exhibition |
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LONELY AT THE TOP Europe at large #3 |
22 jan 2010 - 07 mar 2010 |
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Gulnara Kasmalieva en Muratbek Djumaliev, Yerbossyn Meldibekov |
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This season we shall be presenting work from major cultural regions about which we know little. This will take place in the LONELY AT THE TOP rooms on the 5th and 6th floors. Since the collapse of the USSR, the European horizon in that direction has remained limited to Russia.
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Since the collapse of the USSR, the European horizon in that direction has remained limited to Russia. We know very little about what is happening in the dynamic Central Asian states and in the Caucasian countries with ancient cultures. The Russian critic and theorist Viktor Misiano has for several years been working to support the artists of this region, which has resulted in some controversial exhibitions. He selected those artistic points of reference he considered most crucial, which included key works by the artists concerned. These works are shown in ensembles and will ultimately also be incorporated into the museum’s collection. |
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The artists, curators and educators Gulnara Kasmalieva (°1960, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) and Muratbek Djumaliev (°1965, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) research in their work the effects of the Soviet past within the current socio-economic situation of Central Asia. In Bishkek they run the art center Art East, which aims to reestablish and improve the support of contemporary arts, art education and artists in Kyrgyzstan and in the broader Central Asian region. Their work Trans Siberian Amazons was first shown in 2005 at the Venice Biennale. The installation unveils the reasons behind the increasing custom of smuggling Chinese goods with the Trans-Siberian railway. The portrait of two women, who out of economic necessity trade domestic goods, gives the audience an insight into the survival strategies within the unsettled Post-Soviet environment. In the work S/he the same woman that was portrayed in Trans Siberian Amazons reappears. In an inimitable manner she sings a romantic song from the eighties entitled A Million of Scarlet Roses by the Soviet-Russian pop diva Alla Pugacheva. The song was extremely popular in Soviet times and tells the story about the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani. He fell in love with an actress and sold all his paintings in order to buy her a million of scarlet roses. The other character in the video is a man who sits in a wheelchair at the market and sings the song Cranes, which is about masculine friendship and treachery. The installation S/he is dedicated to all the people having trouble to settle in these ‘times of change’ due to their values and ideals. The work Trans Siberian Amazons will form a part of the M HKA collection. |
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Yerbossyn Meldibekov (°1964, Tulkubas, Kazakhstan) refers to himself as a political artist. He produces conceptually conceived multimedia installations which comment on the process of change and reform in Central Asia. Meldibekov’s installation Peak Communism is a parody on the utopian aspirations of the former Soviet leaders. A series of metal pots for home use are turned upside-down and reformed into a mountainous landscape. The image alludes to the mountain peaks in the Pamir Mountains, which once were named after Stalin and Lenin as part of the numerous ‘heroic’ monuments throughout the region. By transforming a mundane object of everyday use into a symbol of state ideology, Meldibekov expresses an ironic view on ideology as being nothing more than an empty mould. The installation Mutation shows how the former communist symbols, monuments and cultural objects are losing their ideological meaning and become part of a non-ideological context. The work Peak Communism will form a part of the M HKA collection. |
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more info: LONELY AT THE TOP #1 Europe at large Dmitry Prigov et Said Atabekov LONELY AT THE TOP #2 Europe at large Vahram Aghasyan en Yelena Vorobyeva & Viktor Vorobyev LONELY AT THE TOP #3 Europe at large Gulnara Kasmalieva en Muratbek Djumaliev, Yerbossyn Meldibekov LONELY AT THE TOP #4 Europe at large Koka Ramishvili, Hamlet Hovsepian LONELY AT THE TOP #5 Europe at large Vyacheslav Akhunov, Babi Badalov and Azat Sargsyan LONELY AT THE TOP #6 Europe at large Rustam Khalfin and Almagul Menlibayeva |
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het M HKA is een
