Bazinato (Bazil Stachievich) is an artist, researcher, and social and environmental activist from Belarus. They work with practices of interaction and perception exploring the world, macro and micro structures, patterns and connections. Bazinato’s work interacts with the environment, space and time, applying available art practices and scientific knowledge in experiments. They specialize in developing and leading interdisciplinary projects exploring connections between art, digital culture and science, cultural activism, and environmental movements.

Bazinato explores the connection of art to everyday experience through interaction and collaboration with the environment. An immersion in a different sensibility, where there are no binary relations, no natural and no human, and the human being is not a fundamental being. They explore the pattern of impermanence and variability of the nature of the perceived. Bazinato invites us to go beyond words, meanings and to form our own spirituality, through immersion in the natural substratum of the derivatives of being – difference and diversity.

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Ericka Beckman is an artist and filmmaker, living and working in New York and Boston.  She is known for her experimental films and film installations that use performance, sound and animation to deal with capitalism, game structures, architecture and feminism.

Her work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum of American Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art; The Walker Art Center; The Broad Museum; The High Museum; The Zabludowicz Collection; Le Centre de Georges Pompidou; The British Film Institute; MAMCO, Geneva Switzerland; Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland; The Collection of Peter and Jill Kraus; the Stiftung Kunsthalle Bern and Anthology Film Archives.

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Cathy Byrd, the Founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Art International, is an influential advocate for cultural literacy and an internationally recognized curator, educator, and writer. Her hybrid platform features a podcast, live stream radio shows, and a free digital archive. Since 2011, the audio program has transported listeners to sites of creativity around the world, infusing conversations about today’s art, design, and film with sonic experiences. Connecting listeners with voices from the field, Byrd heightens public awareness and understanding of contemporary culture as she investigates vital issues and ideas.

During her residency, Cathy planned to engage at the center and fringe of St. Petersburg’s contemporary art scene, to curate nuanced narratives that delve into the cultural life of the city.

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Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He is the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism living at the intersection of creativity and healing. Nicolás is a Senior Lecturer and Social Practice Artist in Residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas, Austin; and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow.

Nicolás has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Lab, Princeton University, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field.

Residencies attended include P.S. 1/MoMA, CEC ArtsLink, The Performance Project, Soaring Gardens, Jentel, Henry Street Settlement, Center for book Arts, Lower East Side Printshop, Artists Alliance Inc, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Nicolás holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.  Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, he was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011.

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Alaina Claire Feldman is the Director and Curator of Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). She teaches Art History and Museum Studies at Baruch and Macaulay Honors Colleges, and holds a degree in Art History and Critical Visual Studies from Pratt Institute and Social and Environmental Justice Studies from the Graduate Center.

Ilkin Huseynov is an artist and cultural worker. Ilkin’s practice is based on an experimental research process, working with various media and visual styles. His latest multimedia project “Looming Dreams” leverages AI-based technologies to visualize the near future, with all our hopes and fears tied to the current senseless war of Russia against Ukraine.

Ilkin explores subjects such as urbanism, ecology, memory, constructs within realities, imposed images, and artificial intelligence. He uses experimental new media to explore global uncertainties and promote cross-cultural dialogue through socially conscious art.

In 2018, Ilkin, together with Leyli Gafarova and other artists-activists, co-created Salaam Cinema. This independent community-driven cinema and art space organizes exhibitions, festivals, and educational workshops dedicated to equality, inclusion, and diversity.

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Jamie Iglehart’s current artistic practice focuses on immersive experiments and investigations into psychometry and community psychology. She is also interested in horizontally organized volunteer run spaces and the economy of solidarity and sharing. In her previous work focused on playful installations, educational environments, documentary, and performance, Jaime created de-skilled, social and experimental projects, involving ‘play,’ utopian fantasy, and highly personal iconography.

Jaime works within a variety of disciplines including film-making, performance, sculpture, and educational platforms which democratize learning such as free schools.  She is currently a professor of Visual Narrative in the Digital Design Department at CUNY Hostos.

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Lance Johnson is a visual artist who works with various materials to celebrate the complexity of the urban environment. Using vibrant colors, textures and inspirational text to convey a sense of hope and pride that is prevalent in city life.

Art has the power to connect people from all walks of life. Across cultures, languages and religions. To Lance, art has always been a us over individual pursuit. Collaboration is a large part of his practice. Collaborating with dancers, musicians, poets, singers and other visual artists throughout his artistic journey. Multidisciplinary artistic expression creating dialogues across perceived and unperceived barriers.

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Interview with Lance Johnson during his Art Prospect Residency at the Ilkhom Center for Contemporary Arts in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, March 2023. Interview conducted by Jakhongir Azimov, courtesy of gazeta.uz.

Born in Kyiv, Tatiana Kochubinska is an independent curator, writer, and lecturer, whose work focuses on Ukrainian contemporary art. She has worked as a curator on the Research Platform of the PinchukArtCentre and on the center’s exhibition and publication programs.  As a curator, Tatiana is particularly interested in questions of responsibility, Soviet history and its relationship to today’s society. In recent years, she has collaborated with various cultural institutions, designed courses on contemporary art, co-developed curatorial residencies together with Artsvit Gallery (Dnipro, Ukraine), and co-edited a special issue about Ukrainian art and society after 2014 at the invitation of Obieg Magazine. Tatiana also became a member of the curatorial team of the International Coalition of Cultural Workers Against the War in Ukraine antiwarcoalition.art.

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A seamstress, artist, queer-feminist, and grassroot activist, Antonina Melnyk works with textiles and clothing and engages in theatrical activities and performance. Antonina’s practice is focused on non-alienated, fairly-priced labour; the alternative economy as a tool against exploitation of women; and investigation of discriminatory practices. She also works with the idea of re-thinking and re-appropriating cultural, historical, and social traditions.

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Antonina graduated from Kyiv National University of Technology and Design and studied contemporary art in Kyiv and St. Petersburg. In 2015, she co-founded the Shvemy sewing cooperative (Kyiv – St. Petersburg). In 2016, she joined the ReSew sewing cooperative in Kyiv. Antonina collaborates with her fellow artist Mariia Lukianova.

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Tara Catherine Pandeya is a second-generation dancer, cultural activist, choreographer, scholar and bridge-building artist, dedicated to the promotion of dance from the Central Asian Silk Road region. She uses embodiment practices through dance as a healing tool to empower. Tara’s work aims to support a rebalancing of our written historical record by privileging ephemeral knowledge (dance, kinesthetic and the oral) to provide a more direct, accessible, and inclusive way of knowledge sharing inclusive of marginalized groups and matrilineal storytelling. She creates dance works which evoke beauty, magical surrealism and wonder, inviting curiosity and a questioning of social norms through art.  

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Alena Papina is an internationally recognized dance artist, performer, curator, educator, researcher, community developer, and writer working primarily with practice-as-research method. Her interests include space embodiment, reflection on social and political aspects of life, and development of the contemporary dance community. Alena’s current artistic focuses are site-specificity; gender, sexuality, post-porn optics and affect; video/dance; identification; experience of immigration and collective trauma through personal prism.

Alena’s work has been presented in various venues throughout Russia, and has been supported through residencies across Europe, the United States and Asia.

Originally from Russia, Alena relocated to Tbilisi, Georgia in 2022.

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Joanna Pottle is a US visual artist, researcher, and educator based in Krakow, Poland. Her research considers art, public space, post-colonial and post-soviet contexts, collective memory and identity, and (re)negotiation of cultural heritage; her studio practice includes abstract mixed media art.

Joanna has participated in exhibitions, art projects and residencies throughout the US and Europe. She is part of the team for a grant project entitled “Migrating Memoryscapes” through the Citizen Action Diplomacy Fund 2023 (CDAF), a project to facilitate dialogue between migrant and non-migrant communities in Poland (2023) through art and discussion activities. In 2022-23, she was a fellow with the Kosciuszko Foundation and Humanity in Action (HIA).

Joanna is a Freelance Writer for Contemporary LYNX Art Magazine. She was a US Fulbright Student Researcher alumna to Poland (2019-2020/21). She earned an MA in European Studies from Jagiellonian University (2022) to focus on the intersection of cultural heritage, art in public space, the freedom of artistic expression, and democracy. Joanna graduated from James Madison University with a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Art History with an Art Education track. Currently, she is the Network and Community Engagement Manager for HIA. 

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Daria Pugachova is an artist, performer and art activist born in Rivne, Ukraine. Daria uses participatory practices to unite communities and integrate art into daily life. She explores the themes of the transformation of place and society through the direct presence of the artist.

In 2021, Daria received a grant for a project “Microcosmos” in Poltava, Ukraine. On February 11, 2022 the solo exhibition of the artist opened in Jump Contemporary Art Centre. Two weeks later, Russia started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

In March 2022, Daria was invited for an artist residency at Radar Sofia in Bulgaria. In Sofia, she created the performance “I Will Close The Sky So You Could Breathe” about the war in Ukraine. She presented the “Microcosmos” in front of the abandoned cinema “Cosmos” in Plovdiv (Context AiR residency) and opened two solo exhibitions MICROCOSMOS / SKY OF WAR connecting the projects she made before and after the invasion started. In 2023, Daria created a performance “CITIES OF WAR” in front of The UN International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands. She currently lives in Sofia, Bulgaria and participates in international residencies and art programs to bring visibility to Ukraine through her projects.

Daria studied architecture at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture. In 2013-2019, she played drums in the band Panivalkova.

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The Shelter for Freedom (I Follow the Fire) exhibition/performance during the Art Prospect Residency at Salaam Cinema Baku, 2023 (video in Azerbaijani)

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Mariia Ravlyk Lukianova is a seamstress, artist, and queer feminist activist. She is a member of the sewing cooperatives Shvemy and ReSew. Mariia works with a variety of mediums, including textiles, clothes, video, photo, dance, and performance. Her work focuses on topics such as overcoming discrimination, workers’ rights, poverty, self-care, migration, and the queer community. Mariia collaborates with her fellow artist Antonina Melnyk.

Born in Russia, Mariia has been living and working in Kyiv since 2016 and currently has temporary protection in Finland.

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Alla Rumyantseva and Alexey Rumyantsev are artists working in video art, photography, installation, animation and performance. They curated Gender Inequality Through the Prism of Contemporary Art, My Art Lab – a laboratory of socially engaged art, as well as co-authored the project Art Booz – a series of videos on supporting peace and critical thinking in the society. Their practice is focused on raising socially significant issues such as problems of migration, gender inequality, threats of extremism, and hardships of political and social activities under the conditions of a totalitarian regime. Their works have been presented at various international platforms in Central Asia and Europe.

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R Stein Wexler develops research- and process-based community-engaged public space interventions that tell silenced stories. Her work results in community gatherings, process documentation, immersive and interactive installations, workshops, and/or exhibitions. R Stein Wexler’s current work includes a series of installations investigating alternative temporalities in Raleigh, NC, USA; a series of neighborhood safety interventions in Durham, NC, USA; and an ongoing multi-phase remembrance process in Berlin, Germany. Other projects have included a counter-memorial piece in Krakow, Poland and a collaboration with residents of an elderly housing development for gay women in Berlin. Her public art has been supported by Raleigh Arts, the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe as well as the Duke-Durham Partnership and the Mellon and Z. Smith Reynolds Foundations, among others. R Stein Wexler was an artist in residence at documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany and a German Chancellor’s Fellow at Berlin’s Center for Art and Urbanistics (ZK/U). She divides her time between Berlin, Germany and Durham, NC, USA.

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Katya Taylor is a curator, culture manager, lecturer, mentor. Advisor to the Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on Public Diplomacy. Founder of the NGO and cultural management agency Port of Culture, curator of the HeForShe Arts Week Kyiv 2018 & 2019, author of Women in Arts Award for UN Women (Ukraine). Author of the book Turnkey art: Management and Marketing of Culture and Art Management course at SKVOT.

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Anton Tkachenko is an artist, curator, and co-founder (together with Nastia Khlestova) of the independent art space 127 garazh in Kharkiv. In 2022, forced by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and relentless bombardment of Kharkiv, Anton relocated to Lviv, in the west of the country, where he co-founded an off-space gallery NULLA.

Anton’s artistic practice encompasses graphics, video, installations, and the creation of art books. His creative method relies on using two or more objects (items, techniques, materials, or anything carrying meaningful or symbolic significance) to which he adds graphic imagery to create a sensory collage. The artist seeks to reinterpret the functionality of objects, impart new meanings, and create new emotional and symbolic storylines. 

Anton has participated in exhibitions in Ukraine (Kharkiv, Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy), Poland, Germany, Austria, and Portugal, as well as in large-scale projects: the international symposium of contemporary art, Biryuchiy; the GOGOLFEST festival; the Odesa Biennale of Contemporary Art; and documenta fifteen. He has been nominated for the MUHI and NonStopMedia festivals.

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