The organizers of the Vilnius Book Fair have announced February 22-25 next year. the motto of the upcoming fair. He chose the closing line of Henrikos Radauskas's poem "Fairytale" - "I don't believe in the world, but I believe in a fairy tale".
Aurim Švedas, a cultural historian and one of the members of the organizing committee of the Vilnius Book Fair, claims that the line of the poem chosen as the slogan opens up wide possibilities for interpretation and encourages discussion about the relationship of a creative person with the world, and also asks what a book is for a person living in a world full of anxiety and reading.
"When our usual world becomes quite scary and unpredictable, is a book really an opportunity to escape from everything that worries us and turn the book fair into a four-day bustling fairy tale, an escapist's paradise?" Or maybe it is just this playful saying of Radauskas that encourages us to find the courage to invent new hopeful dreams?" - said A. Švedas while presenting the slogan of the fair on "LRT Klasika" radio show "Ryto allegro".
Evaluating the slogan of next year's Vilnius book fair, Doctor of Humanities Dalia Satkauskytė said that probably all young people graduating from modern schools know the mentioned poem, because it is a poem and the author included in the curriculum.
"This poem and that line are a bit worn out, but as a slogan it is very suitable. His aesthetic concept is the omnipotence of literature, the ability to create new worlds, rather than copying reality or reflecting it in any way. Radauskas took a position that is probably considered very controversial today. In his opinion, art does not mix with politics at all. Such an approach to literature is considered a turning point. Such an attitude of a modern writer is highly questionable, so I am sure that this slogan of the fair will receive controversial assessments", thought D. Satkauskytė.
According to her, the slogan may receive ambiguous evaluations due to the geopolitical processes taking place in the world, for which H. Radauskas's poem "Fairytale" is simply not adapted.
"There are artists who stand aside from world events and do not interfere in them in any way and do not comment on them," explained the Doctor of Humanities.
True, according to her, there is another position - art as an alternative to the world. This is a way to forget, to escape, because a person cannot live in reality all the time.
"And such an escape is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a means of managing a certain tension in which it is impossible to live all the time", stated D. Satkauskytė.
A. Švedas, a member of the organizing committee of the Vilnius Book Fair, also agreed with this point of view. According to him, art protects us, especially in moments of tension, it provides comfort and consolation.
"On the other hand, great works of art, whatever their form, are able to remind us of certain ideas and values, and sometimes they simply touch our soul and that is sometimes quite enough, it cleanses us at least for a moment. Sometimes we say that one or another book changed our lives, but when we are asked to recall the plot, we say "well, something, now I can't say exactly, but I know that my eyes became a little brighter then", said A. Švedas.
However, according to his belief, art also opens up another perspective - it reminds us that next to uncertainty, the threat of evil, there are other possibilities, other alternatives that encourage us to think about them.
"Radauskas' work is open to interpretation and I choose a fairly arbitrary interpretation. I think that this poem gives courage to believe that it is possible to dream and create dreams", emphasized the co-organizer of the Vilnius Book Fair.
In his opinion, one of the most terrible things that has happened to people in recent times is the global crisis of imagination.
"We don't allow ourselves to believe that good scenarios for our lives are possible. We usually only talk about the multiple crises, catastrophes and something terrible that await us. But if we don't allow ourselves to think about the possibility of alternatives, then we will find ourselves in a dead end of our own thoughts", thought A. Švedas.
Having become one of the most prominent cultural events in Lithuania event will invite visitors to meetings with writers, book presentations, discussions, concerts, exhibitions, creative activities and other cultural activities. The fair will explore the themes of artificial intelligence and the world it creates, art and propaganda, not forgetting the ongoing war in Ukraine and terrible events in Israel. Together with the Lithuanian Audiosensory Library, the fair will also pay attention to people who read differently.
We will invite you to have a wider discussion about the influence of art, and especially books, to look for new worlds and opportunities to change reality on February 22-25 of next year. at the largest book fair in the Baltic States - the Vilnius Book Fair. The organizers of the fair are the Association of Lithuanian Publishers, the Lithuanian Institute of Culture and the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Center LITEXPO.
