During a meeting of the club, topic of which was “Poetry as Politics”, the famous Ukrainian writer presented his new poems and answered numerous questions of the Club’s guests.
Serhiy Zhadan about poetry as politics: “Writer in Ukraine – is more than just a writer, and how he would not write about the relationship between a man and a woman, somehow it all comes down to his public position.”
Serhiy Zhadan about Ukrainian culture and its frequent reduction to “sharovarshchyna”: “Maybe it is a sort stereotype that is the true modern Ukrainian culture and is “sharovarshchyna.” In my opinion, everything that has financial support from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine is “sharovarshchyna.” And I'm not kidding. You ask, what can we say about the state theaters? And so they are, unfortunately, in great majority. I would say this: our country is not yet ready to fund something that does not fall under the category of “sharovarshchyna”.”
Serhiy Zhadan about perception of literature by reader: “The man who reads books reads not because he learns something, but because he likes how the author writes. We read HOW the author writes rather than WHAT he writes.”
The Art Club “Faces”, established by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation “Open Ukraine” in partnership with the creative place “Chasopys” is a platform for communication and exchange of experience of Ukrainian and foreign writers, musicians, artists, designers, filmmakers, photographers and other cultural agents.
Next event is planned for December 2012. It will be a master class on short fiction from writer Andriy Kurkov. The contest among beginner writers to participate in this master class continues to the end of November. Details on the Foundation website: www.openukraine.org.
