From 15 to 21 of August PinchukArtCentre invites to the series of lectures, discussions, readings, meetings with writers and journalists as well as excursions and film screening within the literature program "The Pain of Memory". This program, alike the exhibition "Loss. In Memory of Babi Yar", coincides with honoring of the victims of Babi Yar (Kyiv, Ukraine).
"To write poetry after Auschwitz is a barbarism" - remarked German philosopher Theodor Adorno, meaning that literature becomes powerless in it’s efforts to convey all horror of death and inhuman trials that embraces the word "Holocaust." In fact, not just writers, but directors, composers, artists are not able to cover the entire scope of tragedy; beyond that, the power of art enables understanding, acceptance and first of all - remembering of the past. Even if it is more convenient and easy to forget. Even when it's a pain of memory.
To the rhetorical statement of Adorno Ukrainians could also answer with a not least rhetorical question: "Is it possible to write poetry after Babi Yar?" Could literature accommodate all the victims, whose exact number still remains unknown? Are the writers mighty enough to tell what happened to Kyiv during the war occupation and how this terrible loss changed Ukraine? Are the books capable to convey what happened to Babi Yar after the war - an attempt to silence, erase, rewrite? Eventually, the terror of Kurenivska tragedy and forgetful demolition of Babi Yar as a place of memory?
"... No social crime does remain a secret... – stated the writer Anatoly Kuznetsov in his documentary novel "Babi Yar" - You may burn, dissipate, swamp, trample down - but human memory still remains. History cannot be deceived and lurk anything from it is also impossible. "
If we assume, that large commotions find their literary incarnation only a decade after, then Ukrainian literature has been just coming up to the subject of Babi Yar and Holocaust. Nevertheless, in these difficult pages of Ukrainian and world history that were silenced, forgotten, rewritten or halfway clarified, today it is more important to see the present, nor the past.
This is the main idea of a new literature program "The Pain of Memory", organized by PinchukArtCentre on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the first Babi Yar shootings in the frameworks of international exhibition "Loss. In Memory of Babi Yar."
We will talk about strength and weakness of the literature, collective memory and social amnesia from 15 to 21 of August with the Ukrainian-German writer Katja Petrowskaja, Russian journalist Alexei Kuznetsov, film director Serhiy Bukovsky, translators Mark Byelorusets and Peter Rychlo, poets Marianne Kiyanovska and Boris Khersonskiy, culturologist Taras Wozniak, historians Andrei Pavlyshyn, Igor Shchupak and others.
The curator of literature program – Tatyana Teren, journalist.
Participation is free. Taking into consideration the limited number of seats, please, register using the link: https://goo.gl/forms/PsrOebkmiv5sCs1e2
Calendar of events within literature program “The pain of memory”:
August 15 (Monday)
- 18:00 || Lecture by the specialist in literature Eugene Stasinevych "Holocaust and (im) possibility of Literature"
Location: Video Lounge on the 6th floor PAC - 19:30 || "Poppy and Memory": translations of Paul Celan. Participants: translators Mark Belorusets and Peter Rykhlo
Location: Video Lounge on the 6th floor of PAC
August 16 (Tuesday)
- 19:00 || Lecture of literature critic Rostislav Semkiv "The Canon of strong women: Olena Teliha in Ukrainian literature"
Location: Education PAC room on the 5th floor.
August 17 (Wednesday)
- 18:00 || Lecture of writer Alexander Irvanets "Communication of interpreter with Janusz Korczak"
Location: Klovsky lyceum № 77 Museum in memory of Janusz Korczak (Shovkovychna st., 25, 3rd floor) - 20:00 || Discussion "Babi Yar: memory and oblivion" (in partnership with the publishing house "Spirit and Letter"). Participants: Konstantin Sigov, Andrew Pavlyshyn, Anna Prokhorova, Anatoly Podolsky, Taras Wozniak. Moderator - Leonid Finberg
Location: Video Lounge on the 6th floor of PAC
August 18 (Thursday)
- 19:00 || Meeting with writer Katja Petrowskaja (Germany)
Location: 3rd floor, hall of the project "Penthesilea IV» by the artist Berlinde de Broykere
August 19 (Friday)
- 18:00 || Lecture by historian Igor Shchupak "Echoes of the Holocaust and the current war in Ukraine"
Location: Exhibition hall Guilt, 5th floor of PAC - 19:30 || Meeting with journalist Alexei Kuznetsov, the son of the author of the documentary novel "Babi Yar" Anatoly Kuznetsov (Russia). Moderator - Yury Makarov
Location: Exhibition hall Guilt, 4th floor PAC
August 20 (Saturday)
- 12:00 || Excursion around Babi Yar with Yulia Smilyanska
Location: Babi Yar - 16:00 || Screening of the documentary film by Sergei Bukovsky: "Spell Your Name"
Location: Video Lounge on the 6th floor PAC - 17:30 || Discussion of the film and meeting with director
Location: Video Lounge on the 6th floor PAC
August 21 (Sunday)
- 17:00 || Poetry reading "The Depths of Memory." Participants: Gregory Falkovych, Marianna Kiyanovska, Natalia Bilotserkivets, Iya Kiva, Boris Khersonskiy, Miroslav Layuk
Location: Babi Yar, near the monument of "Menorah"
Stay tuned program: pinchukartcentre.org/en/events_and_calendar
To the attention of media:
Requests for accreditation for the event must be sent to the adress: [email protected]
