wars in words

War kills; it devastates land, infrastructure and cultural heritage. It destroys the international cultural ties that have developed over centuries. It also destroys trust in art as a peace project, which is realised through the exchange of diverse national cultural peculiarities and the overcoming of physical and temporal borders. How and what can literature say about war, violence, displacement and exile? Is it capable of verbalising its brutality and making it more comprehensible? Two leading names in contemporary poetry, Ukrainian poet Yevgeniy Breyger and Syrian poet Kholoud Charaf, will captivate us with readings of their work at the Transart OASIE. Their performance will be followed by a moment of dialogue on war as a cultural struggle and on the possibilities of overcoming it.