Installation “Empty Beds”

“Empty Beds” is an immersive installation that brings visitors closer to the human reality of the war in Ukraine.Created as a hyper-realistic reconstruction of a deported Ukrainian child’s bedroom, the installation transforms statistics into a personal experience. More than twenty thousand Ukrainian children have been illegally taken from their homes, and behind every number is a family waiting, a room left untouched, and a future interrupted.

The installation recreates a child’s room at a 1:1 scale, allowing visitors to step into a space filled with silence, memory, and absence. Through everyday objects, photographs, and personal details, the exhibition invites viewers to understand what it means to lose home, childhood, and the right to grow up in one’s own country. “Empty Beds” was created by the charitable organisation Bird of Light Ukraine to raise international awareness about the deportation of Ukrainian children and to turn a global statistic into a physical reality that cannot be ignored.

The installation is presented within the framework of Advocacy Coalition — Defending Our Future Now, an international project uniting embassies, institutions, and civil society to strengthen solidarity with Ukraine and to defend shared democratic values. Through exhibitions, discussions, and public events, the project seeks to make the human dimension of the war visible, personal, and impossible to overlook.

The deportation of Ukrainian children is not only a humanitarian tragedy. It is an attempt to destroy identity, memory, and the future of a nation. By entering the space of this room, visitors are invited not only to observe, but to reflect, to feel, and to act. Awareness leads to responsibility. Responsibility leads to action.

The installation was created by Bird of Light Ukraine and presented as part of the Advocacy Coalition project, in cooperation with diplomatic and institutional partners.