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About

OPEN ARCHIVE is an instrument of an ongoing research of artistic practices launched by curators Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko in collaboration with the artists of Open Group. The online platform openarchive.com.ua reveals methodology of its authors’ curatorial approach as well as presents its intermediary result the artists’ profiles made up of СVs, selected artworks, texts etc.

 

The dendriform structure of the archive echoes Open Group’s mode of practice. This artistic collective is active in community-building  both on a micro-level (within the Group itself that can have an unlimited number of participants and dwell autonomously) as well as on a macro-level (through the self-organized practices in the cities they live and places they visit). Moreover, this approach is an attempt to avoid the curatorial imperative and let the artistic scene define itself spontaneously (or naturally).


Open Group as an artistic formation with a potentially variable list of participants serves as the “tree’s” roots while each artist who joins it becomes the first link in a branch of professional (friendly? family?) recommendations. Every “spray” develops until another artist calls for someone whose profile is already archived.

 

The artist’s profile presents a brief overview of her/his current professional practice including:

  • basic CV
  • 5 events (exhibitions, residencies, travels, personal stories, etc.) which are conceived by the artist her/himself to be the most significant in professional and personal biography
  • 5 projects selected for the archive by the artists in dialogue with the curators
  • video interviews recorded during the meetings
  • photographs from studios or work spaces
  • bibliography and links

 

The archive can be read in several ways:

 

The first option (Tree) shows the sequence of recommendations between artists' profiles which are complete or in progress. Every page and artwork in the artist's profile opens in a pop-up window, which can be resized, moved along the screen and combined with other images according to individual preference / need of the user. 

 

The second option (Alphabet) is a list of complete artists' profiles. Here each profile is presented as one solid feed, similar to a traditional portfolio structure.

 

The third option (Tags) leads through the various artists’ projects "tagged" by the curatorial meta-links (i.e. method of the artistic practice, relation to particular tradition, specific topics etc).

 

Open Archive is a living process without any predictable or desirable destination.

 

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We are grateful to the friendly Perevorot studio for developing and technical support of this online platform.

 

Special thanks to pioneering curators Walter Hopps and Viktor Misiano for providing us with the subjects of endless discussions around the meaning and the very essence of curatorial practice. In particular for their projects "36 Hours" and "Experimental Research" respectively, which were direct conceptual precursors and inspiration for Open Archive.

 

Partners:

 

Artcult foundation (Kyiv)


Foundation for Cultural Initiatives ArtHuss (Kyiv)


Centre for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv)

 

Pereoblik project (Lviv)

 

Institutional partner - Detenpyla gallery (Lviv)

 

Contact us on info@openarchive.com.ua