Dear friends,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the website of the 36th IBBY International Congress that will take place in Athens - UNESCO World Book Capital 2018.
It has been forty-two years since Athens hosted the 17th IBBY International Congress in 1976. Athens is a city that still breathes and creates under the shade of the Acropolis Hill and produces significant achievements in the world of contemporary art and culture, and next year this vibrant city will be your host for the 36th IBBY International Congress.
At the crossroad of cultures, Greece with its brilliant blue sea has always joined East and West together by providing stories, myths and legends about the people travelling on its breezy winds. They maintain their glory that we can still see mirrored in its perennial sunlight.
Wandering around Homer’s neighbourhoods and the ancient theatres, you will discover contemporary Greek books. We are looking forward to offering you the journey - a journey in time and space through stories, art and history.
Today, IBBY’s mission – more urgent than ever before – becomes the vehicle for studying the way stories and fairy tales mix, mingle and interact through different peoples’ visions. Understanding and good will among peoples, as well as equal opportunities for all children in the world can be attained only when books offer a bridge between different peoples and civilizations. This is the only way for the word “ξένος” (foreigner) to acquire its initial meaning again.
Join the 36th IBBY International Congress and seize the opportunity to discover Athens through its contemporary day-to-day life.
Vassiliki Nika
President – IBBY Greece