UKRAINE IS AN IMPORTANT FOCUS POINT AT THE LEIPZIGER BUCHMESSE 2023 WHICH WILL BE HELD ON APRIL 27-30 IN LEIPZIG (GERMANY).
Supported by the organizers of the fair, this year Ukraine is represented at the Leipziger Buchmesse by the Ukrainian national stand organized by the Ukrainian Book Institute, the stand of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, and the stand of the Meridian Czernowitz International Poetry Festival.
The Mystetskyi Arsenal will present its stand (Hall 4, Stand D307b) under the slogan “Arsenal of Books & Arts & Resilience”. The visual concept of the stand reflects the reality of the war, “Ukrainian art under the gun”. At the Mystetskyi Arsenal stand, visitors will have an opportunity to learn more about the history of the Mystetskyi Arsenal and the International Book Arsenal Festival, and to look through the editions to the exhibitions that were held at the Mystetskyi Arsenal. The visual component of the stand was created by Alla Sorochan and Kostya Martsenkivsky, a team of designers at the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
The special program of events called “Weiter Denken / Erinnern / Neugestalten” (“Re-think/ Re-build / Re-flect”) is implemented by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education of Germany (bpb), the Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, the Ukrainian Book Institute, the Ukrainian Institute, and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM, Vienna).
For instance, the Mystetskyi Arsenal and the International Book Arsenal Festival co-organized a series of events.
- On April 27, at 12:30 p.m., the talk “The best book design from Ukraine and all over the world” will be held.
Participants: Yuliia Kozlovets, International Book Arsenal Festival; Mariia Shubchyk, Goethe-Institut Ukraine; Carolin Blöink, Stiftung Buchkunst.
On the same day, at 4:30 p.m., the discussion “Stepping out of the shadow of the empire: thoughts on the decolonization of culture and the state” will take place.
Participants: Kateryna Botanova, cultural critic, journalist, curator, and translator; Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, cultural theorist.
Moderated by Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, Director General of the Mystetskyi Arsenal. - On April 29, at 12:00 noon, the talk “Speaking to be heard” will be held.
Participants: Iryna Tsilyk, film director, author; Lyubov Yakimchuk, author, screenwriter.
Moderated by Yuliia Kozlovets, Director of the International Book Arsenal Festival. - On April 30, at 11:30 a.m., the conversation “Propaganda at full speed” will be held with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and the media expert Kyrylo Bezkorovainyi, moderated by Yuliia Kozlovets.
Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, Director General of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, will also participate in the event “Beyond big words: What does Ukraine need for cultural reconstruction?”, which will take place on April 28 at 4:00 p.m. She will be joined in the discussion by Johannes Ebert, General Secretary and Chairman of the Goethe-Institut, and Kateryna Botanova, cultural critic, journalist, curator, and translator. Moderated by Natasha Freundel.
All the events of the Ukrainian program will take place on the UKRAINE stage of our National stand.
The main theme of the Ukrainian stand is the Destroyed Library exposition of furniture from destroyed libraries of Ukraine. The slogan “Sensitive Content” draws attention of the international community to destroyal of Ukrainian libraries due to russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Read more about the Ukrainian national stand and the Ukrainian program via the link.
In addition to the events at the fair, on Saturday, April 29, Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig will also host the Ukraine Day with the slogan “Übers Wasser gehen” (“Walking Over Water”), organized by the Federal Agency for Civic Education of Germany.
As part of the Leipziger Buchmesse program, there will also be an award ceremony for the winners of this year’s Best Book Design from All Over the World competition, an international competition organized by Stiftung Buchkunst. The winning books of the Best Book Design Contest 2022 will be exhibited at Stiftung Buchkunst stand during all days of the fair.
Photo by Yuliia Kozlovets
Photo by Yuliia Kozlovets
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Mystetskyi Arsenal is Ukraine’s flagship cultural institution that brings together various arts – from contemporary art, new music and theatre to literature and museum development. The mission of the Mystetskyi Arsenal is to contribute to modernization of Ukrainian society and Ukraine’s integration into the global context based on the axiological potential of culture.
The International Book Arsenal Festival (IBAF) is an annual event organized by the Mystetskyi Arsenal since 2011. During this decade it has become one of the most influential literary and art events in Eastern Europe. In 2019, IBAF won The Literary Festival Award of The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards 2019. The mission of the Book Arsenal Festival is to create such interactions between people, communities, and institutions when the combination of aesthetic experience and intellectual engagement in the context of the book enhances the ability of man and society.
Leipziger Buchmesse is the most important get-together in the spring for the book and media industry, connecting readers with authors, publishers and media companies from Germany and around the world. They all visit Leipzig to experience a diversity of literature, discover innovations and gain new perspectives.