“Spirit of Asia”: In Words
Ardak Mukanova,
Dilda Ramazan,
Asel Rashidova
2025
Multimedia installation,
archival materials from the digital
archive of CCA (Soros Center for
Contemporary Art – Almaty)
Digital collection Documentation,
Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture
Ardak Mukanova,
Dilda Ramazan,
Asel Rashidova
2025
Multimedia installation,
archival materials from the digital
archive of CCA (Soros Center for
Contemporary Art – Almaty)
Digital collection Documentation,
Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture
The platform brings together journalistic texts published in the early 2000s in various publications in Kazakhstan and abroad. They are stored in the SCCA* archive that the Tselinny Center digitized. The texts have been selected and presented in a free interpretation in the language of contemporary art of the region at that time, based on words and expressions that mark the language.
The main page of the platform features a map of words and images from these articles. The words are clickable and lead to scans of the documents. Some highlights and quotes are displayed next to the scans. There are 25 texts in total - reviews, critiques, critical articles, and interviews written by journalists, art historians, and artists.
At the exhibition, the digital platform comes as part of a multimedia installation and goes with physical texts and critical commentary by independent curator and researcher Dilda Ramazan.
*The Soros Center for Contemporary Art - Almaty (SCCA) is a platform for the development of contemporary art through exhibitions, educational programmes, archiving, and a thematic library. The center was created as part of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) programmes and operated from 1998 to 2010.
Authors and texts:
Tulegen Baitukenov, «Взорвать башку» (Blow Your Mind)
Tulegen Baitukenov, «Герой нашего племени» (The Hero of Our Tribe)
Dmitriy Barabanov, «Серебряная камера» (Silver Camera)
Tatiana Deltsova, «Держать удар» (Taking the Hit)
Ksenia Evdokimenko, «Здравствуй, родина» (Hello, Motherland)
Ksenia Evdokimenko, «Не люблю талантишки» (I Can’t Stand So-Called Talents)
Valeria Ibraeva, «Культурное расследование в пользу народа Казахстана» (A Cultural Investigation on Behalf of the People of Kazakhstan)
Valeria Ibraeva, «Мы и они: идентичность и интеграция» (Us and Them: Identity and Integration)
Kanat Ibragimov, «Авангард приветствует Ленина» (The Avant-Garde Welcomes Lenin)
Waldemar Januszczak, The grooviest show on earth
Yulia Kuznetsova, «Чувство Азии» (The Sense of Asia)
Agnia Levskaya, «Мама – загадочная Азия, папа – вечный Рим» (Mom is Enigmatic Asia, Dad is Eternal Rome)
Thomas McEvilley, Report from Central Asia: Video Comes to the ‘Stans
Aigerim Mekisheva, «Канат Ибрагимов – продавец идей, контрабандист» (Kanat Ibragimov – Dealer of Ideas, Smuggler)
Aaron Moulton, The Tamerlane Syndrome: Art and Conflicts in Central Asia
Asya Nurieva, «Берегите художника» (Protect the Artist)
Larisa Pletnikova, «В ожидании лучшей жизни» (Waiting for a Better Life)
Yuliya Sorokina, «Неистовый Ербол» (Furious Yerbol)
Saida Suleyeva, «Земля нормальных людей» (Land of Normal People)
Zitta Sultanbaeva, «Оплодотворение» (Fertilization)
Zitta Sultanbaeva, «Восток есть Восток» (The East is the East)
Author Unknown, «Нашествие с Востока» (Invasion from the East)
Olga Vlasenko, «Искусство terra incognita» (Art of Terra Incognita)
Materials for the ZITABL’s performance Miss Asia
Flyer for the exhibition «Внутренняя Азия» (Inner Asia), Valencia Gallery, St. Petersburg