The action was initiated by Iryna Herasimovich and Lukas Bärfuss and realised by Iryna Herasimovich and Sylvia Sasse.
Iryna Herasimovich is a freelance translator and literary scholar. She has translated texts by Lukas Bärfuss, Georg Büchner, Monika Rinck, Nora Gomringer, Mehdi Moradpour, Jonas Lüscher, Michael Köhlmeier, Franz Hohler and Franz Kafka into Belarusian. She also works as a dramaturge and curator in the field of visual arts and is a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry. Since 2021 she has been a doctoral candidate at the Slavic Department of the University of Zurich in the SNF project "Arts & Disinformation".
Sylvia Sasse is Professor of Slavic Literary Studies at the University of Zurich. She is co-founder of the Centre for Arts and Cultural Theory (ZKK), co-editor of novinki and Geschichte der Gegenwart. Most recently published: Artists & Agents. Performance Art and Secret Services, Leipzig: spector 2019 (with Kata Krasznahorkai), Verkkehrungen ins Gegenteil. Über Subversion als Machttechnik, Berlin: Matthes & Seitz 2023, to be published in autumn: Subversive Affirmation. Kritik der Kritik revisited, Zurich, Berlin: diaphanes 2023.
Lukas Bärfuss is a playwright and novelist, essayist. His plays are performed worldwide, his novels have been translated into twenty languages. Lukas Bärfuss is a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry and lives in Zurich. Awards among others: Berlin Literature Prize (2013), Swiss Book Prize (for Koala, 2014), Nicolas Born Prize (2015). With Hagard he was shortlisted for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2017. In 2019, Lukas Bärfuss was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize. Most recently published: Die Krume Brot. Novel, Hamburg: Rowohlt 2023.
Nanina Graf and Lya Steiger are also working on the project as student assistants.
The project is supported by the Slavic Department of the University of Zurich and the Goethe Institute in Exile as part of the country focus on Belarus.