With special funds from the German Foreign Federal Office, the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program supports two projects with Ukrainian Artists at this years’ 60^th Art Biennale in Venice which opens on April 20^th, 2024.

This year the Polish Pavilion in Venice invited the Ukrainian Open Group collective to present the video installation Repeat after Me II.

Repeat after Me II is a video portrait of witnesses to the ongoing war in Ukraine by the Open Group collective (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga), curated by Marta Czyż. The Polish Pavilion, organized by Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, is hosting the video installation of two films, which were created in 2022 and 2024. The juxtaposition of these works shows the drastic continuity of memory, as well as the changes in war technology. The first video was filmed in a camp near Lviv for people resettled within the country. The second was made outside of Ukraine, in several countries of Western Europe. Yet even now, beyond the reach of the endless sirens, the sounds of war remain part of their trauma and symbolically spread their range.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue summarizing the project over the span of two years (2022-24). The publication includes essays written by scholars and artists Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, Marta Czyż, Cezary Żechowski, Rasha Salti, Svitlana Biedarejeva and Open Group.

The Pavilion of Ukraine  presents the group exhibition Net Making.

Picture credit: Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga), Repeat after me, 2022, Video, © Open Group (video still)