Ester Xargay

Ester Xargay studied at University of Barcelona. The recorded working language is Catalan and Spanish. Work by Ester Xargay is recorded in the collections of Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Distinctions recorded are Cadaqués to Rosa Leveroni Catalan poetry award.

• Born — 12 April 1960 • Birthplace — Sant Feliu de Guíxols • Died — 19 January 2024 • Place of death — Palamós • Occupation — * Poet • video artist • translator • cultural agitator • Language — Catalan, French • Education — University of Barcelona • Notable Works — Desintegrar-se • Awards — Premi de poesia catalana "Cadaqués a Rosa Leveroni"

Ester Xargay Melero spent her adolescence and youth between Paris and Bourges, and returned to the Catalan Countries when she was 18 to study art history at the University of Barcelona. She soon became interested in the link between the visual arts and poetry.

She was part of the Catalan poetic scene at the turn of the 21st century, weaving her work and moving many cultural activities and initiatives from behind the scenes. She also cultivated the genre of artistic action and happenings. Xargay's poetic work has been described as groundbreaking. Her poetry is characterized by a formal experimentation that often forgoes personal, temporal, or narrative references, and moves away from the traditional sequential structure of poetic discourse. She collaborated on various poetic research projects, some of them with Carles Hac Mor. She also worked as a screenwriter and translator of works by Blas de Otero, Tzvetan Todorov, Blaise Pascal, and Raymond Queneau. Xargay contributed to newspapers and magazines such as Avui, Papers d'Art, Reduccions, Transversal, Talp Club, Làtex, Sense títol, Barcelona Review, Internet Corner, and El Temps, with articles on interdisciplinarity, the dissolution of genres, and other topics in the field of art and literature. With David Castillo i Buïls, she was in charge of Barcelona Poetry Week from 2005 to 2010, and with Eduard Escoffet and Martí Sales in 2011. In recent years, she directed La Païssa, a cultural space within El Marquet de les Roques, at Parque natural de San Lorenzo del Munt y del Obac, the house where Joan Oliver i Sallarès vacationed, which is owned by the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona.

• Carabassa a tot drap, o Amor lliure, ús i abús, with Carles Hac Mor, 2001.

• Tirant lo Blanc la, o La perfecció és feixista, o La construcció del socialisme, with Carles Hac Mor, 2000.