Michel Marc Bouchard heard from Anetta, his Ukrainian editor. The room Tom at the farm by the Quebec playwright had been translated, published and performed in three cities across the country: Kiev, Lviv and Dnipro in 2017, with links forged. The lady sent him a photo of stacked boxes filled with books that had become sandbags and derisory defenses against bullets in the windows of her office in Kiev.
He also reminded me of the writer Lev (for security reasons, I will only give first names here) who put his own bookcase in front of the window, protection and symbol of resistance in a consensual auto-da-fé. These siege scenes described by the author of Swirls conjured up images of a country where threatened words bear witness to the destruction of humanity as much as the dead. Everyone opposes the bombs with what they hold most precious. His life sometimes works.
Five years ago, to accompany his play there, Michel Marc Bouchard made a trip to Ukraine. He thinks of Oksana again, snuggled up in the arms of her Russian lover. The latter drove them across the country to the airport, telling them about the history and the unalterable relationship between Ukraine and Russia.
Verses of Prévert came back to me: “Oh Barbara / What bullshit the war / What has become of you now / Under this rain of iron / Of steel fire, of blood / And the one who held you in his arms / Lovingly / Is he dead disappeared or still alive. »
On his Facebook page, translated into Ukrainian and shared there by dozens of friends, the man of the theater paid tribute at the start of Putin’s invasion to those who had become close friends. “When you meet a Ukrainian, I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but he will be your friend forever. And to evoke the interpreters, the journalists, the directors, the gallery owners, the translators, the directors of festivals and others, appreciated, never forgotten, now besieged.
art brings closer
This week, the playwright sent via social media a bottle overboard to a dozen artists, journalists or personalities from the Ukrainian cultural scene. Questioning them about their life, the culture of war, the future of art so fragile at the time of the bombardments. All responded. “They need us to talk about them,” Michel Marc Bouchard told me on the phone. So let’s go!
Through all of their testimonies, he felt the breath of resilience passing through, while seeing a strange and poignant feeling of affirmation spring up here and there. “Finally, humanity knows Ukraine. She learns the names of our cities. We will no longer be perceived as a province of Russia”, launched in substance several of them. He relayed their replies to me.
Art is still alive on the battlefront. He lives, suffers, testifies, laughs and challenges the invader. The young artist Kateryna reproduces Renaissance paintings linked to the photos of the current conflict. Often humorous videos, which go viral on the Web, help the population to keep their spirits up, if possible.
Voices describe the evacuation to a safe place of museum collections, including those of the National Museum of Ukraine in Lviv. But that of Ivankiv, dedicated to local traditions, was burned down. Among other things, it housed 230 paintings by Maria Primachenko (1908-1997), a naive painter renowned for her colorful paintings combining humor and surrealism. Villagers managed to get paintings and hard disks out of there, hidden in their houses. It remains to see the list of what was saved and lost.
Many historic buildings, including many churches, were bombed, theaters destroyed, but residents of many cities wrapped church windows and pieces of public art for protection. The head of the Lviv Cultural Forum today coordinates the welding of anti-tank structures, sculptures of the hour. Creators become editors or graphic designers in their information war on the Internet. Others design posters.
Russia has been an imperialist cultural power, appropriating Ukrainian artists. They want to be recognized at their fair value in their history and their modernity. Bohdan, a friend of Michel Marc Bouchard, appeals to foreign sympathizers. Get to know Ukrainian culture: its books, films, paintings, music, graphics.
“The war that will remain with us forever is also a challenge, an incentive, and as frightening as it may seem, the opportunity to give birth to exceptional works”, adds theater critic Irina with the courage of hope. . Because one of the keys to Ukrainian resilience is the fight for its culture. In front of the tanks, we can hear him shouting: here I am!