We cordially invite you to the public discussion “Comics as a means of sharing personal experience”, which will take place as part of Book World Prague.

The editors Alice Nikitinová and Petra Dobruská are working with Ukrainian students at AVU on the book “When it Began”, which captures the experience of being forced to flee from Ukraine through illustrations and text. The book will be published by the AVU publishing house (NAVU) this June.

The comic book is a collaborative work of Ukrainian artists and students who found a home at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Each of them comes from a different region of Ukraine and often have completely different cultural and creative experiences. What unites them is the war and its impact, the need to share their story and the desire to highlight the importance of lived experience in the maelstrom of modern events. The book is a reflection of their thoughts and their current state of mind. Symbolic stories alternate with utopian images and highly realistic depictions of their own fate. The book is by no means lacking in humour and hyperbole, and offers an optimistic gaze into the future.

The discussion will be moderated by Vít Havránek, Vice-Rector for Foreign and Institutional Cooperation at AVU

Participants: editors Alice Nikitinová and Petra Dobruská, artist Olena Zahrebina, artist and student at UMPRUM Anna Solianyk, student at AVU Heorhii Rublik

AVU artists and students who are involved in the book: Anna Banitiuk, Viktoria Bobko, Julie Čujenko, Liliia Dorovska , Yelyzaveta Honcharenko, Anna Kaigorodova, Sofia Kolopeniuk, Anastasia Lisnycha, Olena Nurmamedova, Violetta Piatnytska, Heorhii Rublik, Anna Solianyk, Anastasia Tovstokor, Yelyzaveta Ulianova, Olena Zahrebina and Bohdana Zaiats

Publication of the book and the discussion is supported by EUNIC #CultureofSolidarityFund

The event takes place within the framework of the project “Sharing Ukrainian Stories in Prague”, which was created in cooperation with the Goethe Institute, Czech Centres, the Cervantes Institute, the Polish Institute in Prague, the Flanders Delegation and the British Council within the EUNIC Prague cluster.
It is implemented thanks to the Culture Solidarity Fund, funded by the European Cultural Foundation.
#CultureofSolidarityFund

Comics as a means of sharing personal experience – talk