BELARUSIAN INTELLECTUAL BOOK FESTIVAL PRADMOVA AND EXHIBITION-SALE OF BOOKS OF BELARUSIAN AND FOREIGN PUBLISHING BOOKS
The Pradmova Festival is, first and foremost, a meeting place for: Belarusian books with their readers; thought leaders and masters of the word with their audience; classics with their new reading and updating; cultural innovations with adequate assessment and expansion; and Belarusians themselves, regardless of their current location, with their own language and culture as a source of self-knowledge and self-esteem, facing the challenges of the new era, in the European and global context, in free creativity, in dialogue and understanding.
Therefore, our festival is more than an “entertainment format” or a community of those who like to consume “smart books,” but it is not an elite club, where entry is restricted to those “who are not interested.” It is rather a broad cultural initiative that seeks, through the implementation of its own goals and objectives, involving different communities and generations in their solution, to contribute to the global goals of the development of the nation and the country, so that Belarusian culture finally takes “its place of honor” among other cultures of the world.
Our main values, which we ourselves recognize and which we sincerely encourage our participants and guests to adhere to, are, first of all, freedom of speech and creative self-expression, respect for cultural diversity, mutual solidarity and non-discrimination against all people or groups, respect for national traditions and appreciation of dignity and responsibility for one’s country and culture, the pursuit of expertise and intellectual leadership as a common horizon for the promising development of Belarusian culture and society. We oppose totalitarian and destructive ideologies that broadcast ideas of hatred and violence.
Sharing these values, we strive with their help to contribute to the construction of our country as democratic, European, sensitive to the protection of human rights, national and inclusive, that is, one that preserves unconditional respect for national dignity and promotes the development of the Belarusian language and culture, removing artificial restrictions and indifference to its own tradition, without, however, belittling other peoples and cultures, but consistently adding Belarus to the world heritage. We care about the future Belarusian state, which, including through our joint efforts, must become a country of high consumption of culture, where the majority aspires to join it for the sake of self-improvement and development, and society must be free from xenophobia and discrimination against any population groups, giving due place to its outstanding cultural figures and intellectuals as those who directly shape the image of the future and set the main trends of public life.
We see Belarusian intellectual culture as one of the main resources for the successful development of the state and society. We believe that the development of thinking and civic activism, including among Belarusians living outside their country, will contribute to the image of a successful nation and the achievement of significant sustainable development goals. We aspire to see an intellectual Belarus in the future and consider it necessary to move towards this today.
We strive to increase the prestige of Belarusian culture, increase the visibility and significance of books that “teach you to think”, contributing to understanding and increasing respect for national identity, creating a space where everyone has opportunities for self-realization and creative expression in a safe and supportive environment. Our goal is to maximally contribute to joining the national and world culture, raising the intellectual level of the audience, ensuring the sustainability of the development of our own culture and society, and strengthening the sense of pride in our own as worthy of representing Belarus in the eyes of other nations and cultures.
Given that a book is a complex phenomenon, embodied in the culture of reading, illustrations, design, theatrical productions and film adaptations, intellectual meditations and entertaining interactions, we strive to combine all these genres and forms of culture within the festival format, paying tribute to the primary literary form of the book and developing its other dimensions. Therefore, we organize book exhibitions and manuscript competitions, carry out theatrical and film screenings, hold illustration competitions and exhibitions, take care of important intellectual discussions, and also provide space for everyone who wants to enrich the cultural potential of the country through their own creativity.
The Belarusian Intellectual Book Festival PRADMOVA has been held five times:
- 2018 – took place from May 27 to 31 in the OK16 space (Minsk, Kastrychnitskaya St., 16);
- 2019 – held in Minsk, Brest, Polotsk, Grodno, Gomel and Bobruisk;
- 2020 – held in Minsk, Brest, Vitebsk, Grodno and Bobruisk;
- 2022 – held in Warsaw, Vilnius, Krakow, and Tbilisi, there was also an online program.
- 2023 – held in Warsaw, Vilnius, Bialystok and Batumi, there was also an online program.
