Dilemma Mobile Academy in Ukraine

What does it mean to return? In November, writers, artists, researchers and activists from Central Europe, the Caucasus and the Balkans will meet in Ukraine to explore this question together. We will begin with the Odyssey and follow the idea of return into our own lives, histories and present dilemmas.

Can return be a countercultural story? Can it challenge the demand to keep moving forward, to leave places, people and unfinished questions behind? What do we hope to recover when we return, and what are we prepared to change? Who can return, who cannot, and who decides whether a return is still possible? These questions sound different when asked by someone who has left, someone who has stayed, or someone whose home is under occupation.

For Dilemma, the place where we meet changes the conversation. Coming to Ukraine means asking these questions with people for whom they carry immediate consequences. It also means bringing experiences from our regions into a conversation whose terms we want to work out together, through literature, art and historical inquiry.

In Uzhhorod, "Dilemma" will take part in the "ReOpen Zakarpattia" forum. In Lviv, the program will feature a public lecture, panel discussions and a film screening as part of "Dilemma Cinema"; it is being organized in collaboration with the Centre for Urban History, INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange, the City Museum and the Department of Culture of Lviv City Council. "Café Europa", our travelling literary café, will take place as part of the "Land of Poets" festival and will provide an opportunity to come together through poetry, music and conversation.

Alongside these public events, Academy sessions will be held at the Centre for Urban History. Each participant will contribute their voice, their perspective, and a question that is important to them. As always, the program will involve the creation of texts, translations and audiovisual materials, which will be made available to a wider audience via media platforms, extending the dialogue beyond the Academy itself.

Program highlights

8 November, 18:00 | Café Europa at the Zemlia Poetiv (Land of Poets) Festival

• On the Borderland of Our Dreams: An Intimate Evening of Songs, Meaning and Wine
  An evening of poetry, music and conversation featuring writers and artists from Ukraine, Poland, Georgia and Romania. Hosted by Mariana Savka and Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz.

9 November, 18:30 | Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, 6 Akademika Bohomoltsia Street

• The Dilemma of Return | A public discussion on return, belonging and the meaning of home in times of displacement, historical rupture and political change, with Arsen Kharatyan (Armenia), Krzysztof Czyżewski (Poland), Zaal Andronikashvili (Georgia), Viktoras Bachmetjevas (Lithuania) and Sasha Dovzhyk (Ukraine). Moderated by Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz.

10 November

• 16:00–17:30 | Art Library, 8 Shota Rustaveli Street

  Krzysztof Czyżewski: The Odyssey of a New Counterculture | An open lecture for cultural professionals exploring the role of culture and independent thought in times of transformation.

•  18:30 | Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, 6 Akademika Bohomoltsia Street

  Small Centres of the World: Performative Readings and Discussion | An introduction to the Small Centres of the World network, exploring the cultural potential of small towns and local communities and how local knowledge can reshape wider cultural conversations.

11 November, 19:00 | City Museum, 1 Rynok Square

• The Orchestra (2026) | A film screening dedicated to the Borderland Klezmer Orchestra, followed by a conversation about musical traditions, cultural memory and the transmission of heritage.

Dilemma is an international intellectual and artistic initiative bringing together writers, philosophers, scholars, artists and cultural practitioners from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Initiated by the Borderland Foundation in Poland and developed in partnership with organizations across the region, the Academy creates spaces for sustained exchange between different intellectual traditions, historical experiences and cultural contexts.

Dilemma began with a simple but ambitious idea: to create a space where people could think together without knowing in advance where a conversation might lead. Rather than offering ready-made answers or seeking easy consensus, the Academy encourages critical reflection, attentive listening, disagreement and shared inquiry. Its mobile format is central to this approach: each gathering takes place in a different local context, allowing the place itself — its history, people and present-day challenges — to shape the questions being explored.

At a time of profound political and social transformation in Europe, Dilemma asks what culture can do: how it enables us to understand our place in history, engage with experiences different from our own and take responsibility for the world we share.