Ukraine is to present its national stand at the 60th anniversary of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair to take place on March 6–9 in Bologna, Italy. The organizers of the fair have provided the area and equipment for the Ukrainian stand (48 m²) for free to support Ukraine, just as they did last year when the Bologna Children’s Book Fair became one of the first supporters of Ukraine and blocked russia’s participation in the fair. The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is one of the most prominent book fairs in the world and the largest children’s book fair. Over 1,400 exhibitors and around 30,000 professional visitors flock to the event. This year, joint efforts of The Ukrainian Book Institute, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, The Embassy of Ukraine in Italy, The Consulate General of Ukraine in Milan and ”Mom, i see war” charitable initiative have made it possible for Ukraine to present its Ukrainian stand at this key event for publishers.
“The slogan of the Ukrainian stand “Mom, i see war” was borrowed from the eponymous charitable project, launched at the beginning of the full-scale invasion and having since collected over 15 thousand children’s drawings. Designers Sofia Hupalovska and Daria Bila in partnership with and based on the materials of the “Mom, i see war” project have developed the visual concept of the stand using children’s drawings to convey to the fair’s visitors that our children are seeing things they should not be seeing and to present children’s literature written in the course of the devastating russia’s war in Ukraine. Children dream about peace, believe in justice and continue using their creativity, writing and drawing to tell their stories to the world. They also continue reading. Books give them a sense of security. At the same time, our children give us hope and strength making us resilient. Our children are our future, and this is what we are fighting for. With our stand, we are calling on foreign publishers to translate and publish Ukrainian books. In such a way, they will be able to help millions of people to get to know the real value of life and millions of children to overcome fear, relieve the pain of loss and get over war horrors,” Oleksandra Koval, director of the Ukrainian Book Institute, comments the concept of Ukraine’s stand at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
There are 22 publishing houses among the participants of the stand: The Ark Ukraine Publishing, Crocus, My Bookshelf, YASLAV, The Old Lion Publishing House, Artbooks Publishing, Unisoft, Vivat, IPIO Agency, Kalamar, ASSA, Books XXI, Black Sheep, Ranok, Bohdan, Yakaboo Publishing, Summit-Knyha, The Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Czas Maistriv, Polonik T. V. private entrepreneur, Nakonechna Taisiya Viktorivna private entrepreneur, Irbis Comics, Tianachu Swedish-Ukrianian Publishing House.
Please, follow the link to check out the Ukrainian program.
Among the participants of the cultural program: Olena Odynoka, deputy director of the Ukrainian Book Institute, Yuliya Kozlovets, director of the International Book Arsenal Festival, Oleh Hryshchenko, painter, illustrator, cofounder of the Pictoric Illustrators Club, Anna Sarvira, illustrator, curator, cofounder of the Pictoric Illustrators Club, Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv creative duet, Art Studio Agrafka, Maryana Savka, writer, editor-in-chief of the Old Lion Publishing House, Tania Stus, director of the publishing house of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Let us remind you, that currently Italy hosts over 153 thousand Ukrainians, having been forced to leave Ukraine due to the full-scale russian invasion.
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The Ukrainian Book Institute is a government entity, part of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Its mission is to shape state policy in the area of book publishing, promote book reading in Ukraine, support book industry, provide incentives for translations and popularize Ukrainian literature abroad.
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“Mom, i see war” charitable project is the first and the largest digital collection of children’s drawings about the war in Ukraine. The project was launched at the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion and has gathered over 15 thousand drawings reflecting horrible events through the eyes of children. The mission of the project is to create the international digital museum MISW, the first digital art archive, dedicated to children’s war experience to be built on the blockchain technology (WEB 3.0). This platform will let us imprint the collection of drawings on the internet forever and attract resources to help children affected by the war using modern digital instruments. The museum will be created based on the first collection of Ukrainian children’s drawings to be replenished with drawings by children from all over the world. The project will tell the truth about the war to the world through messages conveyed by children in their drawings. The project is managed by the Initial Coin Offering Laboratory.Ukraine (ICO LAB UA), the Ukrainian Startup Fund, Perfect PR Agency of Public Communications, GroundStorm Media International Company, TA Ventures Company, Vasyl Stus Memorial NGO, the Educational and Scientific Institute of Law of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
