Lia Dostlieva is an artist, cultural anthropologist, and essayist who works across a range of media, including photography, installation, and textile sculptures. Lia’s artistic and research practice engages with the issues of collective trauma, Anthropocene, decoloniality, and the agency of vulnerable groups. She has exhibited work at the Ludwig Museum (Budapest, Hungary), National Gallery of Art (Vilnius, Lithuania), Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum (Tbilisi, Sakartvelo), National Museum of Fine Arts (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia). Her curatorial projects include the 10th Triennale of Young Polish Art (Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Poland, 2023) and ‘Reconstruction of Memory’ (DOX, Prague, Czech Republic, 2017; IZOLYATSIA, Kyiv, Ukraine 2016). In 2022-23, she was a participant of the Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, Netherlands) and a 2019 Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna, Austria). Lia also writes for publications, including e-flux Journal, Eurozine magazine, Kajet Journal, and Blok Magazine. Originally from Donetsk, Ukraine, Lia is currently in Poznan, Poland.

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Lizaveta German is a curator and researcher with a PhD in art history. She has been a part of an independent curatorial collective with Maria Lanko since 2013. In collaboration with Maria Lanko and Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta co-curated Fountain of Exhaustion, the project by Pavlo Makov presented at the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 59th La Biennale di Venezia in 2022. (The Art Margins interview with Maria about her journey to evacuate the artwork for the Biennale at the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine.)

Lizaveta was a guest curator at the Liverpool Biennial (2016, UK). She co-edited the books The Art of the Ukrainian Sixties and Decommunized: Ukrainian Soviet Mosaics, contributed to the educational websites Cultural Project and Sense, and lectured on Contemporary Art at Kyiv Academy of Media Arts.

During the Art Prospect residency, German gave lectures on the history and theory of curation, lead a series of workshops on curating and preparing art projects (the basics of curatorial research, guidelines for putting together a display and writing wall texts, conventions of interacting with artists), and served as a consultant for ArtEast students’ final exhibition. German visited studios and local art institutions. She also studied museum collections in Bishkek and nearby cities as part of research for a book about the history of curation in Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.

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Yulia Kostereva is an artist and curator. Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Yulia relocated to Warsaw, Poland, where she coordinated the Emergency Residencies program to support cultural workers seeking refuge from the war. Currently, Yulia manages the program Сильні Разом/Strong Together implemented by the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, and the Open Place platform of interdisciplinary practices within the framework of Culture Helps/Культура допомагає project.

Yulia works with installations, objects and joint actions, history and stories related to a place, an object or a person. Her practice encompasses visual arts and the art of interaction.

Together with the artist Yuriy Kruchak, Yulia co-founded the art platform Open Place which has been operating in Kyiv since 1999. She studied at the theatre stage design department of the Kharkiv State Art School, the graphics department of the Kharkiv Art and Industrial Institute, and the graphics department of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture.

Yuriy Kruchak is an artist whose professional interests include interdisciplinary and post‑artistic practices, intensification of connections between the artistic process and various strata of modern society. He works on the fringes between art and social studies, and his practice addresses the relationship of art to reality , with a special focus on the relationship of the artist to the audience. Yuriy also works as a curator and organizer. He is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary platform Open Place in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Yuriy’s artistic strategies depend on a specific issue and often engage different communities in the creative process. His works in public spaces transform the audience into the actors, creating a community whose behavior and interaction serves to interpret and reveal social structures in an urban environment.

Yuriy studied Scenography at Kharkiv State Art College (1989 -1991), Environmental design at the Kharkiv art-industrial institute (currently Kharkiv State academy of Design and Arts) (1991-1996). He received a Master degree in Painting from the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture in Kyiv (1999). Got the scholarship Gaude Polonia (National Center for Culture Poland) in 2018.

Anton Ovchinnikov is choreographer, performer, composer, lecturer, poet, and organizer of the annual international dance festival Zelyonka Space UP in Kyiv. Since 2008, he is the artistic director of the Black O!Range dance productions company. The company was recognized as one of the most distinctive and original dance projects in Ukraine. In 2015, Ovchinnikov cofounded All-Ukrainian Association “Contemporary Dance Platform”. Main objectives of the Association are to support young Ukrainian choreographers, integrate contemporary dance into the modern cultural life of Ukraine and establish the national center of contemporary dance. In 2016-2021 Anton Ovchinnikov presented a few solo performances and created four multidisciplinary projects. In 2017, he was an ArtsLink International Fellow. Since 2018, Anton Ovchinnikov is the member of the expert panel of Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

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On creating work during war
Monochrome
Conversation with Anton Ovchinnikov and dance critic Polina Bulat, both from Ukraine, moderated by Simon Dove of CEC ArtsLink as part of BIPOD 22

Bozhena Pelenska is Director of the Jam Factory Art Center, a new multi-disciplinary contemporary art center which is located in a former industrial building in Lviv, Western Ukraine. The Center is a new and ambitious platform for international collaboration and the development of contemporary art and culture, offering innovative interdisciplinary programming and education projects. Bozhena and her team have been working to organize cultural and educational events that introduce members of marginalized local communities to diverse artistic and social practices from Ukraine and abroad.

Bozhena planned to dedicate her time in the U.S. to exploring institutional and audience development for the arts, observing projects with strong community engagement, and researching exemplary models of programming and operations of multi-disciplinary arts and culture centers.

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Veronika Seleha is a CEO of the creative agency BICKERSTAFF.OOO producing campaigns for business and government development in Ukraine and internationally. She is also part of the strategic development group at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, an important religious and cultural center in Ukraine. Veronika served as the Director General of the Directorate for Humanitarian Policy at the Presidential Office of Ukraine.

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Volodymyr Sheiko is the Director General of Ukrainian Institute Kyiv. He is a specialist in culture management, marketing and communications. Volodymyr held senior positions in the Ukrainian mission of the British Council for 11 years. He organized numerous cultural projects and events in the UK and 15 European countries: exhibitions, art residencies, film festivals, professional internships, concerts, literary programs, trainings, and theater productions.

A graduate of the Institute of International Relations of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Volodymyr received a professional diploma in marketing in 2009, and in 2014 – a diploma in digital marketing from the The Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK). In 2011, he graduated from the Summer School of Scottish Universities SUISS in the field of “Contemporary British and Irish Literature” (Edinburgh, Scotland). Volodymyr is a Member of the 2016 Summer School of Global Governance; the international network of Bucerius Summer School (ZEIT-Stiftung, Hamburg, Germany); and the IETM International Professional Performing Arts Network and the Total Theater Network.

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Katya Taylor is a curator, manager of cultural projects, and contemporary art expert. Her current volunteer project Artists Support Ukraine helps organize exhibitions across the world to promote and support Ukrainian artists during the Russian invasion. Katya curated The Captured House, the exhibition that tells the story of the war in Ukraine through the eyes of 50 contemporary artists. The show traveled to Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, and Rome.

Katya is the founder of the Port.agency. Her multidisciplinary collaborations include projects with UNISEF, UN Woman, World Food Programme, Anti-Corruption Initiative of the European Union, UNDP, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (England), British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, and Vogue Ukraine, among others.

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Hnat Zabrodskyy is a senior-level manager in the field of culture, a legal expert with more than ten years of expertise, and an organizational transformation and development specialist. Hnat leads legal operations at the Museum of Contemporary Art MOCA NGO and the Pavilion of Culture CF. He also leads the UALR project focused on developing new regulations and institutions for a sustainable framework for the emergent Ukrainian cultural ecosystem. Hnat is continuously engaged in the development of common memory practices and dialogue-related projects as an independent expert and as a senior scholar for the Kyiv School of Economics.

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