Dilemma Summer School - day 1

Developed over many years, the Borderland’s language of action has always been open and, by its nature, grounded in maps of particular spaces and tangible, material paths. It remains saturated with metaphor -- a web of meanings that flows along with the place, as if the world has been reconciled with its symbols. Facing the escalation of aggression in various parts of Central Europe and the Caucasus, the Dilemma group of artists, writers, and researchers are focused on action and practice. In the founding story of the Borderland there has always been the component of practice; the idea of the Borderland emerges precisely from this element, and by reaching out to people, their places, and memories, it creates an alternative to dominant narratives. The idea has established its own language whose origins emerged decades back from the opposition to the emptiness of the communist propaganda and, later on, from the market-driven jargon of culture. When translated into the native languages of the Summer School participants, the Borderland evokes various associations. It becomes an escape from the snare of thinking in terms of borderlines, in opposition to which it creates a life-giving sphere of encounters, influences, cultures, and traditions - a space beyond the law, a risky crisis area, a constant effort that compels us to redefine identity. It is also in this way that the Dilemma meeting is a collective weaving of several tales which, in the simplest way, can be found on the surface of the world. As for the Borderland ethos, it’s not any map that matters and thus allows us to occupy and possess space; what matters is the place that is open to otherness, foreignness, and the forces that create community. The heart of this place is constituted by the unencumbered, free area that remains in a way open to intuition and irrationality. This path has its strong roots and tradition—real actions of the people of the Borderland scattered across time and space in Central Europe. It also encompasses the thought and biography of Czesław Miłosz, as recounted by Irena Grudzińska-Gross, invoking poems, books, and the poet’s life – the condensation of drama and intellectual efforts in the 20th century. Two components that are typical of Miłosz which are the memory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the emigrant energy of the Kultura Paryska magazine continue to be the resource in building Europe based on living culture and space - a Europe that remembers but also shapes the future. The ethos of the Borderland and the poetry of Miłosz – these threads started up conversations and discussions during the recent Dilemma meeting in Uzhhorod: the list of the issues that were recurring were borders, traumatic memories, pragmatism in the face of the war in Ukraine, and questions about the validity of a shared narrative about Central Europe. The first day of the Summer School was finished with the Cafe Europa session which was the meeting devoted to poetry and prose in Belarusian, Ukrainian, Georgian, and English. Different languages flowed rhythmically, sketching the imagination of a world with its own intimate boundaries. At the very end, poetry also returned as a force present on the war, Olena Maksymenko told us about the healing power of writing on the one hand and the situation of women on the Ukrainian front on the other.

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