SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL, SMALL IS PORTABLE.

Considered the most emblematic, and almost legendary, work by Enrique Vila-Matas, the Abbreviated History of Portable Literature was first published in 1985, immediately translated into several languages ​​and, transposing the pages of the book, originated several conspiracies in real life The shandy conspiracy or laptop secret society was founded in 1924, at the mouth of the River Niger, in Port Atif, and was dissolved three years later, after a spectacular scandal in Seville. The shandy conspiracy included, among others, Robert Walser, Duchamp, Scott Fitzgerald, Walter Benjamin, César Vallejo, Rita Malú, Valery Larbaud, García Lorca, Pola Negri, Berta Bocado, Alberto Savinio and Georgia O’Keefe. In order to be part of the secret society, there were two essential requirements: on the one hand, the artist’s work had to be portable, that is, it could not be heavy and should be easily transported in a briefcase; the other condition was that it works as a perfect single machine. And although it was not essential, it was also recommended to have certain characteristics that were considered to be specifically shandys: “extreme sexuality, innovative spirit, absence of great purposes, insolence, tense coexistence with the double, sympathy for blackness and indefatigable nomadism.”