The first International Short Story Festival “Intermezzo,” like the organizers said in italics, Stories Told by Literature and Cinema, was held May 22 through 24 in Vinnytsia. Over three days the participants of the festival, foreign guests, and innumerous visitors met in various locations in the center of the city – a movie theater, a gallery, a house museum, a bookstore, a motor ship, the Krupska Library – and took part in literary and cinema events.
Intermezzo is one of the most famous stories by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky (Vinnytsia residents call him “our MykhMykh”), which is a part of the school program and tells about a person who gets tired of the city and the pressure of problems and escapes to nature. All conversations during the festival to some or other extent were connected with Kotsiubynsky, which is no surprise – a movement connected with the author and his 150th anniversary has started recently. For the most part, both the authors and guests admitted that they had not reread the classic author for a long time, but the festival was an impetus for them to take a book of his short stories. For many writers it was their first visit to Vinnytsia – be it not for “Intermezzo,” it is unknown when an opportunity to see the Jewish quarters and the famous (the greatest sight in Vinnytsia) Roshchen fountain would have arisen.
Most of the events were free of charge, but the project “VIN. New Era of Renaissance” was the most available for broad public – a series of collages VINNYTSIA, placed on big black posts in Independence Square in front of the City Council building and dedicated to well-known cubist artist Natan Altman (in his time he painted a portrait of Anna Akhmatova). The project reveals scarcely-known facts about Vinnytsia and outstanding residents of the city.
“Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky was born in Vinnytsia region,” reports a female voice in the public transport. We approach the stop near the classic writer’s house museum, one of the festival locations. The museum was one of the organizers of the festival. In Kotsiubynsky garden in the open air shows took place, Ukrainian authors were reading their texts, in particular the chain reaction was launched by Oleh Kotsarev, Yulia Stakhivska, Oleksii Chupa, Viktoria Amelina, and Oleksii Shynkarenko. The readings were so loud that the residents of the neighboring buildings came to complain about the omnipresence of literature that penetrated their places of living through the closed windows.
“A cherry on the cake” of the festival was the media performance Il Caprese, dedicated to Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s Italian impressions and composed of the writer’s letters to his wife and lover, works, the visual range – video art with the photos of the litterateur of that period. The play staged by Yaryna Hrusha took place with the assistance of the host of Aristocrats Radio Danylo Khomutovsky, music by Anton Dehtiariov, video art by Svitlana Reinish. The show will be held in Kyiv in June.
Another zest of “Intermezzo” was the charity reading and a trip on a motor boat Mykola Pyrohov along the South Buh River with the participation of Oksana Zabuzhko. The event raised over 2,000 hryvnias. The writer noted that the festival was unique and noted that the world literature is changing orientation these days. It didn’t take short story as a priority genre before. So, the thermometer that measures the temperature in the world literature, the Nobel Prize, two years ago awarded Alice Munro, a Canadian writer who writes only short stories, after which the focus of attention of the readership and literary circles moved to the small shapes. “The format of a short story is for a reader who feels oversaturated with information,” the author mentioned. “And the festival of small prose is what can help Vinnytsia to show up on the map of the world.” Zabuzhko admitted that Kotsiubynsky is a type of an author whom you admire rather than love. The thing is about the apathetic reasonableness, accuracy of words and formulation, strict aestheticism of the writer, laborious work on the anatomy of evil: “Kotsiubynsky wrote all the score of the 20th century, and today we are paying for not having read this score.” The write read the most perfect short story by the author, in her opinion, A present for Birthday.
The program events of the festival were connected with the topic “Life in post-traumatic space.” The most popular Bosnian and Croatian writer Miljenko Jergovic shared his experience of feeling the consequences of the Balkan war: “There was nothing epic, great, massive or collective. That was a small war.” In particular, during the conversation the collection of his stories was mentioned Sarajevo Marlboro (which in Ukrainian translation was included in the publication Stories about People and Animals published by Tempora Publishing House), where the author depicted normal life in abnormal circumstances.
The Balkan program was supplemented by the films from the cycle “Ex-Yugoslavia: reconciliation” from the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays. An important event in these terms was the literary performance by Alevtyna Kakhidze Calls from the Zhdanivka Cemetery, based on the texts of phone conversations. The cemetery for a long time remained the only place in Zhdanivka (Donetsk oblast) with mobile phone network coverage. After the performance Kakhidze said, “In fact, the heroine of this work is my mother. She is in Zhdanivka. Today I have phoned her – she is selling flowers and vegetables at the market. However, I am not writing about my mother, I am writing about an imaginary character, Klubnika Andrieievna.”
The festival was remembered not only due to the readings and talks about literature, but also the film program: the restored version of the film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Parajanov, based on Kotsiubynsky’s work and presence of a special guest, Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi, who presented the films Foreign Body and And a Warm Heart.
However, in spite of the publications in mass media and the fact that the festival took place with the assistance of Vinnytsia City Hall (fragments from the works by Kotsiubynsky could be read several months ago at bus stops), it seemed that only the owners of mysterious festival badges “organizer/volunteer/participant/the press” on rosy laces knew about the short story festival, whereas the rest only took care about the routes for walking when the weather is fine and Vinnytsia for tourists. The festival “Intermezzo” united various genres and topics, but there is a question whether it succeeded in bringing the messages to people. However, we can definitely predict that in the following years Vinnytsia will become another place, where well-prepared audience, which has thirst for conversations and events, will be able to come for several days.
