20 diaries were selected for the project “Another Day: War Diaries”

Chytomo has selected 20 diary projects for the online exhibition they are realising within IZOLYATSIA foundation project #ZMINA_2_0 financed by the European Union*. 

Overall, there were 66 projects submitted. 

People had 10 days to submit their works: from August 10 to August 20. The authors had sent their diary entries with their war experience in various formats, from poems and social media posts to zines and photo collages.  

The geography of the project covered every corner of Ukraine, including also the temporarily occupied territories and a dozen of foreign cities that sheltered the refugees from our country.

Initially, we planned to select 17 projects. But we were so impressed with all the applications that we just had to increase the number of projects selected for the exhibition up to 20. Those are people of different experience. For some this format of self-expression is a common art practice, for others this was their first try. For most of them those diaries were the means of getting their voices and identities back, it was an attempt to pinpoint themselves in the space, to save themselves from becoming a mere object among the wilderness of the war. 

As expected, for most of the applicants this was an attempt of reflection, sort of a therapy that helps to live through war experience. And we will keep studying this topic in our articles that will complement the exhibition,” comments the coordinator of the project Victoria Feshchuk.

Evaluation criteria were: integrity, sequence of presentation, time stamps, military context. 

Thus, the winners are:

• *** Victoria (Kherson): collage
• Astasieva Olena (Kherson): written journal
• Bachynska Olesia (Warsaw, Poland): zine
• Voitsekhivska Oleksandra  (Lviv-Katowice, Poland-Lviv): Twitter-channel
• Vrotna Yuliia (Kamianets-Podilskyi): photo, poetry
• Hladun Daryna (Bucha-Makalevychi-Khmelnytskyi-borderzone-Poland):  paintings
• Zakharchenk Olena (Kyiv-Rivne-Kyiv): Facebook posts
• Kasianchuk Maksym (Mariupol): written journal
• Kysla Ania (Kherson): photo
• Kozak Antonina (Dnipro): Telegram-channel
• Kupriian Dmytro (Debaltseve- Stanytsia Luhanska-Shchastia-Pisky-Sloviansk): zine
• Malyha Yand (Nova Kakhovka-Ivano-Frankivsk-Bakosh): texts, visual
• Mitrov Ihor Ігор (Donetsk region): video
• Naumenko Mila (Gdansk, Poland): drawings
• Savranska Nataliia (Ivano-Frankivsk-Brovary): drawings
• Semenova Antonina (Boyarka): sketches
• Syvyi Oleksii (Kharkiv): texts
• Skliarova Mariia (Kharkiv-Poltava): digital illustrations
• Tikhonova Mariia (Drohobych): collage, notes
• Yutchenko Anna (Lviv): photo collage

Apart from the projects selected within the open-call, a special curator’s group consisting of Chytomo editorial and invited experts will select another 14 diaries from open sources. Those projects will also become part of the online exhibition.  

The diaries will be displayed on Chytomo’s website till late September-early October this year.

Also read: “To record” the war: statements of Ukrainians are to be read all over the world