Open Group – Repeat After Me 2022

25. FEBRUARY 2026 - 19. MARCH 2026

Fotograf Zone Gallery

Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga), Warszawa, Poland 2024, photo by Jacopo Salvi, Zachęta archive

The project Repeat After Me 2022 by the creative collective Open Group works with sound as the primary carrier of wartime experience. Instead of images of destruction, it focuses on the acoustic trace of conflict—on the sounds of weapons, explosions, sirens, and silence, which inscribe themselves into the bodies and memories of people living through war or forced exile. The ability to recognize these sounds is not a matter of artistic or sociological experiment; however experimental its aesthetics may be, it signals an effort to survive.

Repeat After Me 2022 rejects the spectacular representation of war, replacing it with an ethics of listening. The framework draws on the principles of karaoke: participants imitate the sounds of weapons they have encountered and address the viewer with the simple instruction “repeat after me,” inviting them to reproduce these sounds. It employs the oldest forms of human communication, using simple procedures and gestures to create relationships where none might previously have been expected. It turns passive victims into active participants capable of claiming their own experience, and leads a passive audience—otherwise unable to understand—toward personal responsibility.

One of the greatest and most painful realizations of recent years is that, however old and distant it may seem, the language of war remains alive. It cannot be silenced; it must be listened to—and only through listening can it be neutralized.

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Open Group was founded in 2012 in Lviv by six artists. Since 2019, its permanent members are Yuriy Biley (Wrocław/Berlin), Pavlo Kovach (Lviv), and Anton Varga (New York). Centered on collective work, the group develops collaborative projects conceived as “open situations” that explore interactions between people and specific spaces. Working across artistic and curatorial roles, Open Group addresses contemporary socio-political realities through experimental visual forms.

The group has run independent art spaces in Lviv and received major recognition, including the PinchukArtCentre Prize (Special Distinction 2013, Main Prize 2015). Their work has been presented at the Ukrainian Pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennale, the Future Generation Art Prize@Venice (2017), and the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). In 2024, Open Group represents Poland at the 60th Venice Biennale with Repeat after me II. Their work has been exhibited internationally at major institutions and biennials across Europe, the USA, and Asia.