This year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival will take place from 7 to 16 October, presenting a diverse 10-day program of activities and events with leading figures of the world’s literary scene.

The Cheltenham Literature Festival will host a series of events — Ukraine Day — by the International Book Arsenal Festival co-curated with the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The Ukraine Day program is a part of the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture supported by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.

In 2022 when we have cancelled the International Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, it’s extremely important and a matter of honour for us to have our special Ukrainian program in Cheltenham. To give voice to Ukrainian authors, public intellectuals, artists, to speak loudly from the platform of one of the best literary festivals in the world about our literature and about who we are, where we are and how we struggle for our common human values

— say the Book Arsenal program curators Yuliia Kozlovets and Oksana Shchur.

Ukraine Day will take place on October 11, presenting 5 events that will strengthen the voice of the Ukrainian literary scene. Among the Ukraine Day events are the following: a conversation with Oksana Zabuzhko, an art workshop by Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv, a musical and poetic performance by Grigory Semenchuk, Lyuba Yakimchuk,  Irena Karpa and Yuriy Gurzhy, as well as a conversation with Kateryna Iakovlenko, and a discussion joined by Lyuba Yakimchuk and Olesya Khromeychuk.

Ukraine Day program at the Cheltenham Literature Festival is supported by British Council Ukraine and Ukrainian Institute as part of the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture.

The Ukrainian Institute and the British Council are supporting and developing partnerships with British festivals as part of the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture. Ukrainian creative voices will be heard at important literary platforms where a wide readership will be able to get essentially acquainted with the representatives of various genres of the contemporary Ukrainian literary scene, from fiction to poetry and children’s literature. Cross-cultural dialogues are part of festivals, and Ukraine should become a valuable and important interlocutor here

— says Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General, Ukrainian Institute and Nicholas Thomas, Director, British Council in Ukraine.

In this dark chapter for Europe, we are proud to stand in solidarity with Ukraine and host a series of events co-curated with The International Book Arsenal Festival, Kyiv as part of the British Council’s UK/Ukraine Season of Culture

— say the organisers of Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Cheltenham Literature Festival is the world’s first literature Festival, leading the way in celebrating the written and spoken word, presenting the best new voices in fiction and poetry alongside literary greats and high-profile speakers.
The International Book Arsenal Festival is an annual project of Mystetskyi Arsenal founded in 2011. It is an annual intellectual event in Ukraine, where the book, literary, visual, musical, and theatrical scenes develop and interact, where the important issues of human existence, as well as society and culture are raised, prompting the proactive position of the participants and visitors.

The UK/Ukraine Season of Culture is giving a voice to Ukrainian creatives and focusing on the changing needs and priorities of the Ukrainian cultural sector. Its original theme, ‘Future Reimagined’ was reshaped following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and we have produced a more diverse schedule of live events in the UK and digitally for global audiences. The Season aims to enhance cultural connections between both countries and provide opportunities for artists to connect and collaborate. The programme of artist residencies, talks, open forums, film, music, literature, the performing and graphic arts – is set to run through to March 2023.

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. In 2019-2020 we reached over 75 million people directly and 758 million people overall including online, broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934 we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body. We receive a 14.5 per cent core funding grant from the UK government.

The Ukrainian Institute is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Its mission is to strengthen Ukraine’s international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. The Institute facilitates international connections between people and institutions and creates opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world.

Responding to the challenges of the war, the International Book Arsenal Festival is announcing the third edition of the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! program.

The main goal of the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program is to promote the export of Ukrainian books abroad and to strengthen the competencies of Ukrainian publishers in overcoming the challenges of the full-scale war.

This year again, the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program is supported by the European Union under the House of Europe programme. The information and analytical partner is the Chytomo media project.

The Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program will include 2 components:

• The educational component includes individual mentoring sessions from world and Ukrainian experts who have successful and effective experience working with cases of organising the export of Ukrainian books abroad during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war.
  The educational component of the program will take place online on July 19-26.
• The information and analytical component includes a series of texts about the opportunities of Ukrainian book export in the full-scale war based on the solutions found in the course of the educational component.
  The text materials will be published on the Chytomo, a leading Ukrainian media resource for the professional publishing community. The release is scheduled for August and September.

Within the educational component, we invite publishers to work in one of the four tracks related to the export of Ukrainian books abroad:

1. Direct sale of printed and electronic books abroad through the publisher’s website. Development of website logic, optimization for the international market, setting up search options, payment systems etc.
2. Selling rights abroad (focus on publishers with little or no experience in selling rights). Creating and enhancing catalogues, finding contractors, working with foreign literary agents and publishers.
3. Customs and legal procedures for selling books abroad.
4. Cooperation with bookstores abroad.

Each participating publisher will have an opportunity to work in one of the four tracks. The track is chosen when filling out the registration form.

How to apply for the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 Edition

Organisations are eligible to apply if they:

• are Ukrainian publishers and registered as a legal entity;
• have at least 5 books with the potential of selling rights to (for publishers whose track is working with the rights catalogue);
• have a clear current idea or case within the need of book export.

Within the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program we are planning to invite 12 participating publishers from Ukraine and 6 mentors, who will work together on each individual case in order to find the most effective up-to-date solutions for the export of Ukrainian books.

To apply for participation in the program, please fill out the registration form.
The deadline for applications is July 4, 2022.

APPLY NOW

The Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program is being implemented in a completely different format than in the previous two years. The full-scale war continues in Ukraine, having a dramatic, often catastrophic impact on the book publishing industry. Therefore, we stepped back from the goals of peacetime in order to refocus our program to support Ukrainian publishers in overcoming the challenges of wartime. This year, we invite to participate in the program those Ukrainian publishers who have the idea, the case of ​​an export-oriented project, and who need mentoring support, advice, additional knowledge and expert opinion on their problem from the outside perspective. The main principles of this year’s program are maximum practice, relevance and joint search for the most effective solutions that can support the sector and bring our victory closer on this front as well

— Yuliia Kozlovets, Coordinator of the International Book Arsenal Festival.

It is Russia’s declared goal not just to conquer Ukrainian territory, but to erase Ukrainian culture. House of Europe has re-purposed up to EUR 1.5 mln. of its budget in the framework of its war response. Continuing the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! programme together with the Mystetskyi Arsenal is a part of it, as making Ukrainian professionals even stronger and their voices even more heard internationally is now more important than ever

— Dr Christian Diemer, Head of Programme of House of Europe.

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.

Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! program, launched by the International Book Arsenal Festival in 2020, helps to establish effective connections between Ukrainian publishers and international business partners, as well as to integrate the Ukrainian literary process into the global one.

House of Europe is an EU-funded programme fostering professional and creative exchange between Ukrainians and their colleagues in EU countries and the UK. The programme focuses on culture and creative industries, education, health, social entrepreneurship, media, and youth.

Frankfurter Buchmesse in cooperation with the International Book Arsenal Festival and Goethe-Institut Ukraine are happy to announce the open call for participation in the Special Programme for publishers from Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

This Special Programme is an intensive training and networking opportunity for publishers, editors, licence managers and literary agents from Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary.
This project is one of the professional programs that are a priority of the Book Arsenal activities, and will be implemented in cooperation with the partners in 2022.

• The programme offers the following stages:
  — Open call for publishing professionals;
  — Selection of participants of the programme;
  — Online preparation seminars;
  — One-day seminar with German experts in Frankfurt;
  — Matchmaking events and numerous networking opportunities during Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Before the programme in Frankfurt starts, the selected participants will be offered a comprehensive online preparatory seminar with market presentations and tips on “How to do Frankfurt”. The programme in Frankfurt then consists of a one-day seminar with German experts. Participants will also have free time to organise their own meeting schedules while at the fair.
The programme will take place from 17 to 22 October 2022 in Frankfurt.

• Conditions of participation:
  At least 2 years of experience in publishing;
  Experience in buying or selling translation rights;
  Good command of English;
  Publishing professionals from Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Georgia, Moldova, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovak Republic are eligible to participate in the program.
• How to apply:
  Applications for the special programme can be submitted online on the Frankfurter Buchmesse website.
  15 publishing professionals will be selected for the programme.
  Application deadline is 10 July 2022.

The programme is the result of the effective strategic partnership and fruitful cooperation of the International Book Arsenal Festival, Frankfurter Buchmesse and Goethe-Institut Ukraine.
The programme is subject to financial support by the German Federal Foreign Office.

APPLY

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.

📸 Petr Machan, Svět knihy Praha

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

Continue Reading »

From June 9 to 12, the 27th International Book Fair and Literary Festival Book World will be held in Prague, where the Ukrainian program will be presented and the Ukrainian stand will operate.

Ukraine is grateful to the Czech Republic for its support in these difficult times, we are united in our values and are fighting for a common European future. Within the framework of the festival, Ukrainian authors, together with their European colleagues, will talk about a free Ukraine as a condition for a free Europe.

An important platform for the Ukrainian voice will be the Literature as the Voice of Freedom stage. In addition to discussions, well-known Czech intellectuals and Ukrainian festival participants will read the works of Ukrainian authors on this stage for young visitors, and in the evening there will be a reading of texts by Ukrainian authors in Czech.

Also on the Book World there will be a presentation of the Czech translation of the book “Crimean Tatar Cuisine” about the history and culture of the Crimean Tatar people as an indispensable component of modern Ukrainian culture. Olena Braichenko and Alim Aliev will talk about the cuisine and how it changed as a result of the forced deportation of these people in 1944.

In addition, at Svět knihy, the Book Arsenal Festival will hold 3 events:

• Fokstroty musical and poetic performance which will take place on June 8 at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art (Poupětova 1, Praha 7). The event will be a kind of pre-party of the whole fair.
• Round table of European Book Fairs/ Representative of the Frankfurt Book Fair Niki Théron, Director of the Children’s Book Fair in Bologna Elena Pasoli, Director of the Book Arsenal Fair in Kyiv Yuliia Kozlovets, and Director of the Book World Prague Radovan Auer will discuss the present and future of major Book and Literary Events.
• Poetry readings with Lyuba Yakymchuk. There will be readings of Lyuba Yakymchuk’s poems in Ukrainian and Czech (translations by Oleksii Sevruk) and discussion with Oksana Shchur (Book Arsenal Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine).

In addition to participating in the program, within the national stand of Ukraine, the Book Arsenal will present the “Ukrainian Literature: Rights On!” project aimed at promoting rights catalogues of Ukrainian publishers to sell abroad, enhancing effective business relations and integration of Ukrainian literary process in the global one.

Ukrainian and Czech PEN Centers are organizing a joint discussion “The Role of Culture and Literature during the War”, which will be attended by Ukrainian authors Alim Aliev, Kateryna Mikhalytsyna, Yevheniya Kononenko, as well as Czech writers Sasha Stojanovic Charlie and Mircea Dan Duca. The event will be moderated by Lucie Rzhegorzhikova, a Czech cultural manager and publisher.

The Ukrainian program, in addition to readings, invites Czech and Ukrainian young readers to get acquainted with the author Kateryna Mitsalitsyna, who will conduct a workshop and present the Czech translation of the book “Who grows in the forest?”.

Also at the fair there will be an exhibition of works by Ukrainian book illustrators from the Pictoric group #StandWithUkraine, reflecting the Ukrainian wartime realities of the last three months.

The Ukrainian stand will feature art, popular science and children’s books from the following Ukrainian publishers: Kalamar, Nash Format, The Old Lion Publishing House, Safran Oriental Publishing House, Chas Maistriv Publishing House, Black Sheep, Squirrel, Yakaboo, Meridian Czernowitz, Vivat, Mandrivets, Publishing House 21, Їzhak, Motor snail, Dovzhenko Center, Nautilus, Fabula.

During the work of the Ukrainian stand, funds will be raised for the “Books without Borders” project, which the Ukrainian Book Institute is implementing under the patronage of the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska together with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As part of this program, three books have already been printed (Wet Nose by Olena Osmolovska, Three Little Pigs by Vivat Publishing House, Ivanna and Bath by Olesya Mamchich), which will be available at the Ukrainian stand. The stand will also raise funds to support Ukraine.

FOR UKRAINIANS, THE ENTRANCE TO THE FAIR IS FREE.

The Ukrainian cultural community is grateful to the organizers of the Book World Festival for their assistance and assistance in the implementation of the Ukrainian program, as well as for supporting the Ukrainian people in these difficult times.
More information about the fair for visitors – at the link

Organizers: Book World, Ukrainian Institute, Embassy of Ukraine in the Czech Republic, Book Arsenal, Ukrainian Book Institute, Ukrainian PEN
Contacts: Maria Kolesnyk, [email protected], +380939767893 

Antytvir is a competition for teenagers that is usually held within the International Book Arsenal Festival, and the award ceremony usually takes place in the Mystetskyi Arsenal building.

In 2022, the 11th Book Arsenal was cancelled due to the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, but despite everything, the organizers managed to hold the Antytvir project, because now it is more important than ever for teenagers to share their stories and experiences. The team received good feedback: 106 applications with incredibly insightful and sincere works.

The format changed: this year the Antytvir was not a competition, but a project for students in grades 8-11, and all the works that passed the technical selection — literary and graphic, in Ukrainian and in English — were accepted and published. The participants were also invited to join a special educational program that consisted of online meetings and workshops in order to provide support (including psychological) and to create a community of young artists.

The theme of Antytvir-2022 is “At the Threshold”. Participants thought about:

• forced displacement;
• destruction of some values and construction of new ones;
• what values become apparent on the verge — where two worlds collide;
• what helps and what hinders us from winning, internally and externally;
• shared what it’s like to be a teenager and grow up in a war.

Read more about the theme of Antytvir-2022 here.

The educational program symbolically took place within the dates of the 11th Book Arsenal, which was supposed to be held from May 25 to 29, 2022, and the finale of the project was on the last scheduled day of the Festival. The Antytvir works can be viewed on the website. All the works are presented without any editing by the organizers.

Within the educational program:

• On May 25, an introductory Zoom-session was held between the participants and the organizers of the project, as well as a lecture “Write Ukraineness: Creative Writing” by Oksana Lushchevska, a children’s writer, translator, publicist, researcher of children’s and adolescent literature;
• On May 26, a moderated Zoom-talk was held, called “Impossibility as an Opportunity” by Mark Livin, a contemporary Ukrainian writer and journalist;
• On May 27, the teenagers met in Zoom for a talk about “Revaluation of values: how to not lose but to support yourself in times of change” and for the exercises by a psychologist Diana Zhytnia-Kebas;
• On May 28, a workshop was held in Zoom, called “A Text that Touches: How to Work with Emotions” in Zoom by Olha Rusina, an author of books for children and adolescents, journalist, translator;
• On May 29, the teenagers met in Zoom for a workshop by an artist Kateryna Buchatska, and for the final meeting, where they had the opportunity to share their impressions and emotions from the educational program.

The participants of the project were also offered to record and send a video where they are reading a favourite sentence from their text or describing in one sentence what their picture / illustration is about.

The project was financially supported by:

• the International Relief Fund for Organisations in Culture and Education 2021 of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and other partners;
• Goethe-Institut and Kulturstiftung des Bundes under the emergency stipend program for employees of partner institutions and artists that worked directly together with them;
• private persons — Julie Cowie, Molly McLogan, Paula Pritula, Susan Proctor, Karolin Ravens, and Reema.

The project was also informationally supported by Osvitoria, an online media on education and upbringing of children in Ukraine.

The International Book Arsenal Festival is happy to present its events at the Svět knihy Prague Book Fair that will run from June 9 to 12, 2022.

Our participation in the Prague Book Fair and Literary Festival has become possible thanks to our lasting partnership: back in 2018, Radovan Auer, Director of Svět knihy Praha, was our guest at the Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv, and last year he participated in the Alteration: Festival to Festival program for literature and festival managers.

At Svět knihy, the Book Arsenal Festival will hold 3 events:

Fokstroty musical and poetic performance will take place on June 8, on the eve of the official opening of the Svět knihy. The disco of Ukrainian poets of the 1920s will become a kind of pre-party of the whole fair.

Fokstroty, a project by Serhiy Zhadan and Yuriy Gurzhy (curated by Oksana Shchur), was presented for the first time in October 2021 at the Mystetskyi Arsenal within the framework of the Futuromarennia project. Especially for the Prague Book Fair, Yuriy Gurzhy has created a bonus track “Never (again!)” on the subject of liberation of Europe and Ukraine from “fascist torturers”. In Prague, the performance will be held in an adapted form: Yuriy Gurzhy and Lyuba Yakymchuk will perform on stage, and Serhiy Zhadan, who cannot leave Kharkiv, will be recorded, along with the voices of Mykola Bazhan, Volodymyr Sosiura and others.

On June 9, two more events will take place.
The first one is a Round table of European Book Fairs. The present and future of book fairs will be discussed by Niki Théron, International Projects Manager of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Elena Pasoli, Director of the Children’s Book Fair in Bologna, Yuliia Kozlovets, Director of the Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv, and Radovan Auer, Director of the of the Book World Prague.

The second event is poetry readings with the poet Lyuba Yakymchuk. Together with Oksana Shchur, Curator of the Book Arsenal Literary Program, they will talk about contemporary poetry during the war: how it is written, what it should be like after Bucha and Mariupol, and whether poetry readings and trips abroad are appropriate during the war. In addition, Lyuba Yakymchuk will read her poems in Ukrainian, and translator Oleksii Sevruk will read these poems translated into Czech.

More about the events:

• June 8, 7:00 PM
  Fokstroty. The disco of Ukrainian poets of the 1920s
  Project by Serhiy Zhadan and Yuriy Gurzhy
  On stage: Yuriy Gurzhy, Lyuba Yakymchuk
  Languages: Ukrainian, English
  Venue: DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Poupětova 1, Praha 7

Would Tychyna be inspired by contemporary disco grooves? What would have happened if Serge Gainsbourg had been born not in Paris, but in Kharkiv (where his father once lived), and recorded erotic pop with lyrics by Raisa Trojanker? And what would be the sound of Lee “Scratch” Perry’s reggae with the texts by Volodymyr Sosiura? Could Bazhan have ever imagined that in the 21st century he would be singing with a children’s choir accompanied by synthesizers? Yuriy Gurzhy, Serhiy Zhadan, Lyubov Yakymchuk, Hryhoriy Semenchuk will perform here along with them. The event will be a kind of pre-party of the whole fair.

• June 9, 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM
  Round table of European Book Fairs
  Languages: English, Czech
  Venue: ATELIER EUROPE

In the online era, the word “fair” strikingly resembles the word “dinosaur”. Still, Book Fairs have mostly overcome the pandemic and show their importance even in difficult times of war. Representative of the Frankfurt Book Fair Niki Théron, Director of the Children’s Book Fair in Bologna Elena Pasoli, Director of the Book Arsenal Fair in Kyiv Yuliia Kozlovets, and Director of the Book World Prague Radovan Auer will discuss the present and future of major Book and Literary Events.

Director of the Book Arsenal Fair in Kyiv Yuliia Kozlovets

• June 9, 4:00 PM – 4:50 PM
  Ukrainian News and Muse
  Poetry readings with Lyuba Yakymchuk (Luhansk-Kyiv, Ukraine)
  Languages: Ukrainian, Czech
  Venue: HALL B, Výstaviště Holešovice, Praha, 170 00
  Moderator: Oksana Shchur

Lyuba Yakymchuk is a poet, screenwriter, playwright, born in 1985 in Pervomaisk, Luhansk region. She is the author of several full-length poetry collections, including Apricots of Donbas which is about people surviving a war.

As a vocalist, Lyuba performed in the Fokstroty project by Serhiy Zhadan and Yuriy Gurzhy. In 2022 she performed her poem Prayer in the project Free by John Legend during Grammy Awards.

What is poetry like after Bucha and Mariupol? Are poetry readings relevant in a war? These and other topics will be discussed with Oksana Shchur (Book Arsenal Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine). There will also be readings of Lyuba Yakymchuk’s poems in Ukrainian and Czech (translations by Oleksii Sevruk).

In addition to participating in the program, within the national stand of Ukraine, the Book Arsenal will present the “Ukrainian Literature: Rights On!” project aimed at promoting rights catalogues of Ukrainian publishers to sell abroad, enhancing effective business relations and integration of Ukrainian literary process in the global one. Ukraine will be represented in Prague with a national stand and a large program of events thanks to the joint work of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Ukrainian Book Institute, the Embassy of Ukraine in the Czech Republic, Ukrainian Institute, PEN Ukraine, as well as Book Arsenal and BookForum international festivals.

International Book Arsenal Festiva and Pictoric Illustrators Club open an exhibition of Ukrainian illustrators #StandWithUkraine: Art is a weapon. The exhibition will take place as part of the Tbilisi International Book Festival, which will run from 26 to 29 May 2022.

After eight years of military aggression against Ukraine, Russia has launched an unprecedented full-scale war in the center of Europe. Russian invasion is the biggest and the deadliest than any other conflict that took place in Europe since World War II. United in bravery and determination, Ukrainians are fighting the aggressor on all fronts.

While the Ukrainian army continues to defend every piece of Ukrainian territory and the very spirit of freedom and democracy in the world, the Ukrainian and world publishing community stands for our values together via joint projects at the book fairs and festivals around the world. We are very grateful to every Georgian for your invaluable support in recent months. You have done a lot and we ask you to be with us until our Victory!

The exhibition #StandWithUkraine: Art is a weapon presents the works of Ukrainian illustrators, depicting a reflection on terrible times and hope and peace for Ukraine. We continue to fight and invite you to stand with Ukraine, to join us in defending human rights and freedom in any way.

Poster author: Maria Foya

Exhibitors: Anna Andreieva, Oksana Drachkovska, Daria Filipova, Maria Foya, Oleg Gryshchenko, Grasya Oliyko, Zhenia Polosina, Anna Sarvira, Oleksandr Shatokhin, Olga Shtonda, Olena Staranchuk, Illia Uhnivenko.

Organizers of the exhibition: International Book Arsenal Festival, Pictoric

International Book Arsenal Festival is an annual project of the Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv) and an intellectual event in Ukraine, where the book, literary and artistic 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.

Pictoric Illustrators Club is a community of illustrators, graphic designers and artists, who create joint projects and involve talented artists from different countries in order to promote high-quality modern illustration in Ukraine and abroad. Pictoric collects and creates illustrations, posters, and comic books to support Ukraine and its people, convey true information, and inspire the whole world to fight for freedom and democracy.

Antytvir-2022 is a project for teenagers to express themselves through creative practices (texts, illustrations or other genres).
This year, all the antytvir-works will be accepted, without any evaluation by the jury or awards — the work of each participant will be posted on the Book Arsenal website.

The project also includes a series of educational online meetings and workshops in order to create a community of young artists and to support them (in particular, providing psychological support).

The theme of Antytvir-2022 is “At the Threshold”.

Before the war, the Antytvir team described this year’s theme as follows:
“At the Threshold is a moment a few minutes before the change that will happen to the hero, a moment before (not) crossing the line. In a Hollywood movie, it would be depicted as a deep, loud, slow breath before the very start.”

However, today (and every day) the highlights are shifting.

We offer to reflect on:

• forced displacement;
• destruction of some values and construction of new ones;
• what values become apparent on the verge — where two worlds collide;
• what helps and what hinders us from winning, internally and externally;
• sharing what it’s like to be a teenager and grow up in a war.

Read more about the theme of Antytvir-2022 here.

Usually, in your antytvir-work, we encourage you to choose an unusual form, perspective. You can tell your story on behalf of a subject, dedicate your whole work to the moment of destruction or the process of construction of values, of a personality; write about existing or fictional; do it in the form of a text-message novel, a graphic novel, or write and illustrate your own work. The principal thing is to allow yourself to go beyond all limits.

To participate in the Antytvir-2022 project, you should:

• be a student of 8–11 grade;
• attach your antytvir-work to the Google form. The text should be in Ukrainian or in English, 20,000 characters with spaces in pdf format. The image should be in jpeg format. You can send only text or only illustration, or text and illustration together.

The deadline is May 1st, 23:59. After the technical selection of works (checking for compliance with the language, volume of text, image format), educational online meetings will be held, and your works will be published on the website.

Team bonus — stickers for Telegram!

We will be waiting for your antytvir-works! Follow the news in your mailbox and social networks.

Together with the International Book Arsenal Festival and Gogol Bordello band, a team of Kyiv-based art volunteers and book illustrators has launched a charity initiative called ArtDopomoga.

ArtDopomoga is a platform, which is offering artworks created in Ukraine during the war. All proceeds from your purchase of the artwork will go to support Ukraine in its fight.

On the ArtDopomoga website you can purchase stickers, posters, prints on fabric and t-shirts, music, and NFT created by Ukrainian artists and illustrators. You can also help Ukrainian artists directly by sending funds to support their work.

#StandWithUkraine

International Book Arsenal Festival is the largest intellectual event in Ukraine, founded by Mystetskyi Arsenal in 2011. Each year, it hosts more than 100 foreign guests, more than 200 publishers and cultural institutions, and more than 55,000 visitors.

Gogol Bordello is a multicultural American punk rock band, formed in 1999 by Ukrainian-born singer Eugene Hütz.

Image: artwork by Nikita Titov.