Visual Stories from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine
a project funded by EU Creative Europe Cooperation Grants
In the framework of the EU Creative Europe Programme a consortium of partners from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine are implementing a comics genre development project Visual Stories from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine. The final product of the project will be a comic book with stories by three women writers, one from each country, outlining the women’s perspective on war, their role in it and its impact on their lives.
The Ukrainian writer involved in the project is Vira Kuryko (Ukraine).
Following an competition, an illustrator was selected to join the project and work in tandem with Vira Kuryko.
It is Sofia Pokorchak.
Vira Kuryko [Ukraine]
Vira Kuryko is a Ukrainian journalist, reporter and writer.
She has penned a collection of stories, including “The Street of Those Involved. The File on Lukianenko from Chernihiv”, a historical non-fiction for children “Mazepa. Rights to the Sabre”, and a non-fiction book titled “Healthy Person’s Reform”.
She has been nominated for the BBC-2020 Book of the Year literary prize, is an awardee of the prize LitAccent of the Year 2020, winner of the contest Chest’ Profesiyi 2020 (Honor of the Profession) in a nomination Reportage.
She is the author of several reportages in the joint book-collection of Reporters authors — 77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine.
In 2022, she worked as a documentarian on The Reckoning Project: Ukraine Testifies to document Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
She is the author of a reportage about the first bombing of a residential area in Chernihiv, which was included in the book “The Most Frightening Days of My Life”.
Sofia Pokorchak [Ukraine]
Sofia Pokorchak is an artist and illustrator from Lviv.
After graduating from the College of Decorative and Applied Arts after I. Trush, she received a bachelor’s degree from the Lviv National Academy of Arts, Faculty of Design.
After that, she studied animation, design, and multimedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. While studying, she started creating her own comics.
She worked in graphic design and illustration, from magazine and advertising illustrations to children’s book graphics.
In 2021, she began working in the field of fashion design as a printmaker, and in 2023, she started working with 2D frame-by-frame animation, which she has been doing ever since.
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The consortium partners implementing the project are:
ARI Literature Foundation (ARI) — is a non-governmental organization which aims to contribute to the development of the Armenian book market, promotion of writing and reading in Armenia as well as representation of Armenian literature and culture globally. Major goal of ARI Literature Foundation is to build multicultural dialogues to enhance the role of literature in the regional context, making Armenia an active partner in shaping literary platforms for cooperation․ ARI Literature Foundation has an extensive experience and excellent record of success stories in implementing international and local projects in cooperation with US Embassy in Armenia, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Goethe Institute, EU Delegation in Armenia, including EU funded projects.
Literature Initiative Georgia (LIG) — is an NGO with goals to enhance intercultural dialogue and development of literary and cultural relations, develop the literary process in Georgia, implement initiatives and projects to strengthen the freedom of speech and expression, organize discussion platforms for representatives of the literary and artistic fields. LIG has worked with such partners as Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Goethe Institute and others.
Komora Publishing House (Ukraine) was established in 2013. The motto of the publishing house is «Only what remains», which reflects Komora’s policy and business strategy: publishing high-quality printed books, meant for personal libraries and several generations of readers. After ten years of work, the catalog of Komora includes over 90 books. Komora specializes in Ukrainian and world fiction and non-fiction, both classical and contemporary, trying to introduce Ukrainian audiences to attention-worthy (and also not widely promoted) names, events and trends, thus contributing to the growth of national reading standards. Komora actively works on projects, essential for a modern intellectual.
Drawing the Times is a platform where committed graphic journalists and cartoonists worldwide publish work that informs, entertains, engages and challenges readers on global issues and local stories. They can be background stories in comic form, reportages, live sketches, infographics, cartoons and more. With a diversity of perspectives and personal styles, Drawing the Times shows what graphic journalism can accomplish.
The project is supported by partner organization in partner countries and around the world:
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union can’t be held responsible for them.