"The fact that we can talk to each other makes us human" (Karl Jaspers)
The transcultural literature project Geschichten vom Schwarzen Meer - Black Sea Lit reopens the dialog with the Black Sea region. Together with the curators Nino Haratischwili (2023) and Laura Cwiertnia (2024), the Goethe-Institute invites ten authors from Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Ukraine to engage in conversation about and beyond the region.
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Geschichten vom Schwarzen Meer - Black Sea Lit - Programme 2024
While in 2023
Black Sea Lit focused on the question of translation and the relationship between East and West, this year the project takes a closer look: How does the local context shape literature? What significance do specific places have for the development of literature? How can we build bridges that do not negate the differences in language, culture and environment, but rather connect them productively?
At the end of February 2024, Lavinia Braniste (Romania), Eka Kevanishvili-Archil Kikodze (Georgia), Anush Kocharyan (Armenia), Halyna Kruk (Ukraine) and Ina Vatchanova (Bulgaria) will attend the International Literature Festival Odesa, which is taking place in Bucharest this year: At LOCATION MATTER, the authors will read and discuss the question of how their writing is shaped by specific regional and local characteristics, and how these different, diverse voices nevertheless come together in a literary neighborhood.
In March, Ina Valtchanova (Bulgaria), Archil Kikodze (Georgia), Halyna Kruk (Ukraine), Bogdan Cosa (Romania) and Armen Ohanyan (Armenia) will travel to the Uppsala International Literature Festival: Here, Black Sea literature will not only meet a Scandinavian audience, but also colleagues from the Arabic-speaking world: what analogies exist between literature from the war-torn countries in the Middle East and the Black Sea region? How do individual fates shape these cultures? And can the literatures from the Black Sea act as a bridge?
Finally, in June 2024 we will travel to Armenia: Here, all ten authors of the project will come together for a residency at Lake Sevan - popularly known as "GEGHAMA-SEA" in Armenian: This place not only plays an important role for Armenian culture. It was due to the industrial and agricultural measures taken during the Soviet era that the lake became the site of an ecological catastrophe. The topic of literary - and ecological - environments will be in the focus of the discussions and the final presentation at the newly opened Goethe-Institut Armenia.
PARADIGM SHIFT AND THE LOVE OF THE WORD
Following the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Western world held its breath. Since then, a paradigm shift in political and moral value systems has taken place at breathtaking speed that no one would have previously thought possible. Values that had previously been rejected suddenly became necessary and values that had been taken for granted began to falter.
But what was it like in the eastern part of Europe? Was there an equal shake-up and shock as in the western part? How did those countries react to the war, that - due to a painful history with their neighbors or their national borders - had already had their own traumatic experiences in the past? Countries, for which Russian aggression came as no surprise, which themselves suffered under dictatorships or are still struggling with their consequences today?
"No one in the West can understand what it means to have to live in the Russian sphere of influence," said Polish author Szczepan Twardoch to the Neue Züricher Zeitung in April 2022 and called for: "Stop Westplaining." He asked the West for to change perspective and make the European East more visible and heard due to its experiences and history.
The project
Geschichten vom Schwarzen Meer - Black Sea Lit represents an attempt at rapprochement through dialog between people who are all united by their love of words. Regardless of their different backgrounds, biographies, nationalities, and styles, they all use literature to talk about themselves and their world. The aim of the project is therefore to use the medium of the written word to explore further commonalities, to exchange and grow ideas.
Geschichten vom Schwarzen Meer - Black Sea Lit is a project of the Goethe-Zentrum Yerevan and the Goethe-Institutes Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, and Ukraine in collaboration with the curators Nino Haratischwili (2023) and Laura Cwiertnia (2024). The project is supported by the Literature Initiative Georgia, ARI Literature Foundation/Armenia, the Literarisches Colloqium Berlin e.V., the Literaturfestival Berlin, the Uppsala Internationella Litteraturfestival and the Odessa International Literature Festival.