In 2002, Sergey Maslov, a relatively unknown artist from Almaty in Kazakhstan, was given a grant to write a fantasy novel in which the contemporary artists of the Central Asian region were the protagonists, floating like stars in their own orbit in a fictional space age.
He accepted the grant, bought a computer, wrote the novel’s outline and then, suddenly, died. Fascinated by his legacy and unfinished work, Yuliya Sorokina, a curator and writer, took up his mantle and created the website Astral Nomads, which she named after his proposed novel.
It is an archive for Maslov’s work and a handful of other artists, in which the internet acts as a metaphor for outer space.
It was through this website that Payam Sharifi, the co-founder of the Central Asian art collective Slavs and Tatars, found Sorokina and asked her to be involved in this year’s Art Dubai.
Kazakhstan is one of six countries under the spotlight at the eighth edition of Art Dubai, which starts on March 19.
Every year, in a section called Marker, the focus is on a certain geographical region and this year it is Central Asia, which also includes Russia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.
The curators are Slavs and Tatars and are attempting to present a portrait of the region that stretches from the Caucasus to South-east Asia.
“We are calling our editorial line of inquiry a regime of portraiture — essentially asking simple questions to an otherwise complex subject matter,” they explain.
Saying the region is sometimes overlooked in the West and the Middle East, Slavs and Tatars have used a “rigorous, research-based” process to select the artists for the communal Marker platform.
“For us, art is only a departure point,” the group explains. “It is never the final destination, but a platform of investigation into issues as diverse as faith, ritual, identity and language. So the selection of art spaces has been made with an equal emphasis on narrative and discourse as on the work’s formal qualities.”
Sorokina, who cofounded an organisation called Asia+, will present nine artists from Kazakhstan and one from Uzbekistan. Also selected are an initiative called Yarat in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Popiashvili Gvaberidze Window Project from Tbilisi, Georgia, ArtEast from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and North Caucasus Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art from Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia.
“Slavs and Tatars used their intimacy with the region both as an imagined and real geopolitical geography to look for artists, spaces and programmes that privilege a sense of complexity, by building on the work of esteemed curators working in or with the region,” they say.
Although all the galleries selected are part of the regular commercial programme of the fair, they will have their own platform within the space, which Slavs and Tatars have designed to resemble a chai-khaneh or Eurasian tea salon. There will be tea served and welcoming seating as well as a curatorial statement printed on the wall to give the feel of a museum-like show.
The artists and curators all come from disparate backgrounds with varying cultures, but they are united by common histories and geography and that is the idea of presenting the show in such a way.
Aida Mahmudova, the founder of Yarat, who has become a key player in public art events in Baku, says that contemporary art is the only way that many people are forced to consider the long and intertwined history of the region. It is also with international outings such as Art Dubai in mind that she founded Yarat.
“It seemed to me there were many creative individuals but a lack of support for contemporary art,” she says. “I wanted to create a platform and bring everyone together for exhibitions and events where we could learn from one another and share our ideas with the rest of the public.”
She also puts a strong emphasis on education, with a mission to nurture an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan. And so, Art Dubai gives an ideal platform for exchange.
“In Central Asia, after the fall of the Soviet Union, NGO-funded initiatives stepped in to support cultural initiatives, but after two decades, they are pulling out, with the understanding that resource-rich countries such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan could and should support their own cultural programmes,” explain Slavs and Tatars. “Unfortunately, no Central Asian country has drafted a coherent, consistent cultural policy and in retrospect too little thought was given to the necessity for educational programs to provide a long-term platform of reflection, consideration and training for the next generation of artists.”
With the Marker section then, Central Asian artists are given a chance for that reflection and the rest of the world gets to see some of the thoughts and ideas in progress.
• Art Dubai runs at Madinat Jumeirah from March 19-22. For more information on Yarat, visit www.yarat.az. For Astral Nomads, visit www.astralnomads.net
