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We work with artists and cultural professionals expanding knowledge, horizons and opportunities for exchange to open dialogue, further international arts practice and champion intercultural understanding.

Creative Initiatives

Central Asian Project

Central Asian Project is a unique collaboration between Central Asia and the UK, dedicated to forging new links between the art communities in both these regions through artists’ residencies, cultural exchanges and exhibitions. Co-curated by Anna Harding, Kathy Rae Huffman and Yuliya Sorokina, it showcases work from UK artists and some of today’s most influential artists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

The exhibition draws attention to the similarities and differences between culture and contemporary art in these regions with works that deal with subject matter as diverse as Muslim prayer, Kazakh eagle hunters, the phenomena of Naomi Campbell, and punk romantic shamanism.

Unlike their British counterparts, Central Asian artists have been underrepresented in the global contemporary art scene, with their region perceived as being on the periphery of contemporary culture.

The exhibition provides an insight into Central Asia, and gives a new perspective on British cultural identity, exploring how personal and national identities are created through landscape, culture, history and politics, whilst challenging the prejudices and preconceptions that we hold about other countries.

Kazakhstan-based photographer and video artist Alexander Ugay’s practice involves ‘cinema-objects’ in the form of short, experimental films, parables and performances recorded on 16mm Soviet-era video cameras. In his new photographic work Two Banks for Central Asian Project, Ugay merges almost imperceptibly, images of London with those of his home town, Kyzilorda, blurring visual and cultural boundaries. In Dog Show, he lurks among the participants of a stratified cult culture.

Lens based media artist Dinu Li’s (UK) practice addresses the construction of identity – individual and collective, shaped by the forces of cultural, social and economic trends. At SPACE, Li’s video Chronicle of a Dream Foretold is inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960’s film of The Rolling Stones rehearsing their song Sympathy for the Devil, Li worked with a local Kazkhstani rock band ‘Motor Roller’ in a studio recording their latest song Dreams. The new three channel work Episodes of Time, a video installation revealing Kazakhstan through different epochs of time, set against a soundscape of construction and destruction and the photo series Slightly Less than 4 times the Size of Texas will show at Cornerhouse.

Artist, lecturer and writer Ruth Maclennan (UK) produced new video and photography works during her residency in Kazakhstan. Her new video piece Valley of Castles (Hunting Eagles) follows the artist’s journey in South-Eastern Kazakhstan where she filmed traditional Kazakh eagle hunters. Her other new video work Capital, installed at Cornerhouse, shows the development of Astana, the new post-modern capital of Kazakhstan.

Shona Illingworth (UK) works with photography, film, video and sound, to create installations in which image and voice combine to test the formation of identity, imagination and perception. During her visit to Kazakhstan she visited the infamous Kazakh Gulags to examine the people still living in them, and their surrounding landscapes. A new work Tomb, a 3 minute video will show at SPACE, whileKarlag, a slide tape/video projection will premiere at Cornerhouse.

Vyacheslav Akhunov (Uzbekistan) works with various media, painting, installation, performance, actions and video art. He is exhibiting previous works including Corner (2004). In this piece, protagonist Sergey Tychina, wearing Muslim headdress, recites a namas (prayer). He does not turn towards Mecca, as required by Islam, but places himself in corners very close to the walls, thus entirely focusing on himself. The basis of the piece is to reflect the human, recognising their individuality, mental space and authenticity.

Almagul Menilbayeva (Kazakhstan) is a pioneer in the tradition of punk romantic shamanism, whereby ancient traditions and mystical laws of Kazakh art combine with avant-garde ideas from personal experiences. She employs this movement to express her vision and understanding of the surrounding world and creates harmony between traditional Islamic culture and contemporary art. The notion of female identity is fundamental to her work, as in Steppenbaroque (2003), filmed in the Kazakhstan landscape. She will show a series of video works that are performance for camera.

Natalya Dyu (Kazakhstan) uses video and animation to produce insightful, ironic and multicultural pieces. Dyu often incorporates cultural icons, as in the video piece I Love Naomi, Naomi Loves Fruits. In this work, Dyu is seated in on a toilet musing out loud about the supermodel Naomi Campbell, imagining the ideal life of Campbell, her habits and temper. The video transforms into animation in which the model is represented among her favorite things. In this soliloquy Dyu allows viewers to participate in her own ideals and longings.

Vyacheslav Akhunov, Natalya Dyu and Almagul Menlibayeva are developing new works while in residence in Manchester and London, to be shown in a final joint exhibition in Central Asia during 2007.

Jointly organised by AsiaArt+ (Almaty, Kazakhstan), Cornerhouse (Manchester) and SPACE (London) Central Asian Project will show simultaneously at Cornerhouse and SPACE in February 2007 before touring Central Asia.

Central Asian Project is supported by Arts Council England, British Council (Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan), Visiting Arts, Air Astana and the Open Society Institute.

Cornerhouse, Manchester, 9 February - 1 April 2007
SPACE, London, 17 February – 14 April 2007