Open Group: Certain Future Evidence

The exhibition Certain Future Evidence by Open Group explores the notion of memory, understood as a collection of individual representations which, in the three works presented, come together to form three narratives of collective memory, each one characteristic of the identity-building processes of specific social groups. In this case, it is the Ukrainian nation, with war as the central theme examined both from autobiographical and historical perspectives. The voices heard in this exhibition already become testimonies, though they have not yet been acted upon or addressed through any process for justice. 

Open Group approaches the subject of memory from different angles. The artists extract memories by questioning their nature and function, then arrange them into interrelated narratives that form the backbone of each work. Repeat after Me II presents the collective experience of refugees and internally displaced persons from the ongoing war in Ukraine, told through remembered sounds of war that still echo in the mind. Waiting Room features a projection of anonymous texts, fragments of descriptions detailing the circumstances of people’s disappearances, taken from a vast and continuously growing database published on a Telegram channel. Accompanying the projection is a model of the now destroyed railway station in Mariupol, originally designed in a distinctive Socialist Realist style. Here, the reconstructed waiting room becomes a metaphor for personal waiting, a state of suspension, and the universal experience of uncertainty. Memory Capital focuses on the process of mutual selection of memories using subjective, and at times conflicting or controversial, mechanisms. A bureaucratic system for organizing work stands in contrast to an emotional narrative that only takes material form in its final stage. 

The past does not become memory until it is expressed. Memory is a tool for analysis and social justice; it helps us understand the sources of violence and their consequences. It can also serve as a space for intellectual exchange, and if given the proper form, become tangible evidence. Each of Open Group’s works proposes its own narrative, and its own means of storytelling and contextualizing memory. 

Memories are ephemeral, they shift and fade over time. Recovering them is not only a question of recall, but of activating them at the right time and within a specific context. Open Group creates these moments, in which memory begins to function here and now. 

Open Group: Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga
Curator: Marta Czyż
Architecture: Bogdana Kosmina