East of Nowhere, important exhibition of rare post Soviet Central Asian art in Italy, 2009

CONTEMPORARY CENTRAL ASIAN ART

Artworks from Central Asian artists hailing from nations that were formerly Soviet republics, including Kazahkstan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, are on display in an inaugural event launching the new space of Fondazione 107, in Turin, Italy.

Way to Rome, by Said Atabekov, 2008. Lambda print on dibond, 80 x 120 cm. Tashkent district, Uzbekistan. Lives in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

The exhibition, titled East of Nowhere: Contemporary Art from post-Soviet Central Asia will feature over 100 works of 32 artists and groups from a region that has been a hotbed of cultural and political upheaval, and has become extraordinarily relevant to the fate of other nations, both economically and politically, within modern times. Regarding the choice to exhibit the Central Asian collection for Fondazione 107’s first event, Federico Piccari, president of Fondazione 107 and a practicing artist, explains:

“This exhibition is part of our cultural program, which is focused on creating a practical synergy between contemporary art and industry. With this inaugural event we begin our ongoing commitment to promote artistic initiatives in an open and actively evolving context, linking Turin’s dynamic cultural setting with other creative and multicultural realities. Our collection of Central Asian artwork is among the best available from this region and provides an exciting backdrop for our future role within the international art scene”.

Red Flag, by Oksana Shatalova, 2008. 5 lambda prints on dibond 180 x 155cm each. Rudny, Kazakhstan.

Curated by Enrico Mascelloni, Valeria Ibraeva, and Rosa Maria Falvo, in collaboration with Federico Piccari, the show depicts pieces by artists both young and old, and focuses on the transformational experiences of social struggle, addressing difficult topics including political boundaries, cultural identity, and personal reorientation within a collapsed society. The works are especially meaningful because they indicate Central Asia’s response to the turmoil in its recent history is to reinvent itself within the context of its ancient roots, regressing to pre-Soviet and even pre-Islamic cultures.  Co-curator Rosa Marie Falvo says:

“Here the ‘journey’ is not just a metaphor for the interchange of cultures, it becomes the very context of creativity itself. Images as distinct as Rahraw Omarzad’s shrouded Afghan female faces, whose stares declare the heroic silence of personal expression; Davaa Dorjderem’s maternal Mongolian maidens choreographed in tranquil swan-like poses; Georgy Tryakin-Bukharov’s improvised Kazakh ‘piglets’, outsized in life and association with a menacing bureaucratic ‘wolf’, not only speak of conventions and aspirations from within their country, society and culture, but go beyond to show the multifaceted conditions of ‘Central Asian’ contemporary life. Instead of artists thinking of something new to say, we see the juxtaposition of new opportunities to say what they have not been able to say until recently. This kind of soul searching is by definition fresh and defiant; less within a common philosophy, goal or experience and more like an integral part of an ancient Greek chorus commenting on the contemporary drama.”

The Third One, by Rahraw Omarzad, 2005. Video still. Afghanistan.

Artist List:

Afghanistan:
Khadim Ali
Rahraw Omarzad
Sheenkai Alam Stanikazai

Kazakhstan:
Said Atabekov
Georgy Tryakin-Bukharov
Natalya Dyu
Rustam Khalfin
Irina Maslikova
Erbossyn Meldibekov
Almagul Menlibayeva
Gulnur Mukazhanova
Moldakul Narymbetov
Ekaterina Nikonorova
Oksana Shatalova
Regina Shepetya
Aleksei Shindin
Saule Suleimenova
Diana Yun
Malik Zenger

Kyrgyzstan:
Talgat Karim Asyrankulov
Arthur Boljurov
Ulan Djaparov
Shailoo Dzheksembaev
Alimjan Jorobaev
Talant Ogobaev
Hudsovet Group
Z.A.D. Group

Mongolia:
Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu
Davaa Dorjderem
Dugarsham Tserennadmid

Tajikistan:
Gennady Ratushenko

Uzbekistan:
Vyacheslav Akhunov

The show runs from May 28 through September 25, 2009 in Turin, Italy. View full Press Release.

-contributed by Erin Wooters

Related Posts:

How art from half of Asia has been missed- interview Leeza Ahmady ACAW director- May 09

Rarely exhibited art and more firsts at Asian Contemporary Art Week New York 2009- Apr 09

Central Asian art joins mainstream market- Dec 08

Art fair Shanghai breaks new ground with Best of Discovery emerging artists- Financial Times, Artkrush- Sept 08

Related Links:

‘East of Nowhere’ Press Release

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Pockets of change in Asian art infrastructure – interview Leeza Ahmady director ACAW

ASIAN CONTEMPORARY ART WEEK NEW YORK 2009

Asian Contemporary Art Week director Leeza Ahmady talks about the ‘ incredible’ initiatives in India and Hong Kong which are helping to build an Asian art infrastructure, Indian collector Anupam Poddar’s first time purchase of art from Afghanistan and where to see exciting art from Central Asia, the Middle East and Iran at New York’s Asian Contemporary Art Week May 2009.

This is the second part of a 3 part interview

• Part 1: How art from half of Asia has been missed
• Part 3: Excitement at Asian Contemporary Art Week despite recession

 

Gulnara Muratbek

 

AR: If visitors to Asian Contemporary Art Week 2009 in New York want to learn more about Central Asia at Asia Contemporary Art Week, what can they see and where they can go?

LA: People can see some of the best artists from Central Asia and the Middle East at an exhibition titled: Tarjama/Translation I have co-curated with Iftikar Dadi and Reem Fada at Queen’s Museum produced by ArteEast. Many of them are internationally-renowned artists but for some reason they are not being exhibited in New York yet.

Akram Zaatari and Lara Baladi from Lebanon, Esra Ersen from Turkey and Sharif Wakid from Palestine are represented and Almagul Menlibayevaof Kazakhstan who is getting a lot of attention here in New York and now has a gallery representing her. We have specially commissioned a video work by her entitled “Queens”. It is an extraordinary work. Almagul has juxtaposed her signature style-using performance as a base revolving around ritual and the fantastic to captivate the Central Asian diasporas like the Bukharan Jews, the Samarkand Uzbeks and the Afghans living in Queens, New York.

Among the Iranian artists included in Tarjama/Translation, Farhad MoshiriI have heard is totally galvanising the art market which is very encouraging. Often these artists do well in the biennale or academic arenas but we do not see them in the market arena so there is a shift there as well.

There is a whole lot of fascination going on with Iran this year I have to tell you. Thomas Erben, one of the best galleries in my opinion for working with cutting edge artists from Pakistan and India, has just come back from Iran. So in honour of ACAW, he will be curating an exhibition of artists living and making art in Iran and he has been going through all kinds of hoops to get the work to New York. The Chelsea Museum is also organizing a large exhibition in June showcasing Iranian artists from the 60’s up to the present.

AR: What do you see in the future for Asian art? Will Asia continue to rely on Western art centres as a platform for international recognition or will it start to happen within Asia itself?

LA: The Western world is way ahead, years if not centuries, in having the institutions which help with not just showcasing but also maintaining, archiving and saving works of contemporary art. We can’t really have a conversation which compares the two because of that disparity. What I can say is that changes will not just happen in the future …. they are already happening.

Arts i  is the new 12,000 square foot art space of one of the largest investment companies in India. It is based in New Delhi and has launched the Religare Arts Initiative which acts as a corporate champion of art. Most galleries, auction houses and art funds operate art businesses but the Religare Arts Initiative tries to leverage business for art through a host of activities – exhibitions, residency programs, library, documentaries, art fund, seminars, documentation etc. The intention of the initiative is to have a 360 degree platform for art in India and really have it create change in society. It is not just a group of people but it wants to actually create an impact on society. I think that is incredibly novel.

Often it is easy for us to say that there is not enough expertise and not enough critical dialogue but the fact is if you really want to look there are some incredible things happening. In India another example is Devi Art Foundation started by a mother and son team who turned their private collection into a public venue. They opened a huge space last summer and already have had two or three critically-acclaimed exhibitions.

They are looking not only at promoting Indian art but also at what else is going on in the region. They reached out to me and we purchased two works by Afghan artists for their collection. This is very encouraging.

 To have come this far is wonderful. I want to acknowledge that there is a handful of us out there and it is changing. Another great example is Green Cardamom Gallery in London. They are contributing to the discourse by providing critical context through artist-generated collaborative exhibitions and writing projects.I cannot speak for China as I have never been there except for Hong Kong. But I have to say organisations like Asia Art Archive or your publication now, these are huge leaps forward in creating forums where critics can have space to say what they need to say.

AR: Do you have anything to say about the market for Asian art?

LA:  What has astonished a lot of people is that art from India and China has been successful because of locally-based collectors not just outside collectors. The whole market frenzy and speculation was accelerated by this local interest. In the long term this interest will continue to grow. What is happening in the Middle East is also incredible. For the first time in the last 2 years we are seeing auctions of contemporary art from the Middle East. Who would have thought it? And they did not do too badly at all.

AR: Perhaps it speaks about the quality and freshness of the work coming out of the Middle East, what do you think?

LA: That is true. It is fresh  because there is a cultural specifity which is very intriguing yet at the same time the art is universally relevant. For me when art tells me something specific but is still relevant whether or not I know where it is from or what it is about – if I can connect with it from that universal place – then it is good art. That is not to say that everything that is coming out of Asia is good of course! (Laughter) 

This is the second part of a 3 part interview

• Part 1: How art from half of Asia has been missed
• Part 3: Excitement at Asian Contemporary Art Week despite recession

Related posts:

• Rarely exhibited art and more firsts at Asian Contemporary Art Week New York
• Middle East art scene today is like London in nineties – Judith Greer, international collector Apr 2009
•  Tate acquires video of Akram Zaatari at Frieze 2008 Oct 2008
• New art museum Devi ground-breaking first for IndiaSep 2008
• Iranian art market booms for younger artistsSep 2008 – mentions Farhad Moshiri

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Central Asian art joins mainstream market – Eurasianet

Metal Truck Caravan Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek

CENTRAL ASIAN ART

The strong presence of Central Asian artists at recent art fairs and exhibits in New York is helping to underscore the fact that the region has joined the mainstream of the international art market reports Eurasianet.

A special exhibition titled Given Difference at the Asian contemporary art fair in New York in November featured six artists from Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan was represented by two rising stars of the Central Asian art world — Erbossyn Meldibekov and Almagul Menlibayeva.

Menlibayeva videos punkshamanism

Almagul Menlibayeva’s works attempt to distill traditional practices, ideas and imagery into a contemporary art form. Often described as punk-shamanism, Menlibayeva’s videos are theatrical and laden with complex references — from tribal symbolism to images of the communist industrial past.

A New Silk Road installation view

One of Menlibayeva’s videos shown at the New York art fair — Headcharge — is a story that casually begins in a restaurant in the city of Almaty and gradually slips into a disturbing ritual performed by the female protagonists. The video shows several urban young women eating a sheep’s head and feeding each other, thereby underscoring the juxtaposition of traditional nomadic beliefs with today’s urban lifestyle. Step by step, the film gives way to a parallel reality, referring to shamanistic travels between worlds.

Born and raised in Kazakhstan, Menlibayeva currently lives and works in Berlin and Amsterdam. Art curators say she often depicts the cultural and spiritual traditions of her native country as erotic and strongly feminine dream sequences.

Menlibayeva’s second film, Kissing Totems, is a surrealistic journey inspired by her childhood memory of walking past Soviet factories, seeking the help of a shaman to cure her mother’s severe illness. With what seems to be the clear influence of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s enigmatic style (particularly the bleak interiors of Stalker), the split-screen video follows a girl, accompanied by her mother, entering an abandoned industrial complex filled with birds. The video then takes a surreal turn when she encounters female-like creatures, called peris.

Meldibekov: photographs of leaders and Peak Communism

The other Kazakh artist presented at the Asian art fair, Meldibekov, explores the question of belonging, but through a different prism. His series Family Album (made together with his brother Nurbossyn Oris) are historic photographs of groups of ordinary people — families or friends — posing in front of a public sculpture of their country’s leaders. Each old picture shot during the Soviet period is matched by a newer one of the same people at the same spot but with a different sculpture behind them — a change in the figure with whom they are associated, determined by the state and history.

Meldibekov looks at the figure of the leader as fetishized by ordinary citizens. He also shows people as if both empowered by virtue of proximity to the great leader and the due diligence of paying homage to him.

Meldibekov has recently begun a series entitled Peak Communism which was also featured at the New York Asian Art Fair. The artist inverts cheap metal pots and bowls and moulds their tops to show their shapes as different shapes — such as Communism Peak, Lenin Peak and Peak of the Pioneer.

Kyrgyz art: video and photography at Winkleman New York

Elsewhere, an exhibition of Kyrgyz artists Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev, entitled A New Silk Road, is on display these days at the Winkleman Gallery in New York City. The show runs through January 10. A series of photo images and a 5-channel video, shot along the highways and small villages connecting China through Kyrgyzstan to Europe, capture the determination and resourcefulness that define this mountainous and economically impoverished region and provide snapshots of how local and global economics are intertwined.

• Eurasianet for more
• Winkleman Gallery for A New Silk Road images and artist bios
• To represent Central Asia and the Caucasus in 2008 Shanghai art fair Best of Discovery, curator Sara Raza has alighted on the work of the outlandish Kazak performance artist Erbossyn Meldibekov and also on the emerging Georgian artist Sophia Tabatadze (see post click here)

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