Practice of Open Group presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the artistic practice of Open Group, highlighting selected key works that define the collective’s conceptual approach, research methods, and long-term development.

The program includes a screening and critical examination of major projects, with particular focus on two works presented at the Venice Biennale: The Shadow of Dream* cast upon Giardini della Biennale, realized for the Pavilion of Ukraine in 2019, and Repeat After Me II, presented at the Polish Pavilion in 2024. These projects will be discussed in depth, addressing their thematic frameworks, spatial strategies, and broader socio-political contexts.

The permanent members of Open Group are (since 2019): Yuriy Biley (based in Wroclaw / Berlin), Pavlo Kovach (based in Lviv), and Anton Varga (based in New York).

Placing the notion of “collective work” at the core of their practice, the group has operated through collaborative projects involving people from diverse fields over specific periods of time. Their works are often structured as what they term “open situations”―experimental explorations of the interaction between people and particular spaces. As both visual artists and curators, the trio continues to investigate the dynamics of contemporary visual culture through an experimental lens. Their practice deeply engages with socio-political realities of the present, transforming the intersection of personal experience and pressing global issues into a variety of visual forms.

Group members have been running independent art spaces, such as Detenpyla Gallery (since 2011) or Еfremova26 Gallery (2013-2014) in Lviv, Ukraine.

Open Group won the Special Distinction of the PinchukArtCentre Prize in 2013, and the Main Prize in 2015. Their works were featured at the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale. In 2016, the Open Group curated the show entitled “Dependence Degree, Collective Practices of Young Ukrainian Artists 2000-2016” (Wrocław, Poland). In 2017, the group’s work was presented in frames of the Future Generation Art Prize@Venice 2017 (collateral events of the 57th Venice Biennale). In 2019, the Open Group was the curator of the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 58th La Biennale di Venezia. In 2024, the Open Group will represent Poland at the 60th Venice Biennale with the project “Repeat after me II”.

Open Group works have been exhibited in several institutions like: High Line, New York, USA; Bozar, Brussel, Belgium; Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland; Serlachius, Mänttä, Finland; Salzgasse Albertinum in Dresden, Germany; 8th Yokohama Triennale, Japan; Ludwig Museum Budapest, Hungary; Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, Germany; National Art Museum Kyiv, Ukraine; Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle, Netherlands; Belvedere 21 Museum of Contemporary Art in Wien, Austria; Labirynt gallery Lublin, Poland; Miguel Abreu Gallery in New York, USA; PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, Ukraine; Jam Factory Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine; 4th Autostrada Biennale Prizren, Kosovo; The School of Kyiv – Kyiv Biennial, Ukraine; ARS AEVI the Museum of contemporary art in Sarajevo, amongst others.

Guest Lectures: Open Group