July 2017

Location

YARAT CENTRE

Bayil District (National Flag Square) Baku, Azerbaijan, AZ1003

view map

OPENING HOURS
Tuesday – Sunday:
12 am > 8 pm

CONTACT

+99412 505 1414

E-MAIL

info@yarat.az

View map

YARAT CENTRE: SUNS AND NEONS ABOVE KAZAKHSTAN – GROUP EXHIBITION

07 Jun - 29 Oct 17

YARAT Contemporary Art Space presents Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan – a group exhibition of 16 artists, including 5 emerging Kazakhstani artists.


Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan brings together seminal works of the 1990s and the early 2000s, from the artists Erbossyn Meldibekov, Bakhyt Bubicanova, Galim Madanov and Zauresh Terekbay, Almagul Menlibayeva, Yelena Vorobyeva and Viktor Vorobyev, Rustam Khalfin, Said Atabekov, Creoleax Centr, Alexander Ugay as well as new commissions by emerging artists: Asel Kadyrkhanova, Nurakhmet Nurbol, Suinbike Suleimenova and Gaisha Madanova


The exhibition aims to deconstruct a romanticized image of Kazakhstan as a vast and largely unpopulated geography that for decades played upon the collective imagination. It addresses various narratives of national history, from a post-colonial to a critical perspective, while discovering, mapping and voicing changing attitudes and concerns across generations. The exhibition explores the shifts and breaks within the construct of Kazakh national and cultural identity during a short timespan of its independence. It is an exhibition of Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan, of landscape and cityscape. Of artists dealing with history and nation building and an emerging generation concerned with private life and the emancipation of the individual within the isolated reality of city life.


Visual arts were introduced in Kazakhstan with Soviet art schools, established in the 1930s as a form of nation building. Through the 1940s, many practitioners of the avant-garde (then fallen out of favor) were deported to Kazakhstan, resulting in a surprising and mostly undocumented emergence of a non-conformist art scene. This continued through the 50s till the early 90s with strong connections to the Moscow and Leningrad non-conformist and conceptualist circles.


With the break of the Soviet Union, a radical shift took place in the Kazakh art scene. Some practices continued the conceptualist line looking at their own position as part of a Central Asian narrative, while a younger generation searched for a new language. These artists raised questions on postcolonial Central Asia, which found itself in between the revival of national and ethnic imagery and forced processes of identity construction. Playing with provocation, humor, irony and romanticism artists explored the contradictory moments within the rhetoric of authenticity, addressing national independence, recent history and social identity.


Since 1991, like other CIS countries, Kazakhstan went through various socio-economic shifts radically changing its cultural fabric. An emerging generation of artists, growing up during the booming 2000s, did not experience the nationalistic euphoria of the 1990s and do not romanticize their country's past or heritage. They are the new city kids, aware of global networks and social media, resisting confinement and societal designations around them. Their concerns are much more individual and their works draw both from illusions and disillusionments, hope and disappointments of life entrapped within the city...


This exhibition is curated by Björn Geldhof

Assistant curator Anna Fech

Research Anna Fech, Suad Garayeva, Björn Geldhof


With the support of Eurasian Cultural Alliance 


Notes to editors: 

Exhibition: Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan

Location: YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, National Flag Square, Bayil, AZ1003 

Dates: June 7 – October 29, 2017 

Exhibition opens: Tuesday through Sunday, from 11am until 8pm

Admission is free


About YARAT 

YARAT is an artist-founded, not-for-profit art organisation based in Baku, Azerbaijan, established by Aida Mahmudova in 2011. YARAT (which means 'create' in Azerbaijani) is dedicated to contemporary art with a long-term commitment to creating a hub for artistic practice, research, thinking and education in the Caucasus, Central Asia and surrounding region.

YARAT comprises the YARAT Art Centre, ARTIM Project Space, YARAT Studios, YAY Gallery and an extended educational programme. YARAT Art Centre, a 2000m² converted Soviet-era naval building, opened in March 2015 and is the organisation's main exhibition space. The exhibition programme features new commissions by artists responding to the region.  It supports and provides access to artists from the Caucasus, Central Asia and surrounding region, while engaging and introducing established, international artists. The Centre is also home to YARAT's collection, which is exhibited in the space once a year. 

In October 2015, YARAT opened ARTIM, a central, accessible and dynamic space in Baku's Old City. ARTIM (meaning 'progress' in Azerbaijani) shows experimental practices and new work by emerging Azeri art professionals (selected through open call) and the international artists from the residency programme. It features 12 small-scale projects each year. 

YAY Gallery is a commercial gallery that opened in 2012 in order to further support arts infrastructure in Azerbaijan. The gallery shows mid-career and established Azerbaijani artists both locally and abroad. YAY (meaning “share” in Azerbaijani) shares all proceeds from sales of work between the artists and YARAT. 

In 2016 YARAT launched a renewed residency programme. Aimed at developing young Azerbaijani voices and emerging international artists, the focus is on new, innovative practices and artists with an interest in the region. The residency programme is based at YARAT Studios, which has 11 spaces for artists.

Education has been at the heart of YARAT's activities since its creation. With a dedicated public programme, including workshops, lectures, screenings and a specific programme for artist residencies, YARAT aims to give access to broad audiences of all ages. The public programme invests proactively in building communities and nurturing a wider understanding of, and participation in, contemporary art. 


For media and image enquiries please contact:  

Hokuma Karimova 

Telephone: +99 450 2746747 

Email: hokuma.k@yarat.az

Loading