LITHUANIA AT THE BOLOGNA INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK FAIR: UNIQUE CREATIVE INITIATIVES AND SPOTLIGHT ON UKRAINIAN BOOK CREATORS

On 21–24 March, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, in cooperation with the Lithuanian Publishers Association and the literary programme for children and teenagers “Vaikų žemė” (“Land of Children”), represented Lithuania at the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair. The world’s most important children’s literature and publishing event in Italy opened its doors after a two-year hiatus caused by the pandemic. Artists and book authors Ieva Babilaitė , Rasa Jančiauskaitė and Aušra Kiudulaitė – together also known as Grupė O! – and writer and illustrator Kotryna Zylė participated in the illustrators’ programme. The artists presented unique initiatives from Lithuania, held creative workshops for professionals, and met with Bologna’s children.

On 21 March, the Lithuanian Culture Institute and the Lithuanian Publishers Association held a support campaign for Ukraine at the Lithuanian national stand (A192, Hall 26). Along with Lithuanian writers, illustrators and publishers, foreign partners were invited to meet at the Lithuanian stand, to express solidarity with Ukrainian children’s books creators and publishers and to discuss what concrete actions the industry of publishing and literature can take to help Ukraine.

Returning to the fair to share new ideas

Every year, Lithuania’s participation in the Bologna children’s book fair is visible, and its creators are recognised and appreciated. “After a two-year break, the organisers of the fair were delighted to welcome a large number of participants from all continents. And not only that – but they also expanded the fair’s programme. I’m glad that Lithuanian book creators and professionals participated not just as observers but were sharing their experience and held workshops for their colleagues from all over the world,” said Rūta Nanartavičiūtė, head of the Institute’s Programmes and Projects Department.

Rūta Nanartavičiūtė. Photo by Monika Požerskytė

Lithuanian illustrators participated in the special programme called “The Illustrators’ Survival Corner”. It was curated by the organisers of the world-famous creative workshops and master classes “Mimaster Illustrazione”, who visited Vilnius last year at the invitation of the Institute. As many as four events with Lithuanian artists were included in the programme. Grupė O! led a creative workshop on creating an inner portrait. Rasa Jančiauskaitė, the author of the visual identity of the Bologna Book Fair 2020, shared her unique experience in a special creative workshop sharing her creative process working on that project.

Grupė O!: Aušra Kiudulaitė, Rasa Jančiauskaitė, Ieva Babilaitė

Kotryna Zylė and Latvian illustrator Mārtiņš Zutis led the master class titled “Knygiukai. Jointly created stories from the Baltic countries”. Creators of tiny books revealed how 36 writers and illustrators from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia created 18 mini-books on various human rights topics. They shared with the audience what challenges the creators from the three Baltic states had to overcome and what influence the project had on the children’s literary scene in the Baltic countries.

The two artists also led a creative collaborative workshop for illustrators in which they helped emerging artists join forces for a common creative goal of telling a story. Tiny books created by authors from the Baltic countries were presented to the book creators from all over the world by “Vaikų žemė”, the Latvian branch of IBBY and the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre.

“After the first Tiny Books To the Rescue project, which brought together writers and illustrators of Lithuanian children’s books, which took place in 2020, we realised that this format is important not only for children but also for the creators themselves. Several stories grew into picture books, and unexpected friendships and joint projects were born as the result of the project. That inspired us not to stop but to spread the idea of uninhibited collaboration between writers and illustrators all over the world and interest the international community of children’s books creators in the possibilities of this extremely easy-to-print format. The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is a great place not only to introduce field professionals to the works of creators from ours and the neighbouring countries, but also to invite them to join in and initiate similar projects in their countries. It is equally important to showcase the talents from the Baltic countries, to attract foreign agents and publishers in their work”, said Zylė describing the journey of the tiny books to the international scene of the Bologna Book Fair.

Kotryna Zylė. Photo by Laura Vansevičienė

The authors of the books also involved the residents of Bologna. On the first day of the fair, Grupė O! held a creative workshop for Italian schoolchildren. On the penultimate day, the MAMbo museum of modern art in Bologna hosted a tiny book workshop led by the duos of Kotryna Zylė and Mārtiņš Zutis, Ieva Babilaitė and Estonian illustrator K2RTE (Kärt Einasto), Latvian writer Agnese Vanaga and Estonian illustrator Kertu Sillaste. These events celebrating creativity in the prestigious MAMbo space were helped to organise by the  Cultural attaché in Italy, Laura Gabrielaitytė-Kazulėnienė.

The tradition continues

As every year, the Institute invited book creators just starting their careers alongside established book artists to join forces at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. The winner was selected from 29 candidates by an esteemed jury made up of Kęstutis Kasparavičius, Monika Vaicenavičienė, and Agnė Dautartaitė-Krutulė. Based on the jury’s decision, this year it was Simona Jurčiukonytė who went to Bologna, which is considered to be the Mecca of children’s books. The artist hoped not only to get to know her colleagues and find inspiration, but also to participate in portfolio reviews, present her creative ideas to foreign publishing houses and receive feedback from experts.

Special mission – Ukraine

Following Russia’s war on Ukraine, at the initiative of the Lithuanian Culture Institute, 12 cultural organisations from the Baltic countries appealed to the organisers of the Frankfurt, Bologna and London book fairs, urging them to stop cooperation with the institutions from the Russian Federation tasked with running the national stand at these fairs and encouraging them to support Ukrainian book creators and publishers by all means possible. Responding to this call, the organisers of the largest book fairs rejected the  Russian national stand and publicly announced that they would support Ukrainian literary and publishing professionals at their events.

“At this year’s book fair, we had another, no less important mission – to help Ukraine be seen and heard as its creators and publishing professionals, like all the people of this brave country, fight for their, and our, freedom. It is encouraging that the organisers of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Book Institute, also prepared a special exhibition of books by Ukrainian authors in various languages, which greeted the audience as soon as they entered the fair,” said Nanartavičiūtė.

The Lithuanian Culture Institute and the Lithuanian Publishers Association presented a special exhibition at the Lithuanian stand introducing books by Ukrainian authors translated into Lithuanian and books by Lithuanian authors published in Ukrainian. The Lithuanian national stand also provided information on how literary and publishing professionals could support Ukraine and distributed specially prepared flyers. The flyers called for the inclusion of Ukrainian book creators in international programmes, inviting them to speak at events, translating books by Ukrainian authors into their languages and their countries’ literature into Ukrainian, donating translated books to war refugee children, and adding Ukrainian titles to their libraries, as well as looking for other ways to support Ukraine.

The latest books and knygiukai (tiny books) at the joint stand

The Lithuanian national stand at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair was set up by the Institute and the Lithuanian Publishers Association. Presented at the stand was a collection of selected children’s books by Lithuanian authors, compiled according to the latest 2020–2021 catalogue of children’s literature, put together by the Institute and the Lithuanian branch of IBBY. Visitors to the stand were also able to view a collection of knygiukai (tiny books) created by Baltic authors.

Literary agent Benas Bėrantas and publishing houses Alma littera, Aukso žuvys, Baltos lankos and Tikra knyga also presented their publications at the stand and met with foreign partners. For the first time, a series of business meetings between Lithuanian and Taiwanese publishers was organised during the fair by the joint efforts of the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the Lithuanian Publishers Association and the Taipei Book Fair.

From Bologna onwards to the London Book Fair

On 5–7 April, the Lithuanian Culture Institute went on to represent Lithuanian literature and illustrations at the London International Book Fair.