This year, the 11th International Book Arsenal Festival will run from June 22 (official opening in the evening) to June 25.
The core structure of the Book Arsenal remains unchanged: the event program of the festival, and the book fair with respective thematic sections. The Book Arsenal will be held in the left wing of the first floor of the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
This year, the book fair will be organized in a different way: the book sales at the festival will be operated not by separate publishing houses, but by local Kyiv bookstores that have been up and running for some time, are stable businesses that have developed their relationships with various publishing houses, and are interested in new editions. In addition, the Dovzhenko Centre will be the operator of the Art Book section as part of its interinstitutional partnership with the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
The sections of the book fair will operate as follows:
- the Nonfiction section will be managed by Sens bookstore,
- the Fiction section will be managed by Book Lion bookstore,
- the Children’s Books, as well as Comics and Graphic Prose sections will be managed by Zakapelok bookstore,
- the section with Books about the Russia-Ukraine war will be managed by Syaivo Knyhy municipal bookstore,
- the Art Books section will be managed by the Dovzhenko Centre.
Any publishing house has the opportunity to present its books for sale in the respective sections. For this, a publishing house should contact the operator of the selected section. Contacts and other details are given below. In addition, publishing houses can present their books not for sale, but for exhibiting at the festival’s Vitryna Novynok, a showcase of new titles, which will be formed together with Chytomo. Books exhibited at the Vitryna Novynok can have QR codes on them that visitors can use to scan, find, and buy the book.
The Book Arsenal event program will be created by the invited curators. Over 100 tailored events of the focus theme, the literary program, the Kids and Teens program, performances, and professional events will take place on three stages.
VIEW THE PROGRAM
“When Everything Matters” is the chosen focus theme of the 11th Book Arsenal Festival.
Nataliya Gumenyuk, Ukrainian journalist, author, documentary filmmaker, the CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Lab, has been chosen as the curator of the focus theme of the 11th International Book Arsenal Festival.
The 11th Book Arsenal has also chosen Iryna Slavinska, the Executive Producer of Radio Culture, translator and writer, as the curator of the main literary program.
The festival program of events, in addition to the events of the focus theme and the events of the literary program, will also include the Kids and Teens program, curated by Yuliia Kozlovets.
The special program by the Literary Laboratory of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, curated by Dima Kazakov, will be about little traveling, homeless libraries, real and online archives, collecting, personal book and vinyl collections, curated shelves, and zines. The special program by the Literary Laboratory will be held in the right wing of the first floor of the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
The special program of events will also be presented by PEN Ukraine.
Curatorial and special programs of the 11th Book Arsenal:
- The focus theme “When Everything Matters”, curated by Nataliya Gumenyuk
- The literary program “Transforming the Experience into Memory”, curated by Iryna Slavinska
- The Program for/about Kids and Teens “When the War Is Not Only in Books”, curated by Yuliia Kozlovets
- The Professional Program of the Book Arsenal, curated by Oksana Karpiuk
- The special program “(non)public libraries” by the Literary Laboratory of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, curated by Dima Kazakov
- Dovzhenko Centre Special Program “Literary Movie Canon. Volume One”
- PEN Ukraine Special Program
As usual, the projects by illustrators, graphic designers, and font designers will be presented at the fair and in the festival program, in particular, the #ОБОЛОНЬЯ wall with promo posters of Ukrainian illustrators, and the Illustrators’ Showcase. In addition, professional events for the publishing community are planned.
In the conditions of martial law in Ukraine and under regulations issued by the state authorities due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, as well as to prevent or eliminate threats to the life and safety of people, interests of society or the state, and to ensure public order, the Festival organizer reserves the right to make changes to the program and procedure of the Festival, with further notification of all interested parties through updates posted on the Book Arsenal website and social media.
The Book Arsenal team kindly asks for your understanding and brings to your attention the following:
– Any event of the festival may start later than scheduled or may not take place for reasons beyond the Festival organizer’s control;
– Any participant of the event program may cancel their participation for reasons beyond their or the Festival organizer’s control;
– The festival may be canceled in case the security situation in the city of Kyiv deteriorates.
In case of an air raid alert, please immediately proceed to the shelter and stay there until the air siren is all clear! The festival will resume 30 minutes after the air siren is all clear. The festival will not resume if the air siren is all clear after 8:00 p.m.