A TEEN SPACE BY THE YOUTH COUNCIL AND THE LITERARY LABORATORY FOR TEENS
Can anything in a teenager’s life truly be unambiguous? When your hormones are raging, you want to be heard, when you’re full of ideas and ambitions, and you know it has to be this way. Or maybe you feel lost, unheard, unsure of what you really want, and you pass off others’ choices as your own, because someone else knows better. In truth, not knowing, making mistakes, struggling with choices, receiving support, being understood, and having your boundaries respected are experiences with no age limits. These ideas matter at every stage of life. In this space, we support all forms of creativity, welcome different visions and opinions, avoid criticism and judgment, and make promises to ourselves that we will fulfill before the next Book Arsenal.
The concept for this space was developed by the Youth Council of Mystetskyi Arsenal, inspired by the literary texts written by the participants of the Literary Laboratory for Teens.
Throughout 2024–2025, two teen communities were active at Mystetskyi Arsenal: the Youth Council and the Literary Lab for Teens. The Youth Council participants explored the work of art institutions and curators, and learned how exhibitions are created, so they could bring this project to life. Meanwhile, the LitLab participants learned how to write, read, and tell stories to create literary texts for their zine, and engaged with professionals from the book world to co-create a special teen-led program for the Book Arsenal.
The Youth Council read through all the zine texts, reflected on the emotions that resonated most, conducted a survey, and recorded the thoughts of other teens. You can listen to these audio recordings and share your own reflections on trust, dreams, safe spaces, and truth.
The girls invited artists Volt Agapeyev and Tamara Turliun—who both have experience working with teens and youth—to help dive deeper into the process of interpreting the unambiguous. Come to learn more about teenagers, about yourself, to connect and work with the zine texts, to reflect, to experience Tamara’s work, Overshadow, to join Volt’s Interactive Cut-out workshop, and of course—to interpret it all your own way!
We invite you to:
- May 29 at 17:00 — join the workshop by Volt Agapeyev, work with zine texts, search for your own meanings, and leave them in the space. The workshop space will remain open throughout the Festival.
- May 31 at 15:00 — create your own vytynanka (paper cutout) together with Tamara Turliun.
- June 1, from 16:00 to 19:00 — leave a promise to yourself for the next Book Arsenal.
The LitLab Teens is supported by the British Council’s Support for Cultural Activity in Ukraine with UK Involvement programme