The essay concerns the importance of finding new means of reaching the Other and listening to what the Other has to tell us. This means that we need to remain open and mindful to the story that is not ours, but without this, we will remain in the same place and with the same set of presumptions and attitudes.
Krzysztof Czyżewski hopes that the series of meetings under the Café Europa series in various Asian cities will be enriching for its participants as well. To quote from the essay:
I initiated the creation of Café Europa in besieged Sarajevo during the war in the former Yugoslavia. I thought then that, against the resurgent nationalism, which feeds on division, hatred and the cult of superiority of one’s own over others, everything must be done to defend the space called charshija in Sarajevo, which corresponds in meaning to the Athenian agora, i.e. common and open, where everyone can feel at home.
Krzysztof Czyżewski has become a regular bi-weekly columnist of the Asian Review. His first essay for the Review on Victoria Amelina is found here. If you want to find all the other essays, use the search window in the Asian Review web page, which you will find here.