Укр
open menu
Services
Укр
search
open menu
Укр
Buy a ticket

Results of the Literary Laboratory’s Program of Activities in 2023-2024 with the Support of Claudia Roth, Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the MediaAbout Us

Results of the Literary Laboratory’s Program of Activities in 2023-2024 with the Support of Claudia Roth, Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

As part of the project “Exchange between German and Ukrainian Literary and Book Sectors” funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in 2023-2024, the team of Mystetskyi Arsenal was able to implement several projects important for the Ukrainian book community. Among them are the activities of the Literary Laboratory, an interdisciplinary project with the Dovzhenko Centre, the publication of catalogs, as well as support for Mystetskyi Arsenal’s participation in the Frankfurter Buchmesse (2023), the organization of the Book Arsenal (2024), and the “Best Book Design” competition (2023).

One of these projects, which concluded in the summer of 2024, focused on the activities of the Literary Laboratory of Mystetskyi Arsenal — one of the institution’s key initiatives implemented alongside exhibition and festival projects and educational programs. The mission of the Literary Laboratory is to create an interdisciplinary environment where writers, critics, translators, and artists have the opportunity to experiment, create artworks, and generate public projects.

Thanks to the support of the Ministry of State for Culture and the Media of Germany, the Literary Laboratory resumed its work in 2023 and continued in 2024. In 2023, a new curatorial concept for the project and an activity plan were developed, within which a competition was held for participation in the renewed project for authors whose practice is partially or fully focused on writing as an interdisciplinary phenomenon, conducted at the intersection of media or in monodisciplinary writing. The Literary Laboratory team selected 10 writers and artists from 70 applications. As a result of the 4-month training program, the LitLab residents developed 9 interdisciplinary projects at various stages of implementation.

In April 2024, the Literary Laboratory announced an open competition for a new online course on biographical artistic texts focused on “human-centered” genres (biography, autobiography, interview and artistic testimonies, memoirs, portrait literature, therapeutic writing, as well as challenges and methodologies of artistic research). The overarching theme of the texts was the slogan of the 2024 Book Arsenal: “Life on the Edge.” The online course included two theoretical and practical seminars and a writing module consisting of two group meetings and two individual sessions with a mentor.

The mentors for LitLab-2024 were Olha Bryukhovetska, Nadine Lordick, and Anfisa Doroshenko. As a result of the course, 8 artistic works were selected (mostly texts, as well as comics and illustrations) created by the participants. After editing, formatting, and design, the texts were published on the Literary Laboratory’s page.

The Collaboration between the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre (Dovzhenko Centre), Ukraine’s largest film archive and a regular participant in the Book Arsenal, and Mystetskyi Arsenal. Grant support allowed for the implementation of a significantly more extensive program than originally planned, with events taking place both at the festival and at the Dovzhenko Center. The program, developed by the Centre’s team, was dedicated to Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky — a prominent Ukrainian writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose 160th anniversary will be celebrated in 2024, and his works, particularly their use in cinema.

Experts from the Dovzhenko Centre conducted extensive film research and prepared a publication on the screen adaptations of Kotsiubynsky’s works, which was released in a self-publishing format (zine or self-print) with a limited run of 50 copies. The publication included texts by film scholars from the Dovzhenko Centre with detailed analysis of the main film adaptations of the author’s literary works, archival images, and materials from the Dovzhenko Centre’s film archive, the Central State Archive of Cinematic Materials of Ukraine, and the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Feature Film Studio. All copies of the journal were sold out within two days at the 12th International Book Arsenal Festival, even before its official presentation took place.

On the day of the Book Arsenal’s opening, a screening of the film “Fata Morgana” (1931), based on Kotsiubynsky’s novel of the same name, was held on the open stage. The re-premiere of the silent film was presented in a new format — with a live performance by the Ukrainian band “Pyrih i Batih,” known for reinterpreting Ukrainian poetry, which composed the soundtrack for the film. This film version of “Fata Morgana” (1901, 1910) is one of the first screen adaptations and the only silent film that has survived to this day. With this performative screening, the Dovzhenko Centre continued its long-standing tradition of creating modern soundtracks for archival films as part of the “Kolo Dzygy” series, aimed at drawing public attention to Ukraine’s cinematic heritage.

The publication of exhibition catalogs at Mystetskyi Arsenal was also made possible thanks to the support of the Ministry of State for Culture and the Media of Germany. Over the past few years, it has become a tradition at Mystetskyi Arsenal to document each exhibition using materials collected during the preparation and creation of the exhibitions, expert articles, archival photographs, and production process images — in the format of bilingual, Ukrainian-English catalogs.

Thanks to the grant, four catalogs from the “Cultural Heritage” series and one from the “Contemporary Art” series were printed:

  • Second edition of the Boichukism. Project of the “Grandiose Art Style” catalog — dedicated to the vibrant cultural and artistic phenomenon in Ukrainian art history of the 1910s-1930s, characterized by a monumental and synthetic style and named after its founder, Mykhailo Boichuk. Almost the entire first edition was sold out, as the publication explores a well-known but highly intriguing phenomenon for the general public and is often used as a gift book.
  • Imprint. Ukrainian printmaking of the XX—XXI centuries catalog — focused on exploring Ukrainian printmaking from the early 20th century to the present. The collection offers an examination of the transformation of printmaking and the relationships between different generations of artists, trends, and movements. The book includes a catalog of printed graphic works from the exhibition at Mystetskyi Arsenal.
  • Futuromarennia catalog — contains materials from the multidisciplinary project of the same name dedicated to the phenomenon of Futurism in Ukraine in the 1910s-1930s. The publication features current articles by renowned researchers from Ukraine, Poland, the United States, Canada, and others, highlighting Futurist explorations in literature, architecture, visual arts, theater, and cinema.
  • Mystetskyi Arsenal. The Сollection catalog — focused on the collection that has been formed over almost two decades, now comprising 9,081 items and continually expanding. The diversity of materials in the collection reflects the evolution of Mystetskyi Arsenal’s institutional identity, ranging from archaeological finds to works of historical avant-garde and contemporary experimental art. The publication combines the collection catalog with current research on its various segments. Thanks to the personal experiences of the authors, who participated in the formation and study of the collection at different times, these seemingly academic studies gain emotional depth, making the publication appealing to a broader audience.
  • The “Heart of Earth” exhibition catalog, which was displayed at Mystetskyi Arsenal in 2022-2023. The exhibition presented works by 16 contemporary Ukrainian artists, including paintings, photographs, videos, sculptures, graphics, and installations. All artworks were created between 2014 and 2023. In curating the exhibition and addressing the different practices and reflections of the artists, the curatorial team aimed to focus on historical memory and the triangular relationship: the land, the people who cherish it, and the food that is born from their interaction. The “Heart of Earth” catalog documents the exhibition and its research, featuring images of the artworks, photographs, articles, and illustrative materials from the exhibition. It also includes a summary of two public discussions held as part of the public program: “Tasting History. What did people in Ukraine consume in antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modernity, and modernity?” and “Earth—War—Human: Challenges to communities and environmental protection.”

Germany’s Ministry of State for Culture and the Media has also supported the activities of the Mystetskyi Arsenal in other projects. In 2023 and 2024, the International Book Arsenal Festival was significantly strengthened through cooperation with the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels) and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Also, in December 2023, as part of the “Exchange between German and Ukrainian Literary and Book Sectors” project, the jury meeting of the Best Book Design 2023 competition was held. The competition resulted in selecting the best-designed books created by Ukrainian creators and published by Ukrainian publishers in 2023. Earlier that year, in October 2023, Mystetskyi Arsenal took part in the Frankfurt Book Fair, presenting its stand with the concept of Presence vs Absence, as well as cultural and networking events.

Currently, preparations are underway for Mystetskyi arsenal’s participation in this year’s Frankfurter Buchmesse. The Ministry of State for Culture and the Media of Germany has approved an extension of the project’s timeline and will support Mystetskyi arsenal’s presentation at this year’s fair as well.