Jean-Baptiste Passé is the new boss of the Paris Book Fair, organized by the SNE (National Publishing Union) and renamed Book Festival, which takes place from April 22 to 24 under the dome of the ephemeral Grand Palais. It also takes place in other prestigious places in the capital such as the Panthéon or the Petit Palais.
>> Paris Book Festival: what you need to know about the first edition of a reinvented fair
This reinvented book fair project was imagined by Jean-Baptiste Passé and his team in the record time of seven months. A little feverish on the eve of the opening of the event, canceled for two consecutive years, this hard worker, son of a farmer and former bookseller, entrusts franceinfo Culture with the underside of a first edition of the Paris book fair in festival fashion.
Franceinfo Culture: Why did you transform the Book Fair into a festival?
Jean-Baptiste Past: We wanted to shift the center of gravity of this event, while drawing on its history (40 years of existence anyway!). Until now, the show has been very much geared towards professionals, with players from the book chain present at the show, such as printers, bookbinders and even software publishers. This time, we wanted to build an event 100% dedicated to the public, to readers.
Why did you change location?
We wanted to bring the show back to the heart of Paris, as it did at its origins, and the ephemeral Grand Palais is a magnificent setting. We wanted to introduce a form of roaming, with about fifteen places, such as the Pantheon, the Petit Palais, the Sorbonne. By investing in these prestigious places, we want to combine literary curiosity and heritage appetite. Imagine, we are going to have a Nobel Prize, Orhan Pamuk for a meeting at the Pantheon! Roaming also with Flâneries, which will take place this year in the streets of Paris: a stroll in the footsteps of Françoise Sagan, a barge ride with Antoine Compagnon, a visit to Gallimard editions with his boss…
We wanted to maintain this initiative launched a few years ago at the show by Marie-Rose Guarniéri. This idea was excellent and we really liked it, so there was no question of abandoning it. For us, it was a question of bending the curve of the book fair, but without overturning the table… Itinerant, more festive, more festival-like, the event will therefore look more like a festival than a fair.
How did you imagine and build this festival, what were you inspired by?
From my experience already. I have the feeling of intimately knowing the universe of books, in all its dimensions, from literature to comics, through poetry or youth, but also in its organization, publishing, distribution, and then I started out as a bookseller and this experience taught me a sense of reality. This vision was reinforced by those of the team. With Marie-Madeleine Rigopoulos, as artistic director of the festival, we had the expertise of the one who made the Nancy salon a super trendy salon, which now marks the start of the fall literary awards season.
“This project was also forged by many exchanges and discussions with publishing houses, small and large, from which we posed this new vision.”
Jean-Baptiste Pastdirector of the Paris book festival
You also had to adapt to a smaller place, wasn’t that too complicated?
We had to exercise frugality and collective intelligence, abandoning a certain mercantile logic. My experience as a bookseller guided me in this idea of thinking from the space, and not the other way round, so not to juxtapose publishing groups. We called on a scenographer to design the space, and rather than offering publishers m² to fit out like at Porte de Versailles, we offer them thoughtful, equipped and furnished spaces. To help publishers find their way around, we have calibrated the prices so that the investment is roughly the same as before. For 900 €, a small publisher can afford an ephemeral space at the Grand Palais, it’s cheaper than before.
It’s a small creative leap, and also a small leap into the unknown, but it seems to me that by promoting the collective, everyone will be able to find their way around, and this organization will allow better visibility for the publishing houses, on their literary identity, on their catalogue.
Who is this book festival for?
I will give a Belgian answer: the book festival is aimed at all readers aged seven to seventy-seven! I will be really very happy if families move and that everyone finds their benefit. The festival was built like this, with its three branches: fiction, non-fiction, and a comic strip and youth space, for the youngest. We have even provided a reading area with cushions for children. Caring about young readers is fundamental.
“The festival is a great showcase for the richness and diversity of French publishing, but it makes no sense if it doesn’t serve to make young people want to read. It’s a civilizational issue!”
Jean-Baptiste Pastdirector of the Paris Book Festival
This year, the festival will also be free for all?
Yes, starting from the vision I have just mentioned, gratuity seemed essential. But free access has a cost, which publishers finance at 95%, with the help of the Île de France region and the CNL (Centre national du livre).
Publishing houses that had deserted the book fair are coming back, how did you convince them?
Yes, 300 publishing houses will be present at the festival. Big, medium, small. And indeed, some houses are coming back and I am very proud of them, such as those of the Hachette group (Grasset, Stock, Odile Jacob, etc.), but also Michel Lafon, who had left the show many years ago, or even Philippe Rey, who had agreed to come before the Goncourt of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. We are very proud that these houses have decided to come back and we convinced them, I think, with this vision that we have just talked about.
What advice would you give to a visitor to prepare his visit?
I would tell him to come to the festival’s website, find what interests him in the program, then reserve his place online in a slot that corresponds to his desires. He will then receive his ticket and we will be happy to welcome him to this great book festival. This reservation system, somewhat on the model of museums, will allow us to manage the gauges so that visitors take full advantage of their visit, the guarantee of good circulation in good sanitary conditions. I also invite visitors to come in the evening, because the doors of the ephemeral Grand Palais will be open until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with superb evening programs, such as the meeting with the Ukrainian writer Andrei Kurkov for example, on Friday evening at 8 p.m.
Have you planned anything in particular for Ukraine?
Yes, we had to express our solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and that, without Manichaeism (Russian speakers will also be present in the festival). We have therefore decided to offer a space to Ukrainian publishers, with the presentation of a hundred titles, on which will also be organized a call for donations. In this period, it is very important that books can continue to be published in Ukraine, for all displaced populations, first and foremost for children.
Any reading advice before attacking the festival?
“As the end approaches, we are all a little stressed, so to take a little distance, to relax, I reread “Madame Bovary”, by Gustave Flaubert.”
Jean-Baptiste Pastdirector of the Paris Book Festival
But for a more contemporary reading tip, I would recommend The Seer of Etampes, by Abel Quentin published by Éditions de l’Observatoire, which won the Prix de Flore 2021. It is a sharp and spicy book on the time. This 35-year-old author is steeped in talent. It’s very funny and wonderfully written.
Paris Book Festival
Online registration
Grand Palace Ephemeral
Friday, April 22: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday April 23: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday April 24: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.