We began Day One with a guided tour of the exhibition In Search of a Homeland , housed in the manor, followed by the opening evening at the Song on Porcelain Café in Krasnogruda.
WAYS OF SEEING, WAYS OF ACTING
The second day of the summer school in Krasnogruda began in a rhythm set by nature — with torrential rain. Not long afterwards, the sky cleared, leaving behind a refreshed landscape for attentive listening, reflection and intense conversation.
LISTENING BEYOND SIGHT
Sound Seminar and Sound Walk | Dilemma Cinema: Other Ways of Seeing with Anna Dziapshipa
We began the morning with a practice of Deep Listening. Through listening exercises and a sound walk, we explored how to experience the space around us through sound, when sight is no longer the dominant way of perceiving the world.
Looking at important experiments in sound art, we approached sound not merely as a cinematic tool, but as an independent way of experiencing place, presence and relationships — particularly significant in a culture increasingly dominated by images.
LIVING IN TRUTH: LANGUAGE, RESPONSIBILITY AND ACTION
Living in Truth I: The Power of the Powerless with Marci Shore
What does it mean to live in truth in a reality sustained by lies? Can an individual who appears to have no real influence disrupt the workings of a system by refusing to repeat its language and participate in its rituals?
Our starting point consisted of Václav Havel’s reflections on “living in truth” and Adam Michnik’s confrontation with political power. The discussion explored resistance not merely as opposition to a regime, but above all as an ethical practice — a fundamental connection between language, truth, responsibility and action.
REIMAGINING THE GEOGRAPHY OF HISTORY
Why the Black Sea Is (Not Such a Small) Centre of the World — with Timothy Snyder
Timothy Snyder’s lecture invited us to look at the inherited maps of European history and politics from a different perspective — from the Black Sea, rather than from the traditionally understood centres of Europe.
What changes when places usually described as borderlands, margins or peripheries become the starting point for our historical imagination? How can shifting the geography of our perspective transform our understanding of empire, democracy and the contemporary world?
The Q&A session quickly developed into an extended discussion, with each answer giving rise to new questions. How do we actually recognise what becomes the centre of the world — and why do centres matter? What forces might shape the future course of history?
And, on a somewhat lighter historical note, we also learned about the circumstances in which the Scythians encountered the Amazons.
DILEMMA CINEMA: OTHER WAYS OF SEEING
We ended the day with a film evening — our Dilemma Cinema.
We opened the series with the 2022 film Apolonia, Apolonia, directed by Lea Glob. The documentary follows thirteen years of the life of Apolonia Sokol, a talented artist trying to find her place in the art world.
When Danish documentary filmmaker Lea Glob first met Apolonia Sokol in 2009, the artist seemed to be living a life straight out of a fairy tale. Over the following years, Glob kept returning with her camera, following Apolonia as she searched for her place in the art world and confronted the highs and lows of womanhood, her relationships with others, her own body, and the creative process.
Thirteen years later, the two women are still observing their respective paths in a film about art, love, motherhood, sexuality and representation — as well as about how to succeed in a world shaped by patriarchy, capitalism and war without losing oneself along the way.