THEY WOULD NEVER EVER HURT A FLY
with Marci Shore
The seminar explored how ordinary people become perpetrators. Drawing on the work of a writer, Slavenka Drakulić, Marci Shore posed a series of complex moral and ethical questions: What happens to our moral categories when people responsible for extreme violence do not fit our idea of “pure evil”? How do we draw the line between trying to understand — psychological mechanisms, systemic pressure or social context — and excusing responsibility or offering absolution?
The seminar revealed the disturbing proximity between everyday life and radical violence, and underlined the fact that a person’s moral responsibility remains relevant even under conditions of immense pressure.
MEDEA: STRANGER, OTHER, FAMILIAR
with Krzysztof Czyżewski
The second seminar was a return to the ancient figure of Medea — an outsider who crosses boundaries, leaves one world and enters another, and becomes at once someone familiar and someone foreign.
The conversation centred on questions of otherness, belonging, hospitality and exclusion: At precisely what moment does a “stranger” become someone familiar? What does a community expect from a person who enters it? What happens when a community refuses — or proves unable — to make room for the Other?
A rereading of Medea’s story became a starting point for reflecting on contemporary questions of integration, migration and the limits of human empathy.
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA: MYTHS AND SPECULATIONS
with Archil Kikodze
Archil Kikodze presented history as a dynamic process transmitted not only through objective facts, but also through family stories, literature, political myths, collective memory and the stories that communities repeatedly tell about themselves.
Using the history of Georgia as an example, the participants explored the fluid boundary between historical reality and myth:
- How are collective identities constructed, transformed and distorted?
- Why do societies sometimes become “trapped” in narratives they themselves have created about their past?
The session highlighted the importance of deconstructing historical myths as a way of freeing ourselves from inherited memory.
PHILOSOPHICAL CONCERT
Performers: Viktoras Bachmetjevas and Rafał Mazur
The evening concluded with an improvised encounter between philosophy and live music. Philosopher Viktoras Bachmetjevas and improvising musician Rafał Mazur created an open space in which thought and sound responded to one another without a predetermined script.
The concert did not attempt either to illustrate philosophy through music or to explain music through philosophy. Instead, it posed a fundamental question: Can thinking itself become an act of listening, responding and improvisation?
The Philosophical Concert sparked an exceptionally inspiring and passionate discussion. The participants engaged in an intense exchange of ideas about:
- the nature of improvised music and noise;
- the concept of “sound as music”;
- an audiocentric philosophy.
We became so absorbed in the conversation that we could not bring it to an end. Even when a bus was already waiting outside, questions, theories and arguments continued to emerge.
Ultimately, the meeting did not end with any definitive conclusion, but with a shared agreement to continue the conversation at future events.
( written by Olha Povoroznyk )