Natalya Gumeniuk: “Western solidarity with Ukraine is great, but cultural response is missing”

The Arsenal International Book Festival, which has been held since 2011 at the Mystetskyi Arsenal art center in Kyiv, was due to be canceled in 2022, and until recently it was unclear whether it could be renewed this year. But at the beginning of May, its coordinator Yulia Kozlovets announced that it would indeed take place from June 22 to 25.

In addition to the book fair, as every year, there will be performances and meetings – sixty events are planned, in which one hundred and fifty authors will participate – as part of a specially organized thematic program, including a curator, for these 11^e edition, will be Natalya Gumeniuk. Author of books (untranslated) about the occupied Crimea or the Maidan revolution, contributes The Washington Postfrom guardian or New York TimesThe Ukrainian journalist and documentary filmmaker is also the co-founder of the Reckoning Project, an international initiative of journalists and lawyers that aims to document war crimes. He explains to “World of Books” the reasons for his participation in this revival of one of the symbols of cultural resistance in Ukraine.

Why was it important to renew the festival?

We must be clear: the return of public events in Ukraine does not mean a normal situation. The situation is constantly changing and it remains very critical. But when someone wants to destroy you, the best response is to stay alive and show it. Because the Russians want no more Ukrainian life, we must do everything we can to return to normalcy no matter what. This is part of our resistance.

In 2022, we had an attack. But the festival plays an important role and it should continue, if only to support the book industry, which has published less since last year – it is more expensive, more difficult… and then, people here have a great need to talk to each other. . They want unity, exchange, common spaces. A festival is one such place, I see it in discussions with the people I want to invite. Whether it is the Jewish community of Dnipro, a poet who is currently fighting on the front line, or a village leader in the Kherson region, everyone shows great interest, everyone is eager to come and talk to each other and to the community.

How did you choose the theme of your program “When Everything Matters”?

It has two dimensions. The first is very specific. When your life is in danger, everything comes into question. The fact of breathing normally, the fact of having water, the fact of wishing someone good night when they might be under attack… everything takes on unprecedented weight. Everything matters, exactly. It was ordinary, it becomes urgent. You really feel the nerves of life.