From Morat to Las Letras, Simón Vargas launches his book on the edge of the light

By Sergio Villamizar

Simón Vargas is one of Morat’s members, the Colombian band that He had just introduced himself in the Solar in Medellín and already exhausted ticket offices in his next concert tour, Pending issues, in different cities of the country. What not many know is that Simon has other artistic concerns that he is always exploring.

He is a historian by profession, he is always creating new songs for the band, he is passionate about photography in its different forms, and a story rapporteur, such as the thirteen that are part of To the shore of the light, A book that had a first edition in Spain five years ago, one day before the start of the pandemic.

Find out: “What the fuck is a Morat?”

Now, within the novelties of the Bogotá International Book Fair, it presents a new edition of this book, With the same stories, but completely renewed in its design with photographs taken by Simon himself.

His stories are portraits of the Bogotá that he recognizes, in which he grew up, But also the one that imagines and the one that many times fears.

While presenting this new edition of his storybook, Prepare a photographic exhibition of its endless tours of the capital of the country, without neglecting Morat’s new music and his next concert tour.

“It came out a day before the pandemic exploded, so he ate a news of global magnitudes and I had duel that this, having a release and interviews, was never going to happen, Until they proposed to make a second editionthat for my liking is much more what I always imagined of the book, I am really happy. ”

“On the one hand, I started taking photos more than seven years ago, and for four I started with a great magnitude photography project, with a four thousand photographs file in the city, choosing 80 photos. At that time, it seemed too evident that these photographs were part of the book, they connected very well with the stories.

The first edition was published in Spain, and at the initiative of the publishing house in Bogotá, the idea of ​​this new edition with a book that speaks of the city and that already had the photographs, which at the same time are part of a photographic exhibition that will be open all month of May in Bogotá ”emerged.

“Yes. I feel that I wrote this book for me, and I am pleased to know that, and it is as I wanted to write and transmit it. Thus, once I read it again and remembered the process of doing it, of writing it, of sending it to my readers, receiving the comments and making meetings of more than eight hours discussing and rewriting.

It is a book as I imagined in terms of text, although in edition it lacked, because I designed it and I was stubborn and I assume it, but this version of the book is as I always wanted to do, where everything communicates. ”

Find out: 2024, the year that will change the story of Morat with the “stadiums” tour

“All photographs could have been taken digital, even with artificial intelligence, but in analogue the value is the process that makes you slowwhere you take a photo in roll and you can only see it later, which charges a greater meaning. The dark room is wonderful, taking up processes that are rescued and had to investigate a lot. A different texture is achieved. ”

“My favorite books of the book are perhaps the most violent, where everything becomes more aggressive. Perhaps, because my work as a bassist and writer in Morat is radically opposite, because in the stories there are scenes and moments that have nothing to do with the imaginary that we develop with the band.

If I had to choose one, it is always the first, ‘Tokio’because it enters with a fist in the face because it is overragive and I love it, with the feeling of drowning. ”

“Completely. With insecurity, with the sensation of the edges, of the shore, poorly illuminated, with invisible edges because entering the corner that is not and you can be in trouble. Also being at the edge of the conflict, with a monster on the mountain that we do not see at all, but we know it is there.

The feeling of insecurity and terror that becomes everyday, but also surrounded by a very beautiful culture, with a very interesting aesthetic that reaches the trash And I like it a lot, and more when it rains in a half city to build and carried by the whores by traffic. ”

“Beauty highlights in the contrast, and that happens a lot with Bogotá, where you can have the beautiful next to the horrible and dirty.”

“Yes and no. As time has passed I have met authors who talk about Bogotá, but five years ago I had few references. I really approached Bogotá through journalism, with the way of telling the news from the newspapers they sell at traffic lights And see the barbarities that happen, until traditional newspapers pass and see how they approach the same news from different forms of writing.

What I did not want to do, when talking about Bogotá, it was to focus the lens on misery, in the darkest place, while in my book, the most aggressive moments are the most fantasy moments, and I always liked that. ”

“Despite the global situation, the book was very good despite not having a release, interviews and book signatures, but moved through many readers’ circles, In addition to many of Morat’s fans and I had a lot of positive feedback from them.

Can read: Now and in the hourthe book with which Héctor Abad Faciolince learned again to write

But especially, the readers of Bogotá, who told me that they met their Bogotá, and for me that is a fulfilled goal. It is wonderful that they will meet an ironic Bogotá, queen of contrasts, in chaos, hostile and clamp. I arrive in Bogotá and I don’t know if I’m more fascinated and terrified to travel it”.

“I have more things on the way. What I am writing now does not reach the autobiographical, but they are stories much closer to meseeking to be a much more transgressive book than this, more aggressive, stronger. ”

“No, because working conditions are radically different. Morat is a band with a common criterion, where everything is discussed, while in the book, which had the participation of many people, in the end the decision was completely mine.”