The International Book Arsenal Festival took part in the work of the Ukrainian national stand and the program of the 27th International Book Fair and Literary Festival “Svět knihy”.
“Zhadan / Gurzhy: Fokstroty” musical and poetic performance marked the beginning of the participation of the Book Arsenal and Ukraine at the festival in Prague. The event took place on June 8, on the eve of the official opening of the “Svět knihy”, and became a kind of pre-party of the whole fair.
Yuriy Gurzhy and Lyuba Yakymchuk performed on stage, and Serhiy Zhadan was recorded, along with the voices of Mykola Bazhan, Volodymyr Sosyura and other Ukrainian poets of the 1920s.
The success of the Fokstroty project and the Ukrainian program in general at the Svět knihy Prague Book Fair shows how high the demand is from local Ukrainians, newcomers and long-time residents, for high-quality Ukrainian events – the ones to be proud of and bring your acquaintances or friends to. I want this to be systematic and become a good habit for those who are following the current trends of Ukrainian culture
— Oksana Shchur, curator of the Literary Program at the Book Arsenal, producer of the Fokstroty project.
Listen to Fokstroty album
On June 9, a Round table of European Book Fairs took place. The present and future of book fairs was discussed by Yuliia Kozlovets, Director of the International Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv, Radovan Auer, Director of the of the Book World Prague, Niki Théron, International Projects Manager of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and Elena Pasoli, Director of the Children’s Book Fair in Bologna.
View the recording of the discussion
📸 Svět knihy Praha
We are grateful to the organizers of Svět knihy Praha, and personally to the director of the festival, Radovan Auer, for the invitation to participate in this year’s program and for his full support. The partnership between the Prague festival and the Book Arsenal has begun in peacetime, and now, in the face of the full-scale aggression and Russia’s war in Ukraine, our colleagues are really standing with us in our fight against the enemy. The participation in international book festivals and fairs is an opportunity for the Book Arsenal to continue its work and to present Ukrainian literary culture to the world even in wartime. Our voices must be heard, and our presence in the international cultural sphere must be visible. We are thankful to our international partners and festival organizers who have expressed their support for Ukraine and are cooperating with our team, thus, in their own way, supporting the struggle of Ukrainians against Russian invaders. After all, as the Ukrainian national stand at Svět knihy Praha said, we are united in our values and are fighting for a common European future
— Yuliia Kozlovets, director of the International Book Arsenal Festival.
In addition to participating in the program, within the national stand of Ukraine, the Book Arsenal also presented the “Ukrainian Literature: Rights On!” project aimed at getting foreigners interested in Ukrainian books and making it possible for Ukrainian publishers to start or increase exporting by establishing direct contacts with international partners. Moreover, videos recorded within the project were broadcast at the Ukrainian stand.
📸 Svět knihy Praha
Svět knihy Praha, the International Book Fair and Literary Festival BOOK WORLD PRAGUE, is the largest annual book event in Czechia, which this year took place on June 9-12 in Prague. The guest country of the 27th festival was Italy, and the slogan of the festival was Umberto Eco’s phrase “We live for books”. The festival gathered 55 thousand visitors.
The International Book Arsenal Festival is an annual project of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, established in 2011. Book Arsenal is an intellectual event in Ukraine, where the book, literary, visual, music and theatre scenes develop and interact with each other, and important issues of human existence, as well as society and culture are raised, prompting the proactive position of the participants and visitors.