#EmptyChairWeek: an informational campaign in remembrance of the artists taken away by the war started in Ukraine

The campaign initiated by PEN Ukraine will last from 13 to 19 November: all the concerned are urged to join on the social media.

Upon the initiative of PEN International, 15 November is annually commemorated since the late 1980s as the Empty Chairs Day. This day, empty chairs on human rights events represent authors who cannot be with us due to their being imprisoned, persecuted, missing or murdered.

This year, PEN Ukraine coincides to the Empty Chairs Day with the #EmptyChairWeek – an informational campaign in remembrance of the artists whose lives were taken away by Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The campaign will last on the social media from 13 to 19 November.

The organizers call upon all the concerned to join the initiative during the week from 13 to 19 November by posting stories of Ukrainian writers, musicians, actors, historians, artists, linguists and other cultural activists whose lives were cut short after February 24, 2022, on the social media under the hashtag #EmptyChairWeek.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, PEN Ukraine has been tracking losses among cultural activists whose stories appear on the media. As of November 13, 2023, 71 name was collected: the stories of the artists who are no longer with us can be read here in the 2022 monitoring and here in that of 2023.

This is not an official monitoring: the team of PEN Ukraine is aware that there are much more artists deceased after February 24, 2022, than it is publicly known, and there’s no information about many of them.

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.

This year, actress Rymma Ziubina, filmmaker and actor Ahtem Seitablaiev, journalist and TV presenter Myroslava Barchuk, journalists Vitaly Portnikov and Olha Herasymyuk, writer, philosopher, president of PEN Ukraine Volodymyr Yermolenko, poet Kateryna Kalytko, filmmaker and writer Iryna Tsilyk, writers Maryana Savka and Mariia Tytarenko, and other cultural and media activists are going to join the commemorative campaign.