CosmoKvartirnik No. 11 with Taya Naidenko
Humour as Ukraine’s National Strategy
How has a country that Western democracies gave “two or three weeks” back in 2022 somehow managed to survive for a fifth year?Taya argues that it is partly thanks to a paradoxical strategy: the worse things get, the more we laugh. Humour, after all, is a strategy of the quick-witted and the brave.
Which jokes are traditional, and which emerged specifically during this war? What do soldiers and civilians laugh about, and where is the line between them? Are there jokes that are simply unacceptable? Or can even the darkest joke find its own place, time and audience?And why has the idea of “at least we can have a laugh” itself become a politically divisive issue?
CosmoKvartirnik No. 10
with Suji Kwock Kim
After War, in the Midst of War
We are delighted to welcome Suji Kwock Kim to Odessa as the Cosmopolis's first Polyglot Literary Resident. Suji is an award-winning poet and playwright, winner of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow in poetry.
On 1 October Suji will read from and talk about her work. The conversation will be moderated by Maya Dimerli.
CosmoKvartirnik No. 9 with Sergey Anufriev
Odessa’s Photonic Civilization...
The architecture and urban planning of Odessa were shaped by the ideas of the Enlightenment.
The city became a major centre of science and medicine, contributing to the development of bacteriology, sanatorium medicine, emergency medical care and psychoanalysis. In 1893, Yosyp Tymchenko created a device that anticipated the invention of cinema.
Odessa was also a birthplace of ideas associated with cosmism and aviation, as well as artistic traditions ranging from the avant-garde and nonconformism to conceptualism.
Yet much of this legacy, with the exception of the work of George Gamow, has still not received adequate academic attention.
We invite you to explore this unique cultural context.
The lecture will be given by Sergey Anufriev — artist, philosopher and writer.
The event will also feature an exhibition of works by contemporary artists exploring new directions in art and reflecting the development of current artistic tendencies.
Ukrainian Cosmopolis is going to Chișinău!
From 18 to 21 September, the Ukrainian Cosmopolis team and a group of Odesa writers and cultural figures will travel to Chișinău to take part in the 11th Odesa International Literature Festival, held as part of the CHILL Festival.
The Odesa programme is being organised by Maya Dimerli, Head of the Odesa UNESCO City of Literature Office, together with the festival’s founder and Ukrainian Cosmopolis member Ulrich Schreiber.
The Odesa delegation will include writer, playwright and volunteer Taya Naydenko, poet Vladyslava Ilinska, young poet Mykhailo Kutsak, Olena Ilyasova, Director of the Odesa Bleschunov Municipal Museum of Personal Collections, and artist Maria Apryatova.
They will be joined by Suji Kwock Kim, the first participant in the UNESCO–Cosmopolis Polyglot Literary Residency, who is spending a month in Odesa working on a new book.
In Chișinău, we will talk about contemporary Odesa and its literature, poetry and the experience of war, cultural memory, humour, home and displacement. We will present projects developed by Odesa writers and cultural institutions and continue building connections between Odesa and international literary communities.
CosmoKvartirnik No. 8 with Nick Sturdee
The Difficulties of Truth: War in Western Media
Why does the war Odessans live through so often look different from the war we see in Western media? What makes the news, what remains outside the frame, and why?
At our next CosmoKvartirnik, Nick Sturdee — British documentary filmmaker and writer, participant in our 2026 International Residency, and journalist with more than twenty years of experience working with the BBC and Channel 4 — will discuss how war journalism is changing in the digital age: editorial decisions, media economics, the struggle for audience attention, and the temptation to turn complex realities into simple moral narratives.
An insider’s perspective on the profession, followed by an open discussion.
CosmoKvartirnik No. 7 with Viktoriia Korytnianska
People have always written a great deal in Odessa. The atmosphere of this remarkable city by the sea seemed almost to demand that it be captured on paper. The German-Romanian occupation of Odessa in 1941–1944 was no exception.
Who was writing in occupied Odessa? What did they write about? And what happened to these authors after the city was retaken by Soviet forces?
We will explore these questions at our seventh Kvartirnik with Viktoriia Korytnianska, a Ukrainian Cosmopolis Fellow.
Kvartirnik №6 with Marina Didenko
Marina Didenko is a writer from Kharkiv and a Cosmopolis 2026 Fellow. Her ruthless, absurdist prose captures everyday life during the war. She looks her fears in the eye and catches every monster right at the scene of the crime.
The ironic prose of Odessa writer Taya Naidenko works differently: almost nothing is stated directly, and the reader is left to infer the most frightening things.
What connects these two writers, each deeply shaped by her native city? And what connects Kharkiv and Odessa today, two cities that have become frontiers?
Kvartirnik №5
with Vadym Menzhulin. The Autobiographical Verdict
Join us for a conversation about biography, memory, and what happens when people increasingly fail to recognise themselves in the public narrative of the past.
The discussion will bring together philosophers Vadym Menzhulin, a Civic Courage Fellow, and Inna Holubovych, both of whom study biography and memory, alongside anthropologist Anastasia Piliavsky and psychologist Georgiy Khubyan.
After the discussion, join us for a rooftop music jam featuring Vadym Menzhulin and the band Zira.
Kvartirnik №4 with Mykyta Lyskov: Screening and Discussion of Animated Films
Meet Mykyta Lyskov, a recipient of our Ukrainian Civic Courage Fellowships. An animation filmmaker, author of the award-winning short films Love and Kyiv Cake, and member of the Ukrainian Film Academy, he lives in Dnipro and teaches animation directing at Dnipro Art College.
During the evening, Mykyta will screen his latest animated films and talk about the state of Ukrainian animation and contemporary film education in Ukraine.
Kvartirnik №2: Honest Grants II
We continue our conversation about grants without conformity. At the first Cosmo Salon, we discussed why grants matter, how to stop fearing or despising them, and how to use them not to fit someone else’s agenda, but to support independent creative work. This time, we move to practice.
Cosmo Kino Fest
A one-day documentary film festival, featuring “Pryvoz” by Eva Neymann, “Trust or Rust” by Andrii Kashpur and Dmytro Khopta, “Kherson: Human Safari”, by Zarina Zabrisky and Gar O'Rourke's Oscar-nominated Sanatorium.
Fault Lines
A tribute-exhibition to the late award-winning French photographer Matthieu Chazal (1975–2024), in collaboration with Galerie Hegoa, Paris.