Curators announced for Central Asian Pavillion, 54th Venice Biennial

VENICE BIENNIAL CENTRAL ASIAN PAVILLION ART CURATORS

How and with whom does the contemporary art of Central Asia communicate? To whom is it addressed? In which language does it speak? Does it use a lingua franca, the language of most effective communication, or does it twist its language towards outsiders?

This is the proposition set down by the curators for the Central Asian Pavilion at next year’s 54^th Venice Biennial. Georgi Mamedov (Moscow) Boris Chukhovic (Montreal) and Oksana Shatalova (Rudnyi) have sent out an open call to artists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to submit work under the theme of “Lingua Franca”. The project has been commissioned by Asel Akmatova (Bishkek) and Andris Brinkmanis (Venice) with Beral Madra (Istanbul) and Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Jumaliev (Bishkek) as special consultants.

Oksana Shatalova, 'Red Flag', 2008, five lambda prints on dibond, 180 x 155 cm each.

The focus of the pavilion looks to play upon the gap in artistic communication, similar to the project Making Interstice that featured at Venice two years ago. The curators maintain that in communicative terms, the contemporary art history of Central Asia is balanced between two poles; communicating with the international “Western” art scene and with the “local” community.

How far are these respective forms of communication effective? Next year’s project will explore not only this gap in communication but how they might be brought together.

Installation view of Making Interstices, Central Asian Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennial, 2008. Image taken from centralasiaart.org.

HG/KN/HH

Related Topics: Central Asian artists, Kazakhstani artists, biennials

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• Curator Rosa Maria Flavo on emerging Central Asian art scene – interview – December 2009 – an interview with the “East of Nowhere” curator
• East of Nowhere, important exhibition of rare post Soviet Central Asian art in Italy, 2009 – August 2009 – a review of a landmark exhibition in Europe of art from Central Asia
• Art from Kazakhstan will take your breath away – video – April 2009 – intriguing videos from Kazakhstan
• Abu Dhabi’s Venice Biennale curator Catherine David says only 6 interesting artists from Emirates, whom will she show? – January 2009 – a report on the 53rd Venice Biennale of Visual Art and the UAE
• Central Asian art joins mainstream market – Eurasianet – December 2008 – a report on the emergence of Central Asia on the international art scene

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