Yuriy Kruchak and Yulia Kostereva are the founders of the platform for interdisciplinary practice Open Place (Open Place), which is oriented toward building connections between different social and professional groups, diverse contexts, and various forms of knowledge. Their professional interests include interdisciplinary and post‑artistic practices. In their artistic and curatorial work, they engage with video art, visual art, public art, and multidisciplinary practices, while also focusing on community work, inclusion, and the study and resolution of conflicts within newly formed groups.

Their projects in public space transform the audience into active participants – a temporary community composed of artist and viewer – whose behaviour and interaction serve to interpret and reveal social structures within the urban environment. Their artistic practice addresses not only the relationship between art and real life but also the ongoing dialogue between the artist and the audience.

Yuriy Kruchak is an artist and curator working at the intersection of art and social studies. He studied scenography at the Kharkiv State Art School and environmental design at the Kharkiv Art-Industrial Institute (now the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts). He received his Master’s degree in painting from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (1999). The laureate of the Gaude Polonia scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland in 2018

Yulia Kostereva is an artist and curator. She graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in 2001 Her works – often realised as installations, objects, and collective actions – focus on histories and stories connected to a place, an object, or a person. Her practice encompasses both visual art and participatory art.