Medea resists capture, refuses to be enclosed in a single narrative—her energy lies precisely in her flickering presence, in her ability to flow across the storylines. In our search for rebellion and truth, we try to reclaim her voice, to seize the power of Medea. She is the stranger, the woman, the mother, the migrant, the rebel. For Monika Herceg, she also represents a feminist challenge: to free her from the patriarchal narrative of revenge and infanticide. In another time, in another realm of thought, Medea becomes a healer, the first bridge-builder. And yet, she remains a fire of rebellion, a figure acting in defiance of a dark and imprisoned reality. We return to Medea because her story has no clear end — time fills it differently each time. So who does Medea become today, in the face of rising xenophobia, shifting borders, and the construction of walls? Who holds power over the text, and how do we recover the submerged, forgotten stories?
Armen Ohanyan told us about artists and revolution in Armenia over recent decades, when art took to the streets in protest against a suffocating political reality. The Velvet Revolution of 2018 brought together diverse communities—radical artists stood side by side with those connected to the church. Today, Armenia is searching for new spaces of solidarity. As Ohanyan said, it is a revolution in suspension. These efforts reach beyond national borders - artists in Armenia are beginning to build international paths, seeking alternatives there. In light of this, art curator Tereza Davtyan presented her work. She finds resistance in small, autonomous spaces. Davtyan creates a place for art that defies production norms, reclaims free time, and allows for unbound thought. These themes were continued by Archil Kikodze, who spoke about the ongoing protests in Georgia. A striking element here is the generational difference — young Georgians often push further in their actions than those who came before them. At the same time, raised in a world of liberal and democratic transformation, they now face violence and a future that promises nothing. Deprived of the protective armor of previous generations, they are steadily losing spaces for dialogue, and the need for a shared, inspiring political vision grows ever stronger.
In the Song on Porcelain café at Krasnogruda, we listened to Tadeusz Sławek's lecture “The Raft of Odysseus / The Raft of Medusa.” From the very depths of a world that has fallen out of time, that has exhausted its future, a hope for a different reality starts to take shape. Drawing on a dense web of references reaching across centuries of thought, Sławek searched for salvation. What kind of community are we creating? What kind of community do we want it to be? The titular raft floats on the waves of refugee imagery from recent years, while also becoming a symbol of resistance against the self-centered, closed mentality of capitalism. The raft binds together salvaged, used-up elements—and binds people as well, in their search for a home. By the strength of rebellion we transcend ourselves and sustain a community that is open and bound together.
Our day ended by a screening from the Dilemma Cinema series: the documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia with an introduction from the curator of our entire film series – Anna Dziapshipa.