“I am a picture person” is a phrase that can be said by almost every second person today. Indeed, we perceive information differently now, and text or just sound is not enough for us. To read and comprehend the article, we need visual infographics, and we can no longer do without scribing in training sessions.

We perceive the world with images, each time drawing pictures in our heads. And literature is something that allows us to create immeasurable variations of these images and different views on the same story. Perhaps, that is why we are so interested in literary adaptations today. For we can first live our own film, by reading a book, creating frames page after page, and imagining the backstage, costumes and facial expressions of the characters, and then – watch the someone else’s view in the literary adaptation, and compare these two films. In addition, we are interested in a comprehensive experience. We are attentive and observant like real birdbookwatchers.

Every year, Ukrainian cinema develops rapidly, telling new stories – whether created by directors and screenwriters, or caught from the ocean of literary plots. Fortunately, we have enough sources, from which we can derive. As part of the BookWatchers Program, we will see how a book can turn into a film and talk about the close relationship between literature and cinema.

The Book Pitch project was launched in 2020 by the International Book Arsenal Festival and the Odesa International Film Festival. Book pitching aims to find modern Ukrainian books that have the potential to be adapted as feature films. The winners receive prizes from Book Arsenal and OIFF, as well as get the opportunity to present their works before the best Ukrainian producers and directors.

Have you ever wanted to write a book and see your name on the cover next to a famous author? At Book Arsenal, you will be able to write your own story in real time in co-authorship with Lubko Deresh, the author of the bestsellers Cult and Worshipping the Lizard.

The basis of Visa’s project You are the Author is a 3-meter interactive installation in the form of a book installed in the territory of the Festival. Choosing 16 scenarios, you will be able to write your short story, choose a title and even a cover design.

You can also create a book online together with author Lubko Deresh, writer Irena Karpa and storyteller Sashko Lirnyk. At home, on the road or on a work break just from your smartphone, you can create your own work.

Read, dream and write your own story wherever you are.

Literaturgarten is a pop-up library of the Goethe-Institut Ukraine, created in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair and the German Stories project. Settling comfortably in the green street space of Book Arsenal, you can flip through new German books. Among them: the collection Children’s Books on Tour, which German curators collected from the best children’s books for 2019-2020; 10 award-winning books of DAM Architectural Book Award; a short list of Deutscher Buchpreis, one of the most important literary prizes in Germany; contemporary German poetry; a collection of the most beautiful books in Germany, as well as MINT books for teenagers. In the Literary Garden, you can meet the team and guests of the Goethe-Institut Ukraine, take part in workshops, readings for children and trial classes in learning German, as well as learn more about the augmented reality project Discover Askania-Nova from the German Embassy in Ukraine.

Ukraїner is a research expedition. These are multimedia stories about Ukraine and Ukrainians inside and outside the country. The first expedition started in the summer of 2016. The project started with several volunteers, and now there are almost 500 of them in the team. They record and create the history of the country every day.

This year, the project is 5 years old. During this time, the expedition toured all the regions of the country, some of them — even twice. But there is a part of Ukraine, which the Ukraїner  team has not been able to visit yet. This is Crimea. And there are also stories from there.

Usually, where the home begins, anxiety and uncertainty disappear. The home, like strong roots, holds us, tells us who we are, where we come from and where we are going. For many Ukrainians, Crimea is their home. And today they know well what it’s like when your home is taken away and you can’t go back there for a long time. Children’s memories, favourite landscapes, and relatives — all this reminds them of the now unattainable home. And what if they could visit it for a while?

The We are Crimea project is the stories of Crimeans who have not been able to get to the Russian-occupied peninsula since 2014. The characters of these stories — Jamala, Oleh Sentsov, Mustafa Dzhemilev, and Akhtem Seitablaev — watch their landmarks in the Crimea through VR glasses and share their thoughts and memories of their native peninsula.

Put on glasses, choose a story and travel to the native Crimea together with Ukraїner!

The events of the last years make us think about the world around us. Look around and take a glance at life in the near future. Take a closer look at where and how we live, who is next to us, without whom or what we seem to be alright, and what we are not able to give up.

Food is one of the things we can’t do without, and our culinary practices, gastronomic habits and their changes have long been the subject of research.

Quarantine, self-isolation, and online communication have changed the rhythm of many people’s lives. Yet, we prefer to look at these changes through the prism of optimism and show that this time has been favorable for some authors. Someone was able to find time for preparing their manuscripts, and others rethought their habits and revised their living spaces, thoughts, and ideas.

At the events within the Program, we are going to tell you about a book that will make the world fall in love with Ukrainian cuisine, a book that will change your perception of food and culinary art of the Middle Ages, and a book that will teach you to navigate the world of wine and get acquainted with the modern culture of its consumption, and finally, a book that will allow you to look with humor and self-irony at our habits and culinary wishes. In addition, we will gently introduce you to the culinary world of China, without any bats and drama.

їzhakultura has created a special program to promote the development and formation of the quality segment of gastronomic literature in the Ukrainian literary space, as well as the provision of translations of the current research on the history of nutrition. The Program is designed for everyone interested in modern cooking, food history, and gastronomic research. It aims to develop the gastronomic book sector and establish dialogue and cooperation between participants from various fields: publishers, food photographers, food stylists, gastronomic journalists, bloggers, scientists, chefs, and gastronomic enthusiasts.

їzhakultura researches food, studies its connections with history, art, science, society, language, and ecology. This is a project that tells the story of the formation of Ukrainian cuisine and explains what it is today.