The Mystetskyi Arsenal Will Present a Stand with the Concept Life on the Edge at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024

The Mystetskyi Arsenal will traditionally take part in the largest book fair of the world—the Frankfurter Buchmesse, which this year will last from October 16 to 20. The institution’s team will dedicate its stand to the concept Life on the Edge, which was the focus theme of the XII Book Arsenal. In Frankfurt, new catalogs of the Mystetskyi Arsenal will be presented, and the international presentation of the own editions of the Dovzhenko Centre and the Kyiv bureau Butsya, dedicated to the research of film adaptations of Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi’s works, will be held.

“Soon we will present a selection of our new catalogs at the Frankfurter Buchmesse. They were printed in May in Kharkiv, right before Book Arsenal. A few days later, with their bombs and missiles, Russians destroyed other Kharkiv printing house—Factor Druk. These are unrealistic working conditions for Ukrainian printers and book publishers, but the catalogs were printed, no matter what. And we are proud of the quality of this work and the strength of resistance shown by our people,” Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, the Director General of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, said. “It is important for us as an institution to tell international partners about how Ukrainian culture and books are being created today. That is why we decided to present the concept of the XII Book Arsenal Life on the Edge in Frankfurt as well.”

At the stand of the Mystetskyi Arsenal J85 in the section of the fair Hall 3.1 Art. Art Book. Design, the following newly published catalogs will be presented: Mystetskyi Arsenal. The Collection, Heart of Earth, Imprint. Ukrainian Printmaking of the XX–XXI Centuries, Futuromarennia. The bilingual own edition of the Dovzhenko Centre and the Kyiv bureau Butsya, dedicated to the research of film adaptations of Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi’s works on the occasion of the writer’s 160th anniversary, will also be showcased. Earlier this edition was first printed for the XII Book Arsenal, and for the largest book event in Europe it was published in English and will be distributed among the professional community.

This year, the Special Program for Publishers from Ukraine and Neighboring Countries, organized by the Frankfurter Buchmesse in cooperation with Book Arsenal and the Goethe-Institut Ukraine, that provides opportunities for intensive training and communication of publishers, editors, rights managers and literary agents from Ukraine, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Hungary, will be held for the third time in a row. Within the program, 15 participants, 7 of whom are from Ukraine, will take part in Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024, join networking events, take part in seminars from professionals of the German book market and have a rich agenda of events at the national stands of the countries participating in the program. The program was launched in 2022 and is financially supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

The team of the Mystetskyi Arsenal traditionally joined the development of the program of the Ukrainian National Stand, in which Ukrainian authors, journalists and artists will take part. This year’s focus theme of Ukraine is Reclaiming the Voice. We are reclaiming our voice on the world stage and showing not only Ukrainian indomitability, but also the versatility and uniqueness of Ukrainian books. We are making new voices of our literature heard, demonstrating new German translations, talking about Ukrainian classics, reportage and poetry.

The participation of the Mystetskyi Arsenal in the Frankfurter Buchmesse was made possible with the financial support of the Ministry of State for Culture and the Media of Germany within the project Exchange between German and Ukrainian Literary and Book Sectors.

The project aims at supporting the work of Ukrainian authors, publishers and media professionals with the help of a number of individual projects, contributing to the spread of knowledge and understanding of Ukrainian culture and history in Germany. The project is implemented by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels) in close cooperation with the Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Ukrainian Book Institute, as well as with the Ukrainian cultural institution Mystetskyi Arsenal, the professional online media about books and culture Chytomo and the Goethe-Institut Ukraine.

Frankfurter Buchmesse is the most important international exhibition of publishing achievements and diverse content. Here global publishing experts meet partners from the technology industry and related creative industries such as cinema and games. Thus, the Frankfurter Buchmesse is a hub for the international trade in rights and licensing, where new types of cooperation and business models emerge.