The book titled “ZeitZug: Czernowitz-Prag-Wien” is an international Austrian-Czech-Ukrainian cultural project. Its main goal is the unification of the cultural space of the European countries based on their shared history. The project is an attempt to realize a retrospective utopia. The book title is not chosen by chance – it is about three cities, which are closely connected by their history, poetry and lives of their authors.
From the Austrian side a project is represented by Milena Findeis – Austrian poet and photographer, publisher of online magazine ZeitZug.com, who lives in Prague. The Ukrainian side is represented by Iryna Vikyrchak, a young poetess and photographer from Chernivtsi.
This project presents a completely new literary and visual format. The book is bilingual (German-Ukrainian) and includes 60 poems with translations. The authors illustrate each other’s poetry with art photography. Translations of poems made by Claudia Dathe (from Ukrainian into German) and by Peter Ryhlo (from German into Ukrainian). Editor of the book is Diana Klochko.
Thus, the book is filled with the actual materials of the art content: a combination of words and visual images.
First collection was represented on September 2, 2011 in the second International Poetry Festival MERIDIAN CZERNOWITZ, in Chernivtsi. The book was represented by the authors (Milena Findeis and Iryna Vikyrchak), translator Claudia Dathe and by the well-known Ukrainian writers Juri Andrukhovych and Igor Pomerantsev.
Video from this event you can watch here.
Another presentation was held in November 2011 in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt in the program «Blickpunkt: Czernowitz». Successful illustration of the event are pictures of Irina Vikyrchak and Milena Findeis. More about this presentation is found in the publication by Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung.
Next presentations will be held in Prague, Vienna, Leipzig and Berlin.
Austrian-Czech-Ukrainian cultural project “ZeitZug: Czernowitz-Prag-Wien” came into being as a product of the International Poetry Festival MERIDIAN CZERNOWITZ, its participants, organizers and partners.
