PROGRAM OF THE 4th BLOCK FESTIVAL

From 20 to 28 April the International Festival of Environmental Poster The 4th Block invites you to visit its design exhibition projects, hackathon dedicated to ecological and social interaction with the city, kids' program, lectures and workshops with world design stars, concerts and theatre performances. The goal of the project is to encourage every person to find an answer to the question: "What exactly can I do for my planet and for my city?"

The theme of the jubilee triennial is "Women's View: Call to Action", and the main nominations are: Action: Peace, Action: Love and Action: Hope. The main program of the triennial will also include the events of the partner project Dantefest.

The admission to all The 4th Block events is free. The only exception is the concert of the La Scala choir singers in KhNATOB: the raised funds will go to charity project "Flying House". One can help the project by making their own contribution at Big Idea page.

The opening of the festival will be held on April 20 at 18:00 in centre of contemporary artYermilov Center. Throughout the week you'll be able to check out the main exhibition of the triennial there. The exhibition consists of more than 800 posters created by designers from 36 countries. Exhibition-satellite "Action: Voice" will also be held there: it will be an attempt to fix the history of the city in posters. This mini-project consists of posters that were created not by designers, but by the participants of protests and public rallies of recent years.

The 4-th Block festivalfor almost 30 years has been trying to change people's attitude to the world around and them.The largest festival of such kind in Ukraine and one of the major poster and graphic design festivals in Eastern Europe, it draws the attention of both Ukrainian and world design community to eco-problems. Ecology is interpreted in its broadest sense here: it is seen not only as problems of nature and environment, but also as questions of ecology of conscience and the coexistence of people.

For the first time in the history of the triennial, the international jury will consist exclusively of women. The members of jury are designers Alice Twemlow (Great Britain), ParisaTashakori (Iran/USA), Paula Troxler (Switzerland), Maja Wolna (Poland), TatyanaBorzunova (Ukraine).

"Each triennial brings up to the surface the environmental and social topics that were especially acute in the previous three years," says co-organizer of the triennial, co-founder of Grafprom design studio, Maria Norazyan. "This time we cannot ignore the fact that the world is going through a new stage of "women's insurrection": we, women, are fighting for actual equality, not for declarative one, and we cease to be silent even about the topics that remained taboo during the first waves of emancipation.Therefore, the theme is "Women's View: Call to Action."

The organizers are convinced: women's view is active. It always calls for action. They joke that they wanted to name the nominations "Close the Tap!", "Take the Garbage Away!""and "Feed the Cat!".There are many simple things that you can actually do to help the planet and the place where you live. All the festival events of this year are not a "contemplation", but a joint action," says co-organizer of the triennial Ilya Pavlov. – One of the most "effective" events will be the hackathon, which we half-jokingly call "How to survive in Kharkiv":IT, design and communication specialists will come together to draw attention to a number of issues of people's interaction with their city." Hackathon will be held on April 21-22 at Kharkiv School of Architecture(5 Kontorskaya St.).

The founder of the festival, professor Oleg Veklenko, says that one of the most significant events of this year's triennial for him is acomprehensive children's program: "When we started this project with our colleagues almost 30 years ago, it was our contribution to the universal attempt to preserve the world after the Chernobyl disaster for our children.Today, children born in those years already have children of their own, the world still exists, but the number of challenges in it has not declined. And what we must learn is not just to "level the consequences" of disasters, but to teach children how to prevent these catastrophes. We need to teach them to co-exist with the world in harmony and to know that it is very unstable and vulnerable," says professor Veklenko, who himself was one of the liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster 30 years ago.

Helping children is one of the priorities and partners of The 4th Block, public organization "Emmaus" and centreof European culture "Dante", the organizers of Dantefest 2018 (its events have actually become the "Italian program" of the triennial).

The mentioned earlier charity concert is the performance by choir singers of one of the world's premier opera houses, Milan's La Scala (April 25).The goal of the concert is to raise funds for children from the "Flying House".

In co-operation with Dantefest, on April 24, center for contemporary art Yermilov Center will become achildren's creative platformwith a laboratory of creative journalism, cardboard theatre stories made by children and a workshop with children's architecture school.

On the same day, at 18:30 in the V. N. KarazinKharkiv National University (Northern building, Assembly hall) Italian journalist Marina Ricci will present the book "Govindo, Mother Teresa's Gift", about adoption of an Indian boy with a disability.

"The admission to all events of the festival is free," the organizers note, "in order to maximize the spread of ideas and create effective community with ecological conscience. But the project is voluntary, therefore, despite the help of partners, we still need additional funds for flight tickets for the jury, printing a catalog and organizing the work of children's area. That is why for the first time we have launched a fund-raising campaign – everyone can help The 4th Block triennial on "Спільнокошт" page."

You can track the events of the festivalon The 4th Block Facebook page and on the project's website. See the full program below.

Organizers of the festival are the Association of Graphic Designers The 4th Block and the Center of European Culture "Dante".

Partners: ChornobylʹsʹkaIstorychnaMaysternya, Велопланета, DataArt, Grafprom, Yermilov Center, Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Art, Kharkov School of Architecture, PR Agency "Bagels & Letters", Hotel 19, Chichikov Hotel, Come In Gallery, Kokava Cafe, wine bar "Loza-Strekoza", art-cafe gallery "Ampersand", City cafe "1654", + OBJECT, Bavaria Motors, KulturaZvuka, Red Bull, Bits, Вихід, Прихистипакет, Chernobyl Tour, Pub Sherlock Holmes.

Organizers of the hackathon: DataArt, Grafprom, Gwara Media, Kharkiv School of Architecture.

Full version of the festival program is available here.