The City of Lviv is the Guest of Honour of the 2026 Gdańsk Book Fair. In addition to preparing its own stand, Lviv has been invited to curate a special programme of events focusing on contemporary Ukrainian literature and literary projects developed in the city.

On 12 September at 11:00 a.m., we invite you to the Archive Reading Room for the presentation “The Book of Dreaming: How Listening to Children Can Help Us Change the World.”

The event will present the international project The Book of Dreaming – an artistic initiative that supports integration, social inclusion, and transformations of urban space through work with children and the creation of books. The project combines the presentation of child-centred practices, the exchange of professional experience, and the public presentation of its outcomes in the form of books-as-artifacts. It demonstrates how attentive listening to children’s voices can help shape more open and inclusive urban communities.

The project will be presented by Magdalena Basak and Mariana Zagoruiko.

Magdalena Basak – cultural studies specialist, curator, and expert in the communication of art and artistic events. She works on artistic projects with Art Transparent and contributes to programme development at Towarzystwo Aktywnej Komunikacji. She has also collaborated with, among others, Krupa Art Foundation, the Pan Tadeusz Museum, the Ossoliński National Institute, Capitol Musical Theatre, and Długa 35 (Gdańsk City Gallery). She co-created, together with M. Bieniek, the year-long exhibition “Klinika wspólnych wyobrażeń” [“Clinic of Shared Imaginations”], and, together with K. Młyńczyk-Sachs, the group exhibition “Nie ma czego się bać” [“There Is Nothing to Be Afraid Of”], presented during the international ImpactCEE congress in May 2025. She curated exhibitions by Katarzyna Pietruska, “patrz, patrz aż znikniesz w patrzeniu” [“look, look until you disappear in looking”], and Emose Uhunmwangho, “Moje” [“Mine”], presented at Capitol in Wrocław in June 2025. She is the initiator of the project “Opowiedz mi Polskę” [“Tell Me Poland”]. Her writing has appeared in, among others, Newsweek, Onet, and Pismo Artystyczne Format.

Mariana Zagoruiko – cultural studies specialist and project manager in the field of culture. From 2013 to 2019, she worked at the Culture Department of Lviv City Council, where she organised and coordinated events and supervised municipal grant programmes in the cultural sector. Since 2019, she has worked as a project manager at the Lviv – UNESCO City of Literature office, which she has headed since 2023.