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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230419T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230419T193000
DTSTAMP:20230412T190038Z
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SUMMARY:Writing a Way out of Communism
DESCRIPTION:Leading Czech novelist Martin Vopěnka reflects on how\, growing up in communist Europe\, writers found their voices. What can we learn from their fictional worlds as we face our own troubled times? As he launches his new novel MY BROTHER THE MESSIAH\, Martin Vopěnka leads us into the mindset of current Slavic writing.\n  \n\nMartin Vopěnka (born 1963) \n\nCzech writer with Jewish roots and author of 25 book titles\nProfound thinker and visionary in books for adults\, a sensitive guide and teacher in books for children and youth\n\nHe’s been writing since his childhood\, despite being forced to study mathematics and physics during the communist era. Yet this unwanted education was later used in some of his novels. \nHis work received awards and recently\, a feature film was made based on one of his novels. His books were published in English\, German\, Italian\, Polish\, Russian\, Bulgarian\, Rumanian\, Slovakian\, French\, Arabic\, and Macedonian. \nVopěnka’s literature is distinguished by high sensitivity for the inner tension of an individual as well as for dangerous aspects of a whole society. Also for endangering our planet and our society. \nHis books for children and youth are among the most successful\, popular\, and appreciated in the Czech Republic. In them\, too\, he touches on serious topics in the belief that children are our good future and can do more than we think. \nOccasionally\, Vopěnka also devotes himself to poetry\, which he considers to be the highest verbal formation. Some of his poems have been published in English in online anthologies. \nDespite his steadily writing\, he makes his living as a publisher. He established his publishing house Prah (in Czech: Threshold) in 1990 – shortly after the Velvet Revolution. He engages also socially. Since 2003\, he is a chair of the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers and during his time he considerably enhanced the prestige of this organization. Regularly\, he writes polemic articles for the newspapers. \nAuthor’s Website \n  \n“Vopěnka’s reputation as the next Milan Kundera is well cemented…” — Simon Ings\, The Times. \n  \n\nMy Brother the Messiah \nIf in the near future a new Messiah were to appear in the middle of Europe\, would people accept him? And would it prove possible to establish a new religion? \nIt is 2096\, and a state of drought has obtained for many years. The bed of the River Vltava has dried up. But hope exists thanks to a scientific project that fends off the sun’s rays in the stratosphere. Eli is born in the Prague district of Holešovice as the first rain is falling. \nIt is 2168\, and Marek\, Eli’s elder brother\, is in a Greek settlement close to Mount Olympus\, preaching to survivors of the worst exodus in human history. At this point\, only a staunch handful believe that martyred Eli was the Messiah. \n  \nThe latest novel by Czech writer and visionary Martin Vopěnka has the highest ambitions. Plausibly and with great sensitivity for the psychology of his characters\, the author shows how much pain\, love\, hate\, doubt and hope one life can bring\, when its subject appears capable of emulating the role in human history played by Jesus. In the opinion of the author\, although Jesus was not a miracle worker\, the mere fact that his legacy has survived to the present day is a miracle in itself. \nThe novel is set in two time frames\, the main one being in the year 2168. The scene is northern Greece\, not far from Mount Olympus\, where Marek\, brother of Eli\, the long-dead\, presumptive Messiah\, delivers a sermon to a modest gathering of Eli’s disciples. These followers are predominantly Czech: Eli\, too\, was a Czech. \nThis time\, the sermon is attended by a slim\, attractive girl. She gazes up at the ageing Marek (he is now over seventy) from the front row; after the sermon\, she follows him to his bungalow. Marek is used to the attention of women\, who usually come to him out of platonic love for Eli. But this girl\, Natalia\, takes him by surprise: her interest is in Marek himself\, specifically the story of his life at Eli’s side. \nMarek begins to talk – and so returns to the Prague district of Holešovice\, on the banks of the River Vltava\, where he was born in 2096. Eli was born in the same place in 2105. It is a time of climate catastrophe. Central Europe has been afflicted by drought for many years. The Vltava has practically dried up\, and Prague is deluged by refugees from the south. The country is ruled by a president who was democratically elected but is now an out-and-out dictator; as the president succeeds in maintaining order\, he has the support of the majority. Marek’s father is in the president’s employ. \nJust before Eli’s birth\, a significant breakthrough is achieved: world powers agree to place in the stratosphere a diffraction grating that should divert many of the sun’s rays\, so cooling the atmosphere. This project raises huge levels of expectation. Before long\, clouds really do appear. As the first rain falls\, Eli is born at a nearby clinic. \n  \nMarek’s father\, now a high-ranking officer in the dictator’s personal guard\, chooses this very moment to leave the family\, having found himself a new one. Marek’s sick\, obese mother is left to bring up her two sons alone. Around Eli\, things seem somehow to happen of their own accord. The family is apparently safe. Marek loves Eli from the first and feels a deep connection with him. He will live for him and him only until – aged over seventy – he meets Natalia. Though she is young and beautiful\, Natalia loves Marek – for himself\, not as the brother of the Messiah. This is a new situation for Marek\, and he is confused by it. Eli’s disciples are unhappy that their prophet is living with the young newcomer\, and they are concerned that he is neglecting his mission. \nThe book continues to switch between the storyline developing the psychology of Marek and Natalia’s love with a retrospective of the life of the Messiah. \nThe experiment with the grating has gone awry; a new ice age is sweeping into Europe from the north. The flow of refugees from south to north has been reversed. As states crumble\, the exodus is marked by a struggle for survival\, localized wars and killings. Although Eli performs no miracles\, his words have a strange strength\, attraction and power. The novel’s retrospective narration turns out to be a new gospel – a witness to the chosenness of the Messiah\, albeit one that is difficult to understand. Aged thirty\, Eli dies a martyr in Dubrovnik\, Croatia\, having fallen victim to wealthy Czechs whom he tried to convince of the need for modesty and humility\, although he knew how his entreaties would end. For the seventy-year-old Marek\, the memory of Eli’s death is still painful. The only true miracle foretold by Eli before his death is that those who fail to follow him will bear many fewer children or none at all. According to Eli\, the miracle of creation should not be taken for granted. \n  \nIt transpires that Natalia and Eli have something in common: she was born in Dubrovnik only weeks after Eli’s death. She has fled from her wealthy parents. \nThis ageing\, childless world is coming to an end. Is a new beginning on the horizon? A small number of Eli’s disciples have borne children; the hatred this inspires puts them at constant risk. Some senior rabbis fly from the state of Israel to speak with Marek. If they can prove that Eli was a Jew and so accept him as the Messiah\, the Jews will again bear children\, and again be the chosen people. The rabbis refer to the traditional Jewish belief in two Messiahs: the first unites the Jewish nation\, so effectively seeing out the old world\, while the second establishes a new unity. But a genetic test soon ascertains that Marek is not a Jew; in that case\, nor was Eli. The despondent rabbis return to their homeland\, all hope lost. \nOne day\, Natalia goes missing. Marek fears the worst: some of Eli’s disciples have refused to accept her presence among them. They may have abducted her; they may have killed her. Natalia has left several seemingly deliberate clues behind\, but Marek cannot make out their message. A st \nudent travels out from the city to help; in the story\, he has a spiritual kinship with Saul of Tarsus – it seems that he will be the one to take Eli’s teachings into the wider world. \nAs his life draws to its close\, Marek wishes to make a pilgrimage to Eli’s grave\, which overlooks Dubrovnik. If he has read the signs correctly\, Natalia will be there. In all likelihood\, her parents were behind her abduction. \nThe pilgrimage to Dubrovnik takes several months. On their way\, Marek and the student pass abandoned camps\, languishing settlements and half-empty palaces that were once homes of the mighty. The student writes down what Marek tells him about Eli – this will form the basis of his teachings. At last they are within sight of Eli’s grave\, where there is now a small shrine. Marek walks the last few steps alone. As he approaches the door\, he hears bitter weeping. On entering the shrine\, he sees a young woman with a new-born baby; it is she – Natalia – who is weeping. Between sobs\, she tells him: “He spoke to me. I met him.” Eli has appeared to her\, to tell her that her son will be the true Messiah. “Whose child is he?” asks Marek in confusion. “Yours and mine\, you silly thing!” Natalia answers. \n  \nThe novel My Brother the Messiah does not present a likely scenario for the future. But neither did the birth of Jesus – Jesus was born on the periphery of the world of that time. And if we do not believe that he turned water into wine\, walked on water\, brought Lazarus back from the dead and was the last of the last to be crucified\, leaving behind but a few hopeless disciples\, how did it happen that his teachings have survived in such powerful form as to become Europe’s dominant religion? It is this very unlikelihood in apparently helpless beginnings that Vopěnka’s novel’s captures with such virtuosity\, freshness and originality. In so doing\, he poses many questions on the future of humanity\, redemption and hope. \n\nSponsored by
URL:https://slavic.ucla.edu/event/writing-a-way-out-of-communism/
LOCATION:348 Kaplan Hall\, 415 Portola Plaza\, Los Angeles\, CA\, 90095\, United States
END:VEVENT
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230420T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230420T173000
DTSTAMP:20230417T205330Z
CREATED:20230417T205330Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230417T205330Z
UID:7276-1682006400-1682011800@slavic.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Yes\, Russia is Still an Empire\, But This Won't Last Long
DESCRIPTION:Still from Chornobyl 22\, a documentary film by Oleksiy Radynski\, 2023. Camera: Max Savchenko. \nAbstract\nJoin Ukrainian filmmaker Oleksiy Radynski and art historian Asia Bazdyrieva as they expand the territory of decolonial discourse by examining Ukraine’s anti-imperial war against Russia. Analyzing Russia’s tactics of energy colonialism\, its neo-fascist regime\, and the complicity of the West’s failing capitalist models\, the presentation will expand the notion of the Russian Federation as a settler apparatus based on institutional racism and extractivist exploitation. The speakers will argue that the dissolution of the Russian Federation is a necessary element in the global fight against colonial and racist power structures. \nSpeakers\nAsia Bazdyrieva is an art historian whose work focuses on hybrid European-Soviet modernity and its ideological and material implications in spaces\, bodies\, and lands. Bazdyrieva co-authored Geocinema\, a collaborative project exploring infrastructures of earth sensing as a form of cinema\, which has been nominated for the Schering Stiftung Award for Artistic Research (2020) and the Golden Key Prize at the Kassel Dokfest (2021). She is currently an associate member of Critical Media Lab Basel and a resident of transmediale. [Portrait photograph of Asia Bazdyrieva by Support Your Art] \nOleksiy Radynski is a filmmaker based in Kyiv\, Ukraine. He was born in 1984 and raised on the ruins of a Documentary Film Studio in Kyiv. After studying film theory at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy\, he took part in several film education experiments including Home Workspace Program (Ashkal Alwan\, Beirut) and Labor in a Single Shot by Harun Farocki and Antje Ehmann. His films have been screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam\, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival\, e-flux (New York)\, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London)\, Krakow IFF\, DOK Leipzig\, DoсAviv\, Sheffield Doc Fest\, Docudays IFF\, S A V V Y Contemporary (Berlin)\, International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York)\, among other places\, and received a number of festival awards. As an essayist he contributed to publications including Proxy Politics: Power and Subversion in a Networked Age (Archive Books\, 2017)\, Art and Theory of Post-1989 Central and East Europe: A Critical Anthology (MoMA\, 2018)\, and e-flux journal. [Portrait photograph of Oleksiy Radynski by Anastasiya Mantach]\n \nModerator\nLaurie Kain Hart is Director of the Center for European and Russian Studies and a sociocultural anthropologist with a research focus on the long-term effects on persons and communities of ethnopolitical conflict\, civil war\, state engineered population displacements\, migration\, nationalism\, racism\, globalization\, and ethnospatial segregation. As a former architect\, she is particularly interested in theories of space and place that help us understand the impact of spatial\, architectural\, and geopolitical forces on social inequality and marginalization. Hart’s interest is in understanding the links between macro-social and political forces and individual subjectivity. She therefore works at the intersection of political anthropology\, space and place theory\, and medical-psychiatric anthropology. Hart is affiliated with UCLA Global Studies\, Center for Social Medicine and the Humanities at the UCLA Semel Institute\, and teaches courses on violence\, urban anthropology\, borders and migration\, globalization and culture\, the anthropology of space and home\, the anthropology of art and architecture\, and contemporary social theory. \nRecommended Reading\n\nNo Milk\, No Love by Asia Bazdyrieva\nThe Case Against the Russian Federation by Oleksiy Radynski\n\n  \nAbout Kyiv to LA\nKyiv to LA is a joint exhibition and residency project that supports Ukrainian arts at a time when Ukrainian sovereignty and culture are under attack. Organized by Marathon Screenings and independent curator Asha Bukojemsky\, the initiative invites six Ukrainian artists and art historians to participate in a Los Angeles based residency\, culminating in a public program of talks\, screenings\, listening sessions and presentations. The project marks a unique and timely collaboration with several LA-based organizations and institutions including 18th Street Arts Center; Institute of Contemporary Arts\, Los Angeles (ICA LA); GRI Scholars Program; Villa Aurora Thomas Mann House (VATMH); The Center for European and Russian Studies\, UCLA; The Fulcrum; and Art at the Rendon. Additional programming hosted by e-flux in New York. Kyiv to LA is made possible by a generous grant from Nora McNeely Hurley and Manitou Fund. \nVenue\n\nBunche Hall\, Room 10383 (10th floor)\nLos Angeles\, CA 90095 \nParking\nParking at UCLA requires a valid permit at all times. Campus parking is available 24-hours a day at varying prices. Nearest parking to the event venue is Parking Structure 2 (P2). P2 rates: $3.00 – $15.00 (1 hour – all day). Visit UCLA Visitor Parking for information about how to pay. \n\n  \n  \nRelated Document: 20230420-Radynski-Bazdyrieva-poster-ln-rxz.pdf
URL:https://slavic.ucla.edu/event/yes-russia-is-still-an-empire-but-this-wont-last-long/
LOCATION:10383 Bunche Hall\, 11282 Portola Plaza\, Los Angeles\, CA\, 90095\, United States
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230429T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20230429T160000
DTSTAMP:20230404T211601Z
CREATED:20230404T211601Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230404T211601Z
UID:7248-1682758800-1682784000@slavic.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Undergraduate Conference on Slavic & East/Central European Studies
DESCRIPTION:Click here for more information
URL:https://slavic.ucla.edu/event/undergraduate-conference-on-slavic-east-central-european-studies/
LOCATION:Online\, United States
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