The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest book trade fair in terms of publishing representation, taking place every year in mid-October. In this edition, Spain is the Guest of Honor, presenting a unique opportunity to showcase its culture and literature to the world.
The five-day event reserves three days for industry professionals and two for the general public. During this time, the Guest of Honor is showcased across the city's most prominent locations. Spain's participation as Guest of Honor comes 31 years after its first appearance in 1991. Under the slogan "Overflowing Creativity," the main objective is to showcase the talent and creativity of contemporary Spanish literature and the strength of its publishing industry.
To select the design of the pavilion, a national open call for proposals was launched in January of this year, evaluated by a specialized jury. The objective was to select a proposal that was not only in line with this edition's slogan, but did so in an innovative, original, creative, and sustainable way.
The winning proposal was designed by ENORME Studio, a Madrid-based architecture firm, in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team that included graphic and interactive designers, writers, and other professionals.
The full team comprises the architecture office ENORME Studio, led by Rocío Pina and Carmelo Rodríguez, in collaboration with Alexis Rodriguez, Evgenia Stamatiou, Ester Izquierdo, Alejandro García, and Francesca Maggioni; visual arts studio Vitamin Studio, including Pablo Alvarez, Javier Mujica, Laura Gabriela, Ana Piquer, Pau Fenollosa, and Carlos Gil; graphic design studio TwoPoints.net, founded by designers Lupi Asensio and Martin Lorenz; writer and poet Ignacio Vleming; and philosopher Giselle Etcheverry Walker.
The pavilion was named The Cherry Theory, a title that is no coincidence and holds a captivating story behind it.
In her essay El cuento de nunca acabar, Spanish writer Carmen Martín Gaite (1925-2000) observes that storytelling is often like eating cherries: one story hooks into another, and we end up putting two or three more into our mouths than we had planned. The writer liked to say that books are like good friends who introduce us to other good friends. This is precisely what the winning project for Spain's pavilion aims to convey. Below, thanks to the information provided by its creators, we describe the design in detail.
1. Entrance
Upon arrival, visitors are welcomed by large-format graphic prints that serve as a prelude, preparing them for the experience inside. A winding table commands the reception area, serving as an information point and showcasing a selection of books for sale.
Reception and Book Sales
The large prints evoke an "open book"—that feeling of being enveloped by words while reading, of being transported to other places.
2 . Areas
The three capsules known as "Cherries" that make up the main exhibition space, the primary and secondary auditoriums, and the workshop area (also called the "happy hour area") are separated by circular or clover-shaped skins. Dispersed throughout the pavilion, these walls create plazas for gathering and recreation, as well as corners for quiet reflection.
Main and Secondary Auditoriums
The auditoriums are spaces for gathering, knowledge sharing, and debate. Their skin, or enclosure, serves as the interface with the exhibition area. Its composition is based on overlapping sheets of "paper" suspended from the ceiling by a lightweight structure.
These "paper" walls represent enlarged pages from Antonio de Nebrija's book Gramática Latina. Over these pages, other terms and textures emerge, leading to alternative formats like digital media and the branched reading style characteristic of recent years.
Inside, dynamic color graphics stimulate the creativity of both speakers and visitors.
Cherries
Three interlocking cherries are the main element of the exhibition space, directly referencing Carmen Martín Gaite’s text. Within their layers of semi-transparent skin, visitors can immerse themselves in color and atmosphere, as well as a sea of literary quotes, publishing references, and definitions in all of Spain's co-official languages, showcasing the multifaceted and diverse reality of Spanish publishing.
Workshop Area
In the workshop area, vegetation takes center stage, playfully addressing sustainability challenges in the publishing industry. At the same time, its immersive atmosphere makes it an ideal place to discuss and celebrate Spanish literature.
3 . Furniture
The exhibition area, which hosts the showcase organized by the Frankfurter Buchmesse "Books on...", consists of two winding bookshelves that embrace colorful "boa sofas" in the lounge area.
"Books on..." and Boa Sofa
This lounge area offers a more relaxed and flexible reading experience, contrasting with the formality of traditional libraries. Displayed like a showcase, the books embrace visitors and form a backdrop for activities in the exhibition space. Additionally, an opening in one of the bookshelves allows visitors to glimpse the inner workings of a radio booth broadcasting live from the pavilion.
The "boa sofas," with their colorful textures and inviting appearance, aim to reflect the dynamic nature of literary storytelling. Meanwhile, the shelving serves as a backdrop for the stage where showcases highlighting Spanish culture will take place.
The Imaginary
These reading corners are designed to encourage "pauses." In a pavilion dominated by colors, sounds, and words, they offer visitors moments of tranquility to discover new books and authors across various genres.
4 . Interactive Stations
The Spain pavilion also features a series of interactive stops that allow users to play with the plasticity of words in the digital age.
The installations are located between the capsules of the main exhibition space. From one setup to the next, these interactive elements use language to enhance visitors' sense of oral storytelling, written expression, synesthetic capacity, grammatical value, and their complex relationship with artificial intelligence.
The Metaphor
This installation consists of an interactive wall that serves as the backdrop for the pavilion and the first element welcoming visitors. Dubbed the "thought thermometer," it functions as the artificial intelligence brain managing the space. The screen projects large splashes of color, referencing the pavilion's graphic identity (fabrics, droplets, fragments).
The projected colors are generated by coding the most frequently repeated words and concepts in the space, constantly changing with the movement of visitors. Each attendee leaves a trail of color that blends and dissolves with others, creating a collaborative and dynamic mural.
The Writer
On a table, a robotic arm uses a pen to replicate the handwriting of some of Spain's most significant literary figures. This robot has been featured at other events and consistently captivates visitors while offering a poetic reflection on transhumanism and the role of technology in the future of literature.
The Poet
Another stop allows visitors to isolate themselves to listen to stories, novel excerpts, and poems by recent winners of the National Literature Awards. This station highlights the audiobook, which has recently emerged as an engaging medium for those who wish to read while multitasking.
The Interpreter
A microphone invites visitors to speak a word in their language. Through a software program, and depending on its sound, the word is transformed into a splash of color similar to those decorating the space. This "magic trick" is called synesthesia. What colors will words like grass, sky, or love turn out to be?
The Reader
Displays were also created to showcase new developments in the industry. These small libraries feature Spanish titles with international reach, as well as works already translated into other languages and available in foreign markets.
Life
Using a series of illuminated acrylic plates featuring written words and phrases—which can be rearranged along a longitudinal track—visitors can create new messages and slogans, or complete and transform those left by others. The game is inspired by the legendary surrealist writing method: the "exquisite corpse."
Bonds
Small, undulating screens guide visitors through the exhibition space. Every day, they project key words in Spain's co-official languages as well as German, creating a dynamic cultural bridge between Spain and Germany.
Due to the unique shape of these screens, the words stretch, get cut off, or disappear, forming a living dictionary in constant transformation.
ONCE Foundation
In collaboration with the ONCE Foundation, this station invites visitors to learn more about the production of Braille books. Visitors can also create and take home a print.
Overflowing creativity naturally has the book at its heart in a book fair, but it goes much further, reaching all forms of art, creation, and expression. *The Cherry Theory* transforms the Spanish pavilion into a living dictionary that, like hypertext, links words, languages, and stories: 2,000 square meters of #OverflowingCreativity.
Source:
- Presentation of the Spanish pavilion at the Frankfurt International Book Fair: "The Cherry Theory," courtesy of ENORME Studio.
This article was written by Mili Sánchez Azcona. The translation is powered by AI.
