Kyiv-based club Closer has published a list of foreign electronic musicians, some of whom also played at their club in different years, but performed in russia during the full-scale war. Thus, the team draws attention to the problem of normalizing performances of international artists in a country that is waging a war against Ukraine, and also calls on the world media to spread the idea of ‘staying away from russian commercial events’.
The Closer team accompanied their post with photos of Ukrainians who managed to be returned from captivity and the caption: ‘Thousands of Ukrainians are now visiting russia only as prisoners of war’
The following slides show photographs of some of the foreign artists who came to perform in russia of their own volition, as well as a general list of those who performed there during the full-scale war.
The statement says that since February 24, 2022, almost 100 electronic musicians and producers have come to russia to perform, 16 of them have previously performed at Closer. Among them are Maayam Nidam, Magda, Alexis Cabrera, GFRND, Paul K, Sub Terra and HD Substance.
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Full text of the statement:
‘Thousands of Ukrainians are now visiting russia only as prisoners of war, who are not treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions; they are starved and tortured.
International organizations are not allowed to enter the cities where prisoners are held. As we approach the third consecutive birthday of our terrace [Lisnyi Prychal] during the war, almost a hundred artists have visited russia as well. Sixteen of them performed at Closer. Such performances in russia normalize life there and the overall situation, and they do not contribute to ending the war. Therefore, we are committed to boycotting everything russian until the war ends.
There may be many opinions and various reasons, and we can assume that the intentions behind this are most likely good.
However, one fact is indisputable: as soon as your name appears on the poster of any russian commercial event, it directly supports the state and its policies, even if you personally do not support them (hopefully). This not only seems wrong, but also hurts thousands of your fans, especially Ukrainians, including those fighting on the front lines. They, and we, would be grateful if artists refrained from supporting the russian state by agreeing to perform there.
We are calling on all media to support us in our struggle and spread the idea of staying away from russian commercial measures. The list of names of all international artists who performed in russia during the war is devastating’.
In March 2022, representatives of the Ukrainian electronic music scene in an open letter appealed to the world cultural and musical communities to ‘act together against russian aggression’.
They called to cancel any cooperation with russian artists, promoters, clubs and organizations that do not actively resist the actions of their government. More details — in our article.
