In June and July, as part of “Magic Carpets – European Platform Project”, we welcome the Ukrainian artists Yulia Kostereva and Yuriy Kruchak with their platform “Open Place” as artists-in-residence at openspace.innsbruck. During their stay, the two artists, which were nominated by the “Magic Carpets” platform partner „Jam Factory Art Center” (Liviv, Ukraine), will be working on the theme “Common Landscape” together with local
partners and institutions.
During their stay, the artists will hold meetings with different protagonists active in field of migration. Migration and challenges that arise because of migration, is the starting point of Open Place’s research. Migration is understood as a process of transition, which is fundamental to so much of contemporary life. People migrate between identities, countries, languages, economic realities, genders, political beliefs, contexts. Open Place is aimed to record diverse experiences and to create a political and social document collectively. The activity in Innsbruck follows Open Place’s ongoing goal to bring together different perspectives into a universal message, offering strategies and tactics that we can all access.
Next to that, they will hold and create on daily basis spaces for encounter and exchange wit divers citizens groups , where they will share practices and thoughts, experiences and stories. Most of the sessions will take place at our venue openspce.innsbruck – Mentlgasse 12b.
In addition, the artists will hold a deepening course and offer an inspiring learning format for the participants of the Kunstraum Innsbruck Summer School on July 1st and 2nd in openspace- Mentlgasse. As part of the same program, an artist talk will take place at Kunstraum Innsbruck on July 7th. During the course, participants will work with the different semantic layers of Innsbruck and its various intersections, such as objects of material and immaterial memory, nature, people, infrastructure, activities, or influences. Doing so, they will utilise drawing and linocut as means of communication and learn more about the techniques various histories as well as connected theoretical approaches.
In the last week of the residency, the landscapes collected through the artists’ meetings, workshops and the course will be interwoven with other narratives and presented in a sitespecific installation in the public space.
Since the program of the residence will develop alongside the artists’ working process, we will keep you updated on possible changes and further activities.
Magic Carpets Project Cycle: Kolaboratorium
Every year, we invite artists to respond to local and global issues, everyday situations and the regional challenges of Innsbruck. Our activities focus on individuals, communities and initiatives that make change on the ground. We are interested in collective coexistence, the development of horizontal structures, trust and informal learning opportunities. Within the current, three-year “Magic Carpets” project cycle called “Kolaboratorium” we aim to create a safe space for artistic experimentation that serves the collection, expansion and cultivation of multiple perspectives to encourage critical reflection and action. This includes making, exchange, engagement and inspiring learning formats for and with the local and regional cultural landscape through meaningful collaborations.
Our main local partner in 2023 is Kunstraum Innsbruck and its Summer School.
Together, we will convey critical knowledge and work on questions of current socio-political relevance. Doing so, we allow the resident artists to connect with the diverse stories, currents and dynamics of the city. The Summer School is a place to investigate the manifold relationship between nature and human activity exploring related topics.We will try to raise and try to answer questions as: What affects our common environment at this moment? Can we (re)imagine the links, relations, resistances, needs, infrastructures and desires that vibrate in our surroundings? And how can we detect, connect, engage and support essential processes to understand and see the things we imagine?
ABOUT
Magic Carpets
Magic Carpets – European Platform Projects unites 16 European cultural organisations thatcreate opportunities for emerging artists to embark on international journeys and to create, together with local artists and local communities, new works that highlight local specificities and compensate for the shortage of story-telling existing in modern society by enhancing cultural accessibility, cultural activism and participation.The Magic Carpets project is funded by the EU as part of the „Creative Europe“ program, implemented by openspace.innsbruck in Austria and supported by the City of Innsbruck, the Region of Tyrol, the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.
Open Place (Yulia Kostereva and Yuriy Kruchak)
Open Place is an interdisciplinary platform founded by the Ukrainian artists Yulia Kostereva and Yuriy Kruchak. It aims to hold meetings, conduct joint actions and propose possible prospects on the intersection of art, politics and socio-cultural transition. The projects of Open Space aim to expand the understanding of art and invite new groups of people into the creative process.
During their residency in Innsbruck, Kruchak and Kostereva will investigate the theme “Common Landscape” understood as a non-hierarchical structure of relations. Therein, the artists are interested in the different components that make up this landscape. Together, they will work with the various semantic layers of Innsbruck and its various intersections such as objects of material and immaterial memory, nature, people, infrastructure, activities
or influences. By engaging with different citizen groups, Kruchak and Kostereva will help us to think beyond landscape as a mere set of infrastructural components and show us different shapes and shades of the common landscape.
Yuriy Kruchak
is a Kyiv-based artist and curator working on the intersection of art and social studies, a cofounder of the interdisciplinary platform Open Place and a laureate of the Gaude Polonia scholarship (2018). His interests include interdisciplinary and post-artistic practices and the intensification of connections between the artistic process and various strata of modern society. Kruchak’s artistic strategies respond to locally specific problems and usually
involve engagement of different communities into the creative process. When working in public spaces, he transforms the audience into actors and creates a community that interprets and reveals social structures in an urban environment. His work explores the relationship between art and reality, as well as the relationship between the artist and the audience. Yuriy Kruchak studied Scenography at Kharkiv State Art College (1989—1991)
and Environmental design at the Kharkiv Art-Industrial Institute (currently Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts) (1991—1996). He received a Master’s degree in Painting from the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture in Kyiv in 1999.
Yulia Kostereva
is an artist and curator. In 2001, she graduated from the National Academy of Fine Art andArchitecture in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her work often takes the form of installations, objects, and collaborative actions that focus on history and narratives related to a particular place, object or person. In 1999, together with the artist Yurii Kruchak, she launched the interdisciplinary platform Open Place, which she still maintains today. The work of the platform is aimed at expanding creative research and establishing links between artistic processes and different layers of modern society. Art is thereby understood as a space of intersection between artistic, social and political processes.
Summer School
Kunstraum Innsbruck is an art institution and exhibition space that facilitates encounters with contemporary art and presents aesthetic concepts. The second edition of the Summer School is curated by Ivana Marjanović and Magdalena Saxer in cooperation with Danijela Oberhofer Tonković. The Kunstraum Innsbruck SummerSchool takes place from 30.06. till 09.07.2023 and interweaves artistic practice and critical knowledge, cultural production and questions of current socio-political negotiations.
Application deadline 29. of June 2023!
Course “Common Landscape”
Saturday, 01.07.2023: 10 to 2 AM at openspace innsbruck
Sunday, 02.07.2023: 10 to 2 AM at openspace innsbruck
Artist Talk
Friday, 07.07.2023: 7 PM at Kunstraum Innsbruck
Jam Factory Art Center
Jam Factory Art Center (Liviv, Ukraine) is our international Magic Carpets platform partnerin focus this year. This contemporary art institution actively operates within two main areas:the revitalisation process of the forme industrial complex they operate in and the development of artistic projects in the areas of visual art, theatre and music.
Ukrainian Institute
The Ukrainian Institute is an organisation promoting better knowledge and understanding ofUkraine internationally and develops cultural relations between Ukraine and other countries.
OFFICE UKRAINE. SHELTER FOR UKRAINIAN ARTISTS
In response to the war against Ukraine and the hardship many artists art facing as a result of it, the Republic of Austria shows solidarity: a coordination office – the »Office Ukraine. Shelter for Ukrainian Artists« – has been set up for Ukrainian artists. It serves as a platform for the coordination of various initiatives by civil society as well as by institutions and acts as a liaison between the institutions in Austria and cultural workers from Ukraine.
MORE INFORMATION:
Open Place (Yulia Kostereva and Yuriy Kruchak):
www.openplace.com.ua/en
openspace.innsbruck:
https://www.instagram.com/openspace.innsbruck
Magic Carpets Austria:
www.magiccarpets.at
Magic Carpets:
www.magiccarpets.eu
Kunstraum Innsbruck Summer School:
https://www.kunstraum-innsbruck.at/termine/common_landscape
Office Ukraine:
www.artistshelp-ukraine.at/en/
Jam Factory Art Center
Ukranian Institute: