#EmptyChairWeek: Campaign to commemorate artists killed in war commences in Ukraine

#EmptyChairWeek, an information campaign in memory of artists whose lives were taken by the full-scale war, has started in Ukraine. PEN Ukraine (a part of a worldwide association of writers, PEN International) has initiated it and urges everyone to join in on social media.

The world has been celebrating Empty Chairs Day on 15 November since the late 1980s on the initiative of PEN International. Empty chairs on this day symbolise authors who have gone missing or been imprisoned, persecuted, disappeared or killed.

PEN Ukraine has initiated a campaign dedicated to the Ukrainian artists killed by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the occasion of Empty Chairs Day this year. The campaign is titled #EmptyChairWeek and will last until 19 November.

The organisers urge everyone to join the week-long initiative by posting on their social media pages about Ukrainian writers, musicians, actors, historians, artists, linguists and other cultural figures whose lives ended after 24 February 2022. These posts should be accompanied by the hashtag #EmptyChairWeek.

"The purpose of the #EmptyChairWeek is to remember as many names of the deceased artists as possible and make them the widest possible known in public space. This is why your every post about both those you knew personally and those whose names you learned only after their death will prove of great value," the PEN Ukraine team says.

It has been announced that the campaign will bring together actress Rymma Ziubina; director and actor Akhtem Seitablaiev; journalist and TV presenter Myroslava Barchuk; journalist Vitalii Portnykov; journalist Olha Herasymiuk; Volodymyr Yermolenko, philosopher, writer and President of PEN Ukraine; poet Kateryna Kalytko; director and writer Iryna Tsilyk; writer Mariana Savka; writer Mariia Tytarenko and other cultural and media figures.

PEN Ukraine has been tracking losses among cultural figures since the beginning of the full-scale war. The information is gathered from reports in the media, being fully aware that the numbers may be higher.

PEN has compiled a list of 71 names of deceased Ukrainian artists as of 13 November 2023 (available here and here).

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