The ABC of Exclamations
by Vera Burlak and Kastuś Žybul
Photo: Kunzi
Duration: 40 min
Comic drawings: Kastuś Žhybul
Poetry: Vera Burlak
Composition: Georgia Koumará
Animated film: Monika Nuber
The ABC of Exclamations ("Das ABC der Ausrufe") is an artistic interpretation of the Belarusian alphabet by poet Vera Burlak and her son Kastuś Žybul, who lives with autism. Together, they’ve found an emotional exclamation for each of the 34 letters and transformed these exclamations into 34 stories — featuring Kastuś’s fantastical comic drawings and Vera’s whimsical, funny, and enigmatic poems.
Stuttgart-based animation filmmaker Monika Nuber brings the comics to life in collaboration with Kastuś, while Georgia Koumará embeds the walk-in installation in a 40-minute sound narrative. The result is an impressive plea for imagination, freedom and mutual attention.
The ABC of Exclamations is therefore not just about emotional interjections. It is linked to considerations about the emotional sphere and its manifestations, about traditions of family upbringing, about communication between the generations and about how emotions manifest themselves in them. It is about the value system–one’s own and the public one.
Contributors
vera burlak
poet
Vera Burlak is a Belarusian writer, translator, and performer who actively takes part in literary and musical projects. She graduated from a music school and the Faculty of Philology at Belarusian State University, where she specialized in children’s poetry. Vera writes her literary works in Belarusian. In her poetry and short prose, she seeks to paradoxically combine naivety with irony, as well as rational-verbal and musical principles. Her poems and short stories have been translated into German, English, Czech, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Esperanto. Since 2023, Vera Burlak has been living with her family in Stuttgart.
georgia koumará
composer
Georgia Koumará is Greek composer based in Cologne. She studied music theory and composition in Thessaloniki with Michalis Lapidakis and in Cologne with Johannes Schöllhorn and Michael Beil. Georgia conveys her thoughts through sound, drawing, body gestures, unpredictability, and thick layers of noise. In her music, she is fascinated by exploring the relationships between conceptual, perceptible, and measurable time. She enjoys collaborating with others and incorporating improvisational elements into her works. The complexity of the human brain and existence captivates her.
kastuś žybul
Kastuś Žybul (*2005 in Minsk) completed his school education in Minsk (Belarus). His self-expression is closely tied to the visual arts. Since childhood, he has written fairy tales and poems, explored theatre, and created comic illustrations. He studied acting and participated in performances by the inclusive family theatre »i,« based in Minsk. Kastuś has autism, and the inclusive theatre studio provided him with the opportunity to step into the world of art and develop his creative talents. Kastuś now lives in Stuttgart.