1. No category

ALMAGUL
MENLIBAYEVA
Born in Kazakhstan
Lives and works in Germany and Kazakhstan,
collaborates with the sound artist and composer OMFO (German Popov, Amsterdam)
​
Education
1987 –1992 Academy of Art and Theatre, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Awards and Grants
2013
Main Award, KINO DER KUNST in the International Film Competition, Munich, Germany;
2011
KfW Audience Award, Videonale 13, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany;
Open Society Institute Budapest, Art and Culture Network Program Grant;
2​ 010
​ rize de la Nuit Award for Exodus at the 8th International Festival Signes de Nuit, Paris;
P
2​ 009
Gold Tambourine Prize: Video Art, 1st Prize, Golden Drum International Video Festival, Hanti-Mansiisk,
Russia;
​
2003
Sacred Places of Kazakhstan, 3rd Prize, Center of Contemporary Art, Soros Foundation, Kazakhstan;
2002
First Video Festival, 2nd Prize, Center of Contemporary Art, Soros Foundation, Kazakhstan;
TARLAN, Клуб меценатов Казахстана, an independent prize of Kazakhstan;
1995
Asia Art, Grand Prix, Second Biennial of Central Asia, Tashkent, Uzbekistan;
​DARIN, the state Grand Prix for artists, Kazakhstan;
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015
Solo show Fire Talks to me curated by Suad Garaeva, Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku Azerbajan (upcoming December 2015);
​2014
Transoxiana Dreams, Videozone, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany;
2013
Empire of the Memory, Ethnographic Museum, Warsaw, Polland;
An Odd tor the Wastelands and Gulags, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria;
2012
​Daughters of Turan, Casal Solleric, La Palma De Mallorca, Spain;
2011
Exodus, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany;
Les rêves perdus d’Aral, Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris, France;
Transoxiana Dreams, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY;
​
My Silk Road to you, Tengri-Umai Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan;
2010
Lonely at the Top, Europe at large #6 (Refrains from the Wasteland), Museum van
​Hedendaagse Kunst (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium [http://ensembles.mhka.be/ensembles/europe-at-large];
Daughters of Turan, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY;
2009
Exodus,Tengri-Umai Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan;
​
Kurban, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY;
​
​2008
Kissing Totems, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY;
2​ 007
On the Road, Galerie Davide Gallo, Berlin, Germany;
Selected Group Exhibitions
​
​
2015
Union of the Fire and Water, curated by Suad Garaeva commissioned by Yarat Founadtion, 56 th Venice Biennale, Italy ( May 9- November 22);
Fairy Tales, Utopian Days,​Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, Taiwan, (April 25 -June 14);
LINE, curated by Basak Senova, Art Rooms, Cyprus, Turkey
http://basaksenova.com/ex_35.html
2014
Group show of Contemporary Art Kazakhstan, curated by Dimitry Konstantinidis, Daria Evdokimova, Estelle Pietzyk, Museum of Contemporary
Art Strasbourg, France;
Prologue Exhibition of Honolulu Biennial, curated by Koan Jeff Baysa and IsabellaEllaheh Hughes,
Hawaii, USA;
Color of Pomergranates, 90th year anniversary of the birth of S.Paradjanov, curated by Darya Khan,
State gallery Solyanka, Moscow, Russia;
Threads, curated by Mirijam Westen, Museum of Contemporay Art Arnhem, Netherlands;
​
​Changing Worlds: Contemporary Art from Central Asia, Singapore Art Stage 2014,
curated by Charles Merewether, Singapore;
2013
​Lost to the Future: Contemporary Art from Central Asia, curated by Charles Merewether, Lassale College of Arts, Singapore, Singapore;
Film Program Media Art Lab, 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Manege, Russia;
A Sense of Place, Wellin Museum, Hamilton, New York;
​
Screening of “Transoxiana Dreams” at MoMA PS1 as part of EXPO 1: New York;
​
​Projects Art and Science focusing on the concept of IDENTITY lecture and exhibition with participation Vito Acconci,
Ori Gersht, Almagul Menlibayeva, scientists Vittorio Gallese (neuroscientist specialist in mirror neurons and social brain)
Gustavo Pietropolli Charmet (psychiatrist specialist in adolescence) and Luc Montagnier (Nobel Prize Winner for the HIV Virus
and on the run for asecond Nobel Prize for teletransportation of DNA), Madre Museum of Contemporary Art, Napoli,Italy;
KINO DER KUNST, International film festival, Munich, Germany;
Female Power. Matriarchy, Spirituality & Utopia, Museum of Modern Kunst, Arnhem, Holland (March 2 - May 19, 2013);
Talk and screening with conversation with Susanne M. Winterling at the Conference Winter-Central Asian
Pavilion 55th Venice Biennale, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo,Norway;
​
​The Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;
​
​2012
The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT7) Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) & Queensland Art Gallery (QAG);
One Sixth of the Earth, Ecologies of Image, ZKM- Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medien Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany;
ContemporaryArt from Kazakhstan, project of Marat Guelman,curator Nailya Allachverdieva, gallery
Cultural Allianz, Center of Contemporary Art in Vinzavod, Moscow, Russia;
III International Biennale of Contemporary Art „Moya Yurga“, Khanty Mansiysk Biennale,Russia;
​Contemporary Video Art, Videonale-Donetsk, Donetsk, Ukraine;
Nomadic Art Camp, Center of ContemporaryArt Bishkek, Bishkek State Museum, Kyrgyzstan;
18th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;
Lightness & Gravity: Contemporary Works from the Collection, Queensland Art Gallery Foundation
Grant Collection: Queensland ArtGallery, Brisbane, Australia;
2011
The 6thTashkent Biennial, Tashkent, Uzbekistan;
Off the Beaten Path: Women, Art and Violence, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts;
Newcomb Gallery, Tulane University; and Prospect.2 Biennial, New Orleans, USA;
4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia;
​Between Heaven and Earth: Contemporary Art from the Centre of Asia, Calvert22, London, UK;
Expanded Cinema, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia;
Off the Beaten Path: Women, Art and Violence, the Global Health Odyssey Museum, Atlanta, GA;
Video Re: View Festival as part of Videonale 13, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice, Poland;
​COLLECTION XXVII: East from 4° 24’, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (MHKA), Antwerp, Belgium;
Videonale 13, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany;
Plot for a Biennial, Sharjah Biennial 10, Sharjah, UAE;
​
Off the Beaten Path: Women, Art and Violence, the Chicago Cultural Center, IL, USA;
​
2010
21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery,Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
Mother, Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz, Austria;
Tarjama/Translation, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY;
Off the Beaten Path: Women, Art and Violence, El Cubo-Tijuana Cultural Center,Tijuana, Mexico; the Museo
Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico;
​
​2009
Off the Beaten Path: Women, Art and Violence, the Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway;
University of California, San Diego, CA;
Re-imagining, Calvert 22, London, UK;
Unconditional Love, 53rd Venice Biennale, Arsenale Novissimo 89, Venice, Italy;
East from Nowhere, Arsenale II, Turin, Italy;
​
Tarjarma/Translation, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY,USA;
2008
World on Video – International Video Art, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina,
Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy;
Love Love Love, Martos Gallery, New York, NY;
The Peekskill Project, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY;
The Distance to the Sun, Galerie Davide Gallo, Berlin, Germany;
Asia, College of New Jersey Art Gallery, Ewing, NJ;
Time Code, Mambo Museum of Contemporary Art, Bologna, Italy;
​I Dream of the Stans, curated by Leeza Ahmadi, Winkleman Gallery, New York, NY;
2007
Live Cinema/The Return of the Image: Video from Central Asia, curated by Viktor Misiano, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA;
Destination Asia, Galerie 88, curated Valeria Ibraeva, Mumbai, India;
​
Central Asian Project, in collaboration with Asia Art + Cornerhouse, curated by Yuliya Sorokina, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan;
Peristan, performance and screening for the opening of the 52nd Venice Biennale, Central Asian Pavillion, curated by Uyliya Sorokina, Venice,
Italy;
Time of the Storytellers, curated by Viktor Misiano, Museum of Contemporary Art - Kiasma, curated by Viktor Misiano, Helsinki, Finland;
Thermocline of Art - New Asian Waves, curated by Wonil Rhee, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany;
​
The Paradox of Polarity: Contemporary Art from Central Asia, curated by Leeza Ahmady, Bose Pacia Gallery, New York, NY; Central Asian Project, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK;
2006
CATODICA, CURATED BY MARIA CAMPITELLI, TRIESTE, ITALY;
Actual Archives: Central Asian Contemporary Art, Rosamira Festival, curated by Viktor Misiano,
organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Moscow, Russia;
16th Sydney Biennale, performance Caravan Seray, Zones of Contact, curated by Dr. Charles Merewether,
at Pier 2/3 at Walsh Bay, Sydney, Australia;
International Biennial of Photography-Brescia, curated by Sarenco, Brescia, Italy;
Art and Conflict in Central Asia, curated by Valeria Ibraeva, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI;
​Polyzentral, art festival of Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany;
Art from Central Asia, curated by Viktor Miziano, Center of Contemporary Art, Zamok Ujazdowskie, Warsaw, Poland;
The Syndrome of Tamerlan: Art and Conflicts in Central Asia, Haggerty Museum, curated by Valeria Ibraeva,
Enrico Mascelloni and Sarenco, Milwaukee, WI;
​
2005
On the Road, 51st Venice Biennale, Central Asian Pavilion, Venice, Italy;
26th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Lublyana, Slovenia;
Vom roten Stern zur blauen Kuppel, Islamic World Art and Architecture from Central Asia, Ifa Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany;
​The Syndrome of Tamerlan: Art and Conflict in Central Asia, Palazzo dei Sette, curated by Valeria Ibraeva,
​Enrico Mascelloni and Sarenco, Orvieto, Italy;
​
​
​2004
Sacred Places of Kazakhstan, video festival organized by The Center for Contemporary Art, Almaty, Kazakhstan; M and Others, 1st Bishkek
International Exhibition of Contemporary Art-Bishkek, State Museum, Kyrgyzstan; Art-Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk, Russia; International Visions,
The Gallery, Washington, D.C. USA;
Vom roten Stern zur blauen Kuppel, Islamic World Art and Architecture from Central Asia,Ifa Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Pueblos y Sombras,
Canaja Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico;
Natural Women, Visible Voice, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
​
​2003
Art-Novosibirsk, Novosibirik, Russia and Almaty Art, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Caravan Café, Rocca di Umbertide - Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Perugia, Italy;
2002
Catmania,Illuzeum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; State Museum of Modern Art, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Nomad Land, Art and Culture from Central Asia, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany; First Festival of Video Art, Soros Foundation, Almaty, Kazakhstan; Re-orientation: Art
on Central Asia, ACC Gallery, Weimar, Germany; Fourth Biennial of Graphics, Novosibirsk, Russia;
​
​2001
Inner Asia, traveling exhibition of Graphics of Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Siberia, Tashkent,Uzbekistan; Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan; Novosibirsk, Russia (2001 – 2003);
​The Days of the Culture of Kazakhstan in Moscow, Moscow Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia;
Originaire du Kazakhstan, cette jeune femme vit et travaille entre Berlin et Almati. Son esthétique où se mêlent
photographies et vidéos se réclame d’une forme nomade
post-soviet, celle du Kazakhstan contemporain, après sa
formation initiale à l’école du futurisme de l’avant-garde soviétique. Elle explore dans ce qu’elle appelle «son atavisme
archaïque», dans un anthropomorphisme quasi mystique,
l’inconscient collectif de populations des steppes d’Asie
Centrale entre la mer caspienne Baïkonour et l’Altaï.
Après les 80 années marquées par la domination soviétique
et les ravages du génocide culturel, elle devient la voix antique réanimée après un long oubli, le chant éternel des tribus ressuscitant les dieux célestes et les mythes de la Mongolie.Dans cette récente série de photographies, Almagul
révèle un terrible constat qui dénonce les conséquences
morales et environnementales de l’assèchement de la mer
d’Aral. Ses images bouleversantes et à portée quasi mythologique en constituent un accablant témoignage.
En effet, la mer d Aral, lac d’eau salée entre le Kazakhstan
et l’Ouzbékistan qui fut jadis le 4ème lac du monde, a été
méthodiquement asséchée provoquant une des plus importantes catastrophes environnementales du XXème
siècle. Les détournements d’eau des rivières ont alimenté
l’intensive culture du coton en Ouzbékistan et les rizières
en plein désert du Kazakhstan. Ces ponctions progressives
ont d’abord provoqué la salinisation, l’évaporation puis l’assèchement progressif du lac, entrainant la disparition des
espèces et la pollution progressive des sols avec les engrais,
les pesticides et les insecticides. Cet empoisonnement a fait
exploser les taux de cancers, d’anémies et de tuberculoses
dans la région, sans compter le taux effroyable de mortalité infantile auquel s’ajoutent les expérimentations et le
stoquage d’armes biologiques effectués par les russes, dont
on ignore encore les conséquences et les ravages futurs. Almagul utilise les décors désolés de ces rivages désertiques
et stériles pour ranimer dieux et déesses d’un passé perdu,
derniers espoirs d’un peuple et d’une nature bafoués et profanés.
Dans des images d’une profonde simplicité, elle incarne les
ruines désolées d’un empire des steppes déchu, où l’herbe
ne repousse plus et rappelle l’abandon de ses populations
nomades sacrifiées à l’oppression du communisme, au déracinement de ses valeurs, aux guerres civiles, à l’avidité
des hommes et aux catastrophes naturelles.Pour raviver
ces terres d’exil, elle s’incarne sous la forme de faunesses
mutantes venues de nulle part, créatures hybrides centauresses à quatre jambes, filles des louves ou des renardes
rousses, bêtes cornues berçant des agneaux. Des sirènes
sèches gardent en vain des épaves échouées sur des rivages
empoisonnés, dérisoires Titanic, rongés par la rouille et le
sel, privés désormais d’avenir, de pêche et de salut, immobilisés sous un soleil brulant. Une armée de vierges soldates
fictive et immobile attend un ennemi invisible et volatile,
qui pourrait se nommer gaz ou radiation, et veille des
jeunes morts comme endormis sans linceul, militaires ou
pécheurs terrassés. Dans cet univers sans vie, une ironie
cependant pointe et une dérision s’affiche, avec des mises
en scènes qui évoquent celles des pages de catalogues de
tourisme ou l’imagerie kitch érotico-chic des salons pour
vendeurs d’armes.
Mais surtout Almagul renoue, de manière poétique et sensuelle, avec le chamanisme qui a survécu au communisme
et à l’islam. Elle en appelle au dieu suprême de l’Asie Centrale et du panthéon turc, Tengri qui contrôle la sphère céleste, toutes les créations et les renaissances. Elle l’incarne
sous les traits d’un innocent jeune homme contemporain
qui porte un agneau dans une steppe sans frontières et
à l’horizon clair. Pour lui donner voix, elle devient une
chamane, de ces passeuses dont l’âme quitte le corps en
état d’extase, servent les esprits, protègent du malheur les
membres de leur tribu, retrouvent les disparus, devinent
les causes des maladies et les guérissent, lisent l’avenir dans
les osselets de mouton, lèchent jusqu’au sang des objets de
métal pour chasser les mauvais esprits.
Son statut d’artiste l’autorise implicitement à endosser ce
rôle de guérisseuse et à prendre les formes nécessaires à
ce renouveau. Elle devient le miroir régénérant du monde
de ces animaux sacrifiés, l’architecte de temples à reconstruire, ouverts aux vents, entre les mondes musulmans, les
grandes réalisations anciennes, les yourtes traditionnelles
et les rubans de couleurs qui rappellent dans leurs volutes
les anciennes routes de la soie. Elle recrée la cohésion de
ces peuples nomades et montre le chemin tissé d’un futur
possible.
Elle a passé un contrat plastique et poétique avec l’esprit de
la Taïga, des rivières auxquelles elle entend rendre les flots,
et du grand ciel bleu afin d’apaiser la colère de la nature,
après que l’homme l’ait odieusement profanée.
Elle est le lien entre le monde du visible et de l’invisible, du
présent, du passé et du futur qui sont en pleine communication.
Véronique Maxé
ARTIST STATEMENT
My educational background is in the Soviet Russian avant-garde school of Futurism,
which I combine with a nomadic aesthetic of post-Soviet, contemporary Kazakhstan –
something that I have been exploring in recent years through my photographic and
video work.
I use specific ways of expression in modern and contemporary art as a vehicle to
investigate my personal archaic atavism as a certain mystical anthropomorphism.
In other words, I explore the nature of a specific Egregore, a shared cultural psychic
experience, which manifests itself as a specific thought-form among the people(s) of
the ancient, arid and dusty Steppes between the Caspian Sea, Baikonur and Altai in
today’s Kazakhstan. In the Russian language, Archaic Atavism is personalized as a
being, which points to and creates a different meaning. We are not just speaking about
an idea or archaic element in the collective subconscious of a people, but about the
embodiment of our archaic atavism which becomes an active entity, just like a creature
itself. Our archaic atavism is not just internalized, but also externalized. It is as if he
has been awakened by the post-Soviet experience of the indigenous Kazakh people,
who are becoming their own after 80 years of Soviet domination and cultural genocide.
Suddenly he (Archaic Atavism) became interested in enculturation and in behavioral
modernity. He also began to have entertaining dialogues with the transnational
circulation of ideas in contemporary art. For this dialogue, I have chosen the medium
of video and photography and like to work with the notion of memory and reality. My
archaic atavism is interested in my video explorations in the Steppes and in postSoviet Asia. By editing raw data and combining documentary and staged footage, I
become his voice, enabling a cultural exodus from long oblivion. My work raises
metaphysical questions such as Who am I? and Where shall I go?; this (psychic)
experience and perspective marks my artistic language.