Like dervishes, dancers turned in circles of their white and rainbow kimonos within the corridor of the Almaty Museum of Arts throughout a efficiency by Greek artist Nefeli Papadimouli. They have been creating area amongst the gang that receded increasingly in the direction of the partitions of the constructing. Two British businesspeople behind me continued to community whereas the sleeves of the dervishes missed them by only a few centimeters. It was the evening of the museum’s opening, and, as surreal because it was, these two folks’s intense chatting about investments and offers, as if nothing was taking place round them, isn’t a surprise for Kazakhstan. We’re in a rustic identified for vehicles, pure assets and wealth generated by way of oil exports, and many individuals right here—expats and locals alike—have habits which are arduous to interrupt.
Asking somebody to place apart trade to understand artwork is a tricky promote, although that’s prone to change with the current openings, only a few days aside, of the Almaty Museum and the Tselinny Heart of Up to date Tradition. Collectively they mark the start of a brand new section for Kazakhstan, and its epicenter is the nation’s historic cultural capital versus the extra business-oriented Astana.
A metropolis of contradictions, Almaty may be very inexperienced and has many parks however can also be affected by site visitors, leading to it being one of many 25 most polluted cities on the planet. Town heart has a variety of Soviet buildings and decorations that talk to its previous—particularly to area exploration—however these have been carelessly swallowed by KFC, Starbucks and Burger King. Right here, the communist previous and consumerist current conflate, and these juxtapositions are reminders that the current historical past of Kazakhstan is something however simple. The massive former USSR state was initially composed of nomadic populations coming from Central Asia, and in the present day there’s a Muslim-majority inhabitants that speaks each Russian and Kazakh, a language as soon as seen as inferior by the Russians, who tried for years to suppress it.
A lot of its modern artists discover what it means to decolonize from Russia, rebelling in opposition to a type of orientalism that differs from that practiced by Western colonial powers. Amongst them is Almagul Menlibayeva, one of the extensively identified modern Kazakh artists, whose work reconfigures nomadic narratives, remixing symbols and centering girls. She was chosen as the topic of the primary solo exhibition on the Almaty Museum of Arts—a complete and beautiful present curated by Gridthiya Gaweewong.
Ladies are on the heart of the Kazakh artwork scene. “The presence of girls artists isn’t by design; it’s merely the fact of our scene,” Almaty Museum director Meruyert Kalieva instructed Observer. On the day of the opening, she was pregnant and radiant in a white costume, representing not solely an authoritative voice for modern artwork in Kazakhstan, but additionally reducing a goddess-like determine. “Ladies are the main voices in Kazakhstan, and it naturally displays within the museum.”
The evolving Central Asian artwork scene
It has been a couple of years since Central Asia started quietly making a spot for itself on the worldwide artwork scene. A big second lately was the Central Asian focus on the Parisian artwork honest Asia Now, the place a European public may encounter the shows of Aspan Gallery, based by Kalieva, and Pygmalion Gallery, based by Danagul Tolepbay, who was behind the Kazakh Pavilion on the 2024 Venice Biennale. Central Asian and Caucasus modern artwork was highlighted final 12 months at Abu Dhabi Artwork, in a particular part curated by Elvira Eevr Djaltchinova-Malec, director and founding father of the WIMCAA Basis.
Each from a market standpoint and a vital standpoint, there’s a tendency to contemplate the area too broadly. Curator Sara Raza, director of the soon-to-open Centre for Up to date Artwork in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, developed along with her curatorial studio, Punk Orientalism, a variety of exhibits specializing in the area, together with initiatives in Doha. On this context, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—the 2 most distinguished “stans” when it comes to rising artwork scenes—have proven a level of rivalry. Each have hosted main occasions up to now few weeks, however there was little collaboration between them. Whereas Kazakhstan acquired in Almaty many artwork professionals coming from the Bukhara Biennale and the Tashkent Artwork Centre preview, Uzbekistan did little to facilitate wider engagement, with just a few Uzbek representatives current on the Almaty Museum of Arts opening.
The comparability between the 2 international locations is inevitable, though not fully honest: Uzbekistan’s authorities has closely invested in cultural infrastructure lately, utilizing artwork as a part of a broader tourism and heritage technique, whereas Kazakhstan continues to rely largely on non-public initiatives to develop its artwork scene.
Kazakhstan’s rising artwork system
On this nascent modern artwork ecosystem, it’s solely pure for pivotal artwork figures like Kalieva to put on many various hats and contribute to the artwork scene in several methods. In the mean time, there appear to not be sufficient curators within the nation, although on the similar time, Kazakhstan is much less heavy-handed in sourcing artwork experience from the West, in comparison with many different Center Jap or Asian international locations.
Take into account the Almaty Museum’s inaugural curators: Latvian Inga Lace—C-MAP Central and Jap Europe Fellow at MoMA in New York, curator on the Latvian Centre for Up to date Artwork and an in any other case eminent determine within the Jap European artwork scene—and Gridthiya Gaweewong, arguably a family title in Southeast Asian modern artwork, having directed the Jim Thompson Artwork Heart in Bangkok and the Thailand Biennale 2023 in Chiang Rai.
“When placing collectively the primary presentation for the Almaty Museum of Arts, I trusted our specialists, like Gridthiya and Inga, with the intention to carry new visions and new emotions to modern artwork,” Kalieva mentioned. “My function is to steadiness these totally different mentalities and discover compromises, whereas giving artists full freedom in short-term exhibitions.”
Seventy % of the works within the museum come from the private assortment of the Almaty Museum of Arts founder Nurlan Smagulov. For him, the museum is each a private and a nationwide endeavor. “In the course of the Soviet Union, all the things was prohibited,” he instructed Observer. “Going overseas was inconceivable. No one collected artwork, and artists may solely work in socialist realism. At this time we’ve got freedom, and I nonetheless can not get sufficient of it. Constructing this museum is my manner of constructing positive this freedom interprets into artwork.”
Smagulov’s ardour for artwork emerged lengthy earlier than the museum was conceived: “After I was 17, finding out in Moscow, I used to go to the Pushkin Museum throughout lunch breaks. Seeing the Impressionists was like a bombshell to me,” he recalled. “At the moment, I by no means thought I would go away the nation, not to mention accumulate artwork. At this time I’ve a few of these works in my assortment, and it nonetheless feels unreal that I may carry them again to Kazakhstan.”
The Almaty Museum’s constructing was designed to convey this concept of openness, with spacious and squared-off structure that includes pale limestone and rust-colored window frames harking back to Richard Serra sculptures. The result’s a heat, expansive, luminous and orderly area that feels open but additionally structured.
It’s a disgrace that throughout the week of the opening, worldwide audiences coming to Almaty didn’t have any factors of comparability or historic development, as the primary public artwork museum in Almaty, Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, was closed for renovation. Taken pessimistically, this exhibits how little vested curiosity the federal government has within the natural improvement of its artwork scene. We’re left to marvel simply how a lot non-public style shapes a rustic’s artwork historical past. “Selecting works is numerous duty. We visited many museums, studied fastidiously, and chosen works with a robust connection to our area,” Smagulov asserted. “This isn’t about ticking containers with blue-chip names. Each work right here is chosen for its relation to Kazakhstan.”
Regional shifts in politics and tradition
The Almaty Museum of Arts opens at a really specific time for the area. With the conflict in Ukraine and the decline of the artwork scene in Russia, it’s value contemplating whether or not Kazakhstan, and the opposite Central Asian “stans,” may develop into a brand new heart for modern artwork from the whole area, one thing that’s now not potential in Moscow or Saint Petersburg.
The everlasting assortment of the Almaty Museum doesn’t veer a lot in the direction of Russia; it’s, as Smagulov mentioned, very a lot targeted on Kazakh and Central Asian artwork. “Kazakhstan has all the time been extra Eurasian than Russia. Round 30 % of our territory is in Europe, and with our massive Russian inhabitants, our nation is usually seen as extra Westernized than Uzbekistan. However on the similar time, our nomadic roots and openness set us aside. We don’t shut ourselves behind fences; we reside within the open steppe.” Smagulov emphasised that the museum sees itself as a part of a decolonial course of. “That is a few longer seek for Kazakh identification aside from Soviet ideology. You’ll be able to already see it within the artwork of the Nineteen Sixties. Now it has develop into much more pressing.”
He added that he conceived the museum as half of a bigger ecosystem: “We hope the Almaty Museum may have a Bilbao impact for town, attracting each worldwide friends and guests from throughout Kazakhstan. However greater than that, we wish to create bold initiatives and ensure Kazakh artists are represented overseas, so folks know the way wealthy our nation is in poetry and artwork.”
