The Book Arsenal Festival opened in Kyiv

On June 22, the Eleventh International Book Arsenal Festival opened in Kyiv. Due to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, the festival offered a limited format, but nevertheless attracted a significant number of guests — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the First Lady attended the festival, as well as international guests, including Gvantsa Jobava, Vice President of the International Publishers Association.

The organizers emphasize that the events may be interrupted by air raids. In this case, the event will be canceled and the guests will go down to the shelter.

“Over the past year, no air raids have interrupted cultural, intellectual and literary life in Ukraine. I think this is a great blessing. We can continue to be here all this time. This year’s Book Arsenal, with its extensive literary program, with its focus theme “When Everything Matters”, will talk (and we will all gather together and talk) about how our lives are changing, how things that are important to us appear, and how those things that seemed trivial turned out to be key. The curators and the team of the Book Festival hold the sky on their shoulders,” said Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, director of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, during the opening.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska visited the International Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv and bought some books. This was reported by a Chytomo correspondent. “It is imperative to support our authors, to support life, a Ukrainian book. It seems to me that this is crucial right now,” the president said.

As is known, this is not the first time Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited the Book Arsenal as president. In 2019, he visited the festival a few days after his inauguration.

Gvantsa Jobava, despite a difficult journey that took 29 hours, also came to support her colleagues from Ukraine: “I am here to support our Ukrainian friends and colleagues in their brave decision to hold the festival during the war on behalf of the International Publishers Association (where Ukraine is our valued member) as the vice president of this organization, on behalf of the Georgian publishing house Intelecti and the Georgian people as a whole,” Gvantsa wrote on her LinkedIn page.

As a reminder, the main theme is “When Everything Matters”, curated by Nataliya Gumenyuk, and the largest literary program will be “Transforming the Experience into Memory”, curated by Iryna Slavinska.

You can find more information about the festival program here.

Read also: Showcase of Novelties at the Book Arsenal: publishers presented almost 1300 books