always a trial of strength between my two egos, the one who agrees and the one who questions, between features of ourselves that want to escape and those that want to stay. And everything is like this!<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

From your image and your videos we may assume that you\u2019re (or should be) pleased to meet yourself. To what extent is it a sham, a provocation, a show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There is a little bit of the three plus other ingredients: I aim to destroy the assumed (also aesthetics) pattern for poets, especially females. Still today there exists a very bigoted, outdated and hackneyed archetype of what a poet \u201cshould\u201d and \u201cshouldn\u2019t\u201d do or look like.<\/p>\n

We, the poets, males or females, should have the look we freely decide. Any behavior that is considered natural in an actor or a singer should also be accepted in a poet. However, the fact of taking care of our external look and expressing ourselves through it does not mean that we pay less attention to other questions and it shouldn\u2019t distract from what really matters, which is our work.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about other topics: the passage of time, memories\u2026 Maybe you don\u2019t care much about these yet. Maybe these are topics for grey hair poets\u2026 (with all my respects for them)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The passage of time is another of the main topics of my entire work but, in fact, is rather related to the \u201ccarpe diem\u201d or the eager to live, to learn, to experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that I haven\u2019t touched on yet certain topics such as the far away memories (however we necessarily use the recent memories to make \u201cemotional memories\u201d) or death, but I eventually will. My poetic moment is always linked to what I am experiencing in life, that\u2019s why I can only write about what is really affecting me.<\/p>\n

Lately I have a more social focus.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Profundidad de campo<\/em> (2007, Spanish version in 2009) you pursue your troubled relation with your own image and identity. However, you add other moral topics, the free will\u2026 Are we free to decide who we are?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I wish we were! We are not free to decide who we are because we are not free to access all the possible options. And we have even less freedom to let others decide who and how we are.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is it video poetry?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It is a merge of two creative languages which can generate very expressive dialogues: poetry and audiovisual.<\/p>\n

The same way a novel can be converted into a movie, a poem can be converted into a short audiovisual in which the transmission of emotions, the aesthetics or the environment of sensations are more important than the narration.<\/p>\n

That is how we create a sort of \u201cvideo clip\u201d in which, instead of a song, there is a poem combined with visual metaphors and other resources in interaction with it.<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

You have tried to merge poetry with other languages: music, plastic arts, audiovisual, food\u2026 What else are you going to try? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Many other things I hope!<\/p>\n

I am eager to spread out the poetry, to link it to real life, to approach it to today society, and to relate it to as many aspects of life as possible. For this reason I always look forward for new opportunities to learn, to work with other artists who will help me know more about my job, to take more expressive advantage of my poems, to reach out to new publics, to confront ideas, to try new areas and to have new experiences.<\/p>\n

I wish three is still much to explore!<\/p>\n

DCarri\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, you and Andrea are going to talk about the book Coci\u00f1ando ao p\u00e9 da letra<\/em>. Is it possible to say \u201cI love you\u201d, \u201cI hate you\u201d, \u201cI need you\u201d with food?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Casta\u00f1o<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how accurate a message expressed by food is, but I\u2019m sure that a dish can be tremendously expressive and it can even use resources that rational language can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

It is not always possible to express our ideas through the poor spoken language, so limited and structured. In those cases, an image, a poem, a delicious dish can make meanings fly out.<\/p>\n

Useful Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n