Куратор фокусної теми 28 BookForum Юрко Прохасько про "Гру в дорослішання"

Growing up determines the ability to deal with insecurity, to be honest with yourself and with those for whom you are responsible. This is a team game with clear rules that are constantly updating. And now imagine that with aging countries and communities must also play this game.

In 2021 we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of independence of Ukraine, the 30th anniversary of the free cultural and literary market. Can we say that this market knows how to create its own narratives or change existing ones, and is it already confident enough to set its own rules?

Growing up involves acquiring the ability to deal with uncertainty and threats of our world. The requirement and ability to give answers - whether it's temporary, whether it's transitional, to which there are no “right” answers. After all, the realization that there can be no defined answers is also a sign of growing up. Like vitality in a world where it will never be definitively good. 

One of the aspects that we will consider in 2021 will be the various features of the game of adulthood: the change of generations, new external and internal boundaries: their expansion and contraction, the changes that shape the "adult" person. And how to express your own voice and be responsible for your influence and feel it. We want to find out when each of us really became an adult and began to set his or her own rules, and to what point we only play as an "adult".

The most accessible privilege of adulthood is the right to vote, which we use to define our own borders, govern the city, control the public budget and determine the leadership of the state. One of the most important achievements is the ability to accept oneself, one's body, not to be ashamed of weaknesses and damages, to be able to adapt to new norms and learn new levels of communication, to gain flexibility and to be able to adjust to updated rules. By accepting ourselves, building our own narrative, we build a system of connections around ourselves for which we are then responsible, through which we co-create everyday reality and thus project the future.

Under the umbrella of the 28th Lviv International BookForum we want to create a safe space to discuss whether our country can be considered an "adult" after the 30th anniversary of Independence. Is it controllable by citizens and civil society, or does it set rules for them? How we have all changed in 30 years, and how culture and literature since the liberation from state censorship has influenced the formation of our state as an institution and becomes (or not becomes) its "adult" voice.

The 28th BookForum will be held on September 15-19, 2021. The curator of the focus theme of the festival is Yurii Prokhasko.