Recently Chernivtsi became Ukraine’s main poetic meridian. The city held for the second time the international poetic festival Meridian Czernowitz, which again emphasized that Chernivtsi has a historical right to return its legal place on the cultural map of Europe. Staying in Bukovyna’s heart, you regularly see proof that this place is open for the world. However, Chernivtsi return to the image of multicultural European city, almost forgotten because of the war and after-war events, when the whole city is involved, only during the festival Meridian Czernowitz. Poetry was heard in German, Polish, French, Romanian, Russian, and Ukrainian in cafes, theaters, and museums; this year’s festival was attended by artists from 11 countries of the world, which practically four times larger scale than last year. Bohdan Zadura, Mariusz Grzebalski (Poland), Ilma Rakusa, Erwin Messmer, Raphael Urweider (Switzerland), Valerie Rouzeau, Bruno Geneste, Emmanuel Moses (France), Robert Schindel, Gerhard Ruhm, Milena Findeis (Austria), Michael Augustin, Uljana Wolf (Germany), Grigore Chiper (Moldova), Robert Serban (Romania), Hagit Grossman (Israel). Ukrainian poetry was presented by Bohdana Matiiash, Oleksandr Irvanets, Kateryna Babkina, Khrystia Venhryniuk, Andrii Bondar, Ostap Slyvynsky, and Ihor Pomerantsev (Ukraine-Great Britain). This is an incomplete list of those who took part in the festival and whose works were included in the specially published Almanac of Poems Meridian Czernowitz-2011. Of course, it is not just a quantity index – the number of poems read, the number of the events, and invited guests from abroad – that guarantied the quality of artistic events. In Chernivtsi it was a well-thought program, good management, and even cooperation with the local authorities. “We are used to comparing all our cultural initiatives with those in the West and follow European example. It is not always proper, but not in Chernivtsi. In the West the authorities support this kind of events. In our country they are not used to supporting cultural initiatives, on the other hand, we don’t always want to receive its help. The organizers have managed somehow to find common language with the authorities, which is an example of constructive cooperation,” Serhii ZHADAN, a writer and member of the initiative group of Meridian Czernowitz considers. Incidentally, the constructive cooperation with the bodies of power is one of the necessary stages of bringing Ukraine back to the European map.
“SOMEWHAT SLOW VIDEO POETRY”
A real success of this year’s festival can be called the arrival in Chernivtsi of the members of Germany’s most influential cultural association Literaturwerkstatt Berlin (which is translated as Berlin’s Literary Workshop), Christiane Lange and Thomas Wohlfahrt, who have fulfilled two missions. First, they assessed the works that competed for the video poetry prize BOOK. Secondly, jointly with the German Cultural Center Goethe Institute Ukraina they have brought to Chernivtsi the works of Berlin’s poetry festival “Zebra.” The BOOK Prize used to be international, now it is a nationwide Ukrainian prize. This is not a decrease in the status of the award, but the desire to focus on stimulating the appearance of the national product, organizers explain. The domain of video poetry in Ukraine is not very densely occupied by the foreign produce. Therefore the festival stands all chances to give a really national character to video poetry production. This move proved its value in Germany. In particular, at the Zebra Festival in 2010 over a thousand of poetic films from 71 countries were presented.
“In Ukrainian films we saw various styles and aesthetic approaches. I think it is a very interesting beginning,” Christiane Lange underlined.
And Thomas Wohlfahrt noted that Ukrainian poetic films are “somewhat slow,” which refers above all to the tempo and richness of the plot. “I’m not criticizing, I’m just saying that they are different, with their own character. The Ukrainian tones,” he noted. Halyna Senchyna from Lviv oblast is one of the pioneers in poetic film making in Ukraine.
“I took the works of Ukrainian artists for my first videos. Most of them are considered Russian or Polish artists,” Halyna explained, “And I wanted to show that we have our own Ukrainian treasures. I used them as a ground for my videos, and accompanied the videos with my own poems. My competition work shows natural phenomena. It is simpler than other competition films, but maybe for this reason it was easier for understanding. It is emotional. I think, for the Berlin Festival I will have to create more complicated works with more complex parameters.”
“THERE IS NO FASHION FOR UKRAINIAN THINGS”
“This is the third time I come to Chernivtsi, but it is the first time I’m taking part in the festival as an author. The festival is quite nice, above all it is interesting by the ‘mixture’ of young and more experienced writers from different countries. I feel a good energy and good intentions here,” Swiss poetess Ilma Rakusa shared her impressions, “Chernivtsi is an open and cosmopolitan tradition. The organizers want to bring the city back on Europe’s cultural map, and I am very glad about this. This initiative should be supported.”
“Ukraine is a part of Europe, in spite of all the speculations around this question,” the Swiss poetess emphasized, “As for the question of Ukraine’s east and west, this is not a question for me. Ukraine is not homogenous, it’s true. But the youth, and the population on the whole, as far as I can understand, is sure that the European direction is the only promising direction, though Yanukovych is following a ‘curved’ road, which is hard for understanding.”
You said that you’re friends with Yurii Andrukhovych. Serhii Zhadan and he are best known Ukrainian writers in the West. It seems that the Europeans have never heard the names of other Ukrainian litterateurs.
“It is not quite so. The works of many Ukrainian writers have been translated, for example, Liubko Deresh. And of course, Oksana Zabuzhko. There are anthologies which comprise the works of Ukrainian prose writers. I can’t say the situation is catastrophic, but there is no fashion for Ukrainian literature now, it’s true. It emerged after the Orange Revolution. At the time newspapers gave more publications about Ukraine. Then the publishers said, ‘We want to publish Ukrainian books.’ So your authors suddenly became interesting. Unfortunately, such a thing always happens with the literature of the East European countries. Very often, when extreme events take place in politics, people take interest in literature as well. Without this ‘nourishment’ the interest is not very high. But I should note that both Andrukhovych, and Zhadan help to promote Ukrainian authors. They are your promoters in Europe. If one wishes, he will be able to learn a lot about the Ukrainian literature.”
Are there many Europeans who want it?
“It’s hard to tell. On the whole, there are not many. By the way, the interest to Russian literature has also decreased. Previously the demand was very high. Now it is not so.”
In your opinion, why?
“The average reader is above all interested in American literature (personally I am not interested in it at all). This is connected with politics. As soon as something happens, in good or bad sense, revolution or war, everyone rush to read the literature of this country. Today it is literature of Arab countries. These are the laws of the market.”
