"Mom, I see war": Ukraine at 60-th Bologna Children’s Book Fair
"Mom, I see war": Ukraine at 60-th Bologna Children’s Book Fair
16 / 03 / 2023

On March, 6-9 in Bologna (Italy) 60-th Bologna Children’s Book Fair took place. It is the world’s most important event for trading rights to publish books and content for children and young people. This year the Fair  gathered 1 456 exhibitors from 90 countries and around 30 000 professional visitors. The organizers of the Fair have expressed their unequivocal support for Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and they confirmed their attitude by providing Ukrainian publishers with an opportunity to participate free of charge in this years’ Fair. This year Ukraine’s participation in this important Fair for publishers was made possible due to joint efforts of Ukrainian Book Institute, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Embassy of Ukraine to the Republic of Italy, Consulate General of Ukraine in Milan and  Mom, I See War Charity Project

 

“The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is always an extraordinary event. And this year we feel  special pride for our writers, illustrators, publishers who despite the challenges of the wartime continue to create and present young readers with fairy-tale worlds full of adventures, dreams and victories.  At the same time, they never fail to surprise the demanding international jury and win among their European counterparts! The great merit in such an extensive presence of Ukraine at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the tireless work of the Ukrainian Book Institute enthusiasts. I believe that UBI is welcome as a guest not only in Bologna, but other famous professional venues of Italy”, noted by Yaroslav Melnyk, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambasador of Ukraine the Republic of Italy. 

 

Publishers who brought their books to sell rights noted the increase of demand for books on Ukraine, the war and books by Ukrainian authors in general.  The highest interest was among the countries most supportive of Ukraine - Bulgaria, Latvia, Luthuania, Croatia, Italy, Poland, USA, United Kingdom etc. The Ukrainian stand represented 22 publishing houses: The Ark Ukraine, Crocus, My Book Shelve, Yaslav, The Old Lion, Artbooks, Unisoft, Vivat, IRIO Agency, Kalamar, ASSA, The Books - ХХІ”, The Black Sheep, Ranok, Bohdan PH, Yakaboo, The Summit Book, Junior Academy of Ukraine, Chas Maistriv, FOP Polonik T.V., FOP Nakonechna Taisiia Viktorivna, Irbis Comics, Tianachu Swedish-Ukrainian Publishing House. 

 

“Last year Ukraine represented its empty stand-manifest in Bolognia with a slogan #StandWithUkraine informing that Ukrainians are now at the battlefield and will do everything possible to come back next year to participate in the Fair. The professional community was impressed and everyone was looking forward for Ukraine to come back in 2023. Thanks to a great support of the Fair organizers and partners we came back with a great amount of bright publications, which drew attention of the professional visitors of the Fair. We strongly felt this support during all important events of the Fair, as the organizers constantly raised the topic of the war and the children during wartume and appealed to support Ukraine. The main visitors of the Ukrainian stand were international representatives of the book publishing area and they were deeply touched with this year’s concept of Ukraine’s participation in the Fair. Every day during the Fair Ukrainian and international publishers continued their negotiations. All the books displayed at the stand were handed over to the Embassy of Ukraine to the Republic of Italy to be spread in the libraries and schools for the children in need of Ukrainian books to read, — Olena Odynoka, the Deputy Director of Ukrainian Book Institute, told about the work of the Fair.

 

The visitors of Ukrainian stand were inquiring about the books on war written for children, which describe the events in a children’s language. It was truly touching how parents were trying tto tell their children on the war and how adults and children in Ukraine are dealing with it. A lot of libraries, schools and bookstores were looking for the books in Ukrainian to buy and make them available to children who were forced to temporarily leave Ukraine, as well as for Italian children to tell them of Ukraine. 

This year Ukrainian stand’s concept was developed to draw attention of the international community to the experience of children living in Ukraine, as well as those who were forced to leave Ukraine with their parents because of the war. The authors of the concept designers Daria Bila and Sofia Hupalovska implemented the visual design of the Ukrainain stand free of charge. For the stand design 106 children’s drawings on war were used, which were collected by Mom I See War Charity Project. The visitors of the stand saw the war through the eyes of the children. The installation with the children’s furniture reminded Ukrainian stand’s guests of the kindergartens in Ukraine waiting for the visitors to come back, for the children who had to leave Ukraine because of the war. It added some more tactile expressiveness to the concept of the stand. The visitors were deeply moved by the children’s paintings and the installations, they expresses their support for Ukraine and took pictures of the stand to share in the social media. 

 

The stand that we created with Sofia Hupalovska is about the war through the eyes of the children. We wanted to convey to the visitors of the Fair the reality in which the children of Ukraine are living, about the childhood stolen by the war. We developed a concept of the stand and our sketches based on real drawings painted by the children from Ukraine. We scanned the pictures, enlarged them and arranged as they are. These are the drawings by the children about the war during the wartime, about what they feel and what they see. These drawings are about the ruined childhood, home, hope for the victory and faith. First of all the meaning is important and the form comes next. That is why they brightly depict the reality. This is the reality in which the children in Ukraine are living, this is what they see, what they feel, what they fear of, what they are dreaming of. This is our reality that cannot be silenced. Our task was to reflect that reality. That is why the slogan of the Ukrainian stand, ‘Mom, I See War’ is not simply a saying, but a scream. It is our scream to the world. It is the scream of Ukrainian children”. Daria Bila, the Designer and Co-Author of the concept of the Ukrainian stand design is convinced commenting so

 

The programme of the Fair included several important events with the participation the representatives of Ukraine. The speakers were: Olena Odynoka (Ukrainian Book Institute, Deputy Head for International Cooperation), Zhak Zhabie (Oleh Zhovtanetsky, Ukrainian Children’s book author), Yulia Kozlovets (Coordinaor for Book Arsenal International Festival) Oleh Hryshchenko (Artist, Illustrator, Pictoric Illustartors’ Club Co-Founder), Anna Sarvira (Illustrator, Curator, Pictoric Illustrators’ Club Co-Founder),  Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv (Agrafka Creative Workshop), Mariana Savka (The Old Lion, Editor-In-Chief, Writer), Tanya Stus (Junior Academy of Science PH, Editor-In-Chief). 

In the framework of the events Ukrainian delegation participated in presentation of the  European Commission funded project Tales of EUkraine, aimed at providing Ukrainian children  studying abroad with bilingual books and discussion on publishing children’s books and work of Ukrainian publishers during full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine.  

At Bologna Children’s Books Fair the  Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year was held. The Old Lion PH received an award in the Europe category. Within the past 10 years the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year has nominated publishers of children’s literature, who are the leaders of innovations, editorial decisions in their work, who contributed most with their professional and intellectual spheres in all six parts of the world: Africa, Caribbean, Central and South America, North America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. 

During the Fair the Ukrainian stand has been in focus of the media. The journalists were interested in changes that occurred in Ukraine’s publishing market due to the war. They expressed their awe with the bravery of Ukrainians, who continue to write, publish and read under the Russian missile attacks.  It should be additionally noted that the Fair visitors expressed their great interest for posters created by Ukrainian illustrators, i.e. Ukraine Illustated organized the the Book Arsenal International Festival and Pictoric Illustrators’ Club. The exhibition was handed over to the Embassy of Ukraine to the Republic of Italy. 

We express our gratitude to the organizers of the 60-th Bologna Childrens’ Book Fair who made it possible for the Ukrainian stand to participate. The work of the stand was organized  and the programme was prepared with the joint efforts of:  Ukrainian Book Institute, Embassy of Ukraine to the Republic of Italy, Consulate General of Ukraine in Milan, the designers Daria Bila and Sofia Hupalovska, ​​Mom, I See War Charity Project, Book Arsenal, Pictoric Illustrators’ Club  та AGRAFKA Art Studio.

 

60-th Bologna Children’s Book Fair:

Quantity of the Fair participants: 1 456

Quantity of professional visitors: 30 000 (+35% in comparison with 2022) 

Events: 585

Please find photos from Bologna Children’s Book Fair here (photos: Ukrainian Book Institute).

 

Reference:

Ukrainain Book Institute — is a government entity acting within the scope of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Its mission is to define state policy in the sphere of book publishing, promotion of reading in Ukraine, support book industry, encourage implementation of translation programmes, popularize Ukrainian literature abroad. 

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’Mom, I See War’ Charity Project’  – the first and the biggest digital collection of the children drawings on the war in Ukraine. The project was launched during the first days of the full-scale russian war aganist Ukraine. It collected over 15 thousand of drawings reflecting terrible events through the eyes of the children. The main goal of the Project is a creation of International Digital Museum MISW, the first compilation of digital art archive devoted to comprehension of war by the children. It will be based on NFT technology (WEB 3.0). This platform will allow to preserve an online collection of drawings and involve resources to help children who suffered from war by using modern digital instruments. The museum will be launched on the basis of the first collection of the drawings of children from Ukraine and will be accomplished with the children’s works from around the world. The Project aims to spread the truth on the war in the world through messages found in children’s drawings. The project is implemented by the Initial Coin Offering Laboratory. Ukraine NGO. The Ukrainian Foundation of  Startups, Perfect PR public communication agency, GroundStorm media international company, TA Ventures, Memorial of Vasyl Stus NGO, Scientific Institute of Law of Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University .

 

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