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Aïda Adilbek (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is an artist whose practice spans performance, photography, and film. She works at the intersection of artistic, curatorial, and research methodologies, exploring cultural histories, myths, and communal rites across Central Asia. Born and raised in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Aïda continues to live and work there.
Aïda holds a BA in Art History from the Kazakh National Art Academy (2016) and an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London (2020). She co-founded the Almaty-based artist collective MATA in 2020 and has been a member of DAVRA, the research group initiated by Saodat Ismailova, since 2021. In 2023, she co-founded Bölme, a multidisciplinary school for artistic practitioners in Almaty; was awarded the Sound Art Residency at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris; and received the Prince Claus Fund Seed Award. Her films and works have been shown at Documenta Fifteen (2022), the goEast Film Festival (2023), Qara Film Festival (2023), and the Jean Rouch International Film Festival (2024).
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Askhat Akhmedyarov (village of Aleksandrovo GAI, Ural region) graduated from an art college in Shymkent, where he studied under Vitaly Simakov and Moldakul Narymbetov — the founders of the Kyzyl Tractor art group. Early in his career, he participated in several exhibitions of the Shymkent "Trans-Avangard" group, but later distanced himself from collective practices and moved to Astana to pursue a solo career.
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Now based in Almaty, Akhmedyarov works across a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, video, photography, installation, and performance. His art can be seen as a complex and multilayered framework, which resists single straightforward definition. Deeply intertwined with his life and social engagement, Akhmedyarov’s practice often blurs the line between art and political activism. Employing irony and humour as key strategies, he creates works that challenge viewers’ perceptions and expose the contradictions embedded in cultural, social, and political realities.
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Over the years, Akhmedyarov has become one of the most influential figures in Kazakhstan’s contemporary art scene, known for his bold approach and commitment to questioning authority. His works not only document but also provoke dialogue about freedom, identity, and the role of the artist in society.
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Askhat Akhmediyarov lives and works in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Selected exhibitions include: In Dialogue with Fire, M HKA, Antwerp (2023); Clouds, Power and Ornament – Roving Central Asia, Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (2023); UMIT, Aspan Gallery, Almaty (2022); Singular Plural, National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana (2016); Post-Nomadic Mind, NAtional Museum of Kazakhstan, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London (2015); Protagonists. The Invisible Pavilion of Kazakhstan, IADA, Venice (2015); Lost to the Future: Contemporary Art from Central Asia, LASALLE College of Arts – ICA Singapore (2013); Off the Silk Road: No Mad's Land: Contemporary Art from Central Asia, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2002); and Communications. Experience of Interaction, Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Almaty (2000).
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Said Atabekov (Bes-Terek, Uzbekistan) is a prominent Kazakhstani artist who lives and works in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Atabekov began his artistic career in 1993 as a founding member of the Kyzyl Tractor (The Red Tractor) Group, the first avant-garde art collective to emerge in southern Kazakhstan after the period of Perestroika. Having lived through successive waves of social and political transformation — from nomadic traditions to Soviet communism and then to contemporary capitalism, Atabekov examines the intersections and tensions between these overlapping cultural systems. His work reveals the paradoxes and hybridities that define Central Asian identity today.
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Working across diverse media including video, photography, sculpture, and installation, Atabekov draws on ethnographic motifs and symbols while reflecting on the influences of the Russian avant-garde and post-Soviet experience. His art often combines irony and introspection, addressing both the allure and the clichés of Central Asian exoticism and how these are perceived in global art discourse.
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Recent notable exhibitions include Space. Memory. Progress at the Abylkhan Kasteyev Museum of Arts, Almaty (2025); PLAY, FITE Textile Biennale, Musée Bargoin, Clermont-Ferrand (2024); Parcours, Asia Now art fair, Paris (2023); Totems of Central Asia, Andakulova Gallery, Dubai (2022); The Missing Planet, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato (2019); Thinking Collections, Telling Tales, Mana Contemporary, New Jersey (2018); Eurasian Utopia: Post Scriptum, Suwon I’Park Museum of Art, Suwon (2018).
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Dina Baitassova (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is a multi-linguist artist whose nomadic existence infuses her practice with a rich tapestry of cultural influences and interdisciplinary perspectives. Drawing deeply from self-reflection, she weaves together contemporary narratives, technology, science, and mythology to explore how personal experience intersects with universal stories. After earning a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Sorbonne in the early 2000s and spending more than a decade in Paris, she returned to Central Asia before eventually settling in London, where she is currently based.
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A defining characteristic of Dina’s work is its cross-modal approach, particularly the powerful presence of color. “Color is almost a being in itself,” she says. “Whether organic or artificial, it doesn’t matter—I spend a lot of time trying to see it independently and in relation to others. Color can be a guide to the subconscious, something we observe throughout the history of art. I try not to over-spiritualize it, but certain phenomena are simply experienced on another level.”
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Working within a framework that embraces spirituality and mythology, Dina is drawn to timeless stories and symbols that have shaped human imagination for centuries. “As an artist working with spirituality and mythology, I aim to explore the intersections between these ancient tales, modern life, and personal experience. By engaging with these themes, we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, our place in the world, and the connection we share with all things.”
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Her practice often examines the interplay between the spiritual and physical realms. She incorporates natural materials—stone, wood, corals—to anchor her work in the tangible world, while mythical and spiritual references evoke the ethereal dimensions of existence. “The raw, organic textures and forms of these materials add depth and complexity to my work, connecting us to the earth and its cycles,” she notes. “Through this bridge between the tangible and intangible, I invite viewers to contemplate the deeper mysteries of life.”
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Violetta Bogdanova (Petropavl, Kazakhstan) is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, performance, poetry, and video art. She currently lives and works in Almaty.
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Bogdanova’s early works are rooted in mystical realism, while her more recent paintings move toward abstraction. Characterized by soft pastel palettes, repeated patterns, and ethereal backdrops often inspired by the snowy landscapes of Northern Kazakhstan, her practice seeks to offer a visual respite in an age oversaturated with imagery. Humor, simplicity, vulnerability, and fragility are central to her artistic language, lending her work both poetic playfulness and disarming sincerity.
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In 2023, Bogdanova presented her first solo exhibition, Nothing Important, at Tselinny, and in December 2024 she directed the absurdist New Year’s show Golubiny Ogonyok in collaboration with Tselinny. Her work has also been featured in notable exhibitions and festivals, including ARTBAT Fest, the April Fools’ Competition (Bishkek), Sapar Contemporary (Almaty), TSE Art Destination (Astana), Egin (Almaty), and YEMAA Art Space (Atyrau). Her video works have been showcased at the QYZQARAS and NOMSIZ festivals, further expanding her multidisciplinary exploration of poetic, playful, and immersive artistic experiences.
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About Ulan Djaparov
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Ulan Djaparov (Kyrgyzstan) is a prominent artist, curator, architect, and critic. Based in Bishkek, he is a central and influential figure in the Central Asian art scene and a founding member of Studio Museum, a contemporary art and architecture space in Bishkek that has nurtured multidisciplinary projects by dozens of artists since the early 1990s.
Djaparov’s practice spans performance-based video, installations, and photography. His video performances are notable for their situationist themes, vibrant visuals, and playful, humorous gestures. As a pioneer of contemporary art in Kyrgyzstan, he has organized numerous exhibitions and art events, contributing significantly to the development of the local art community. In addition, Djaparov has published a number of essays on contemporary art and culture, significantly contributing to the development of Kyrgyz artistic culture.
Important recent exhibitions include The Missing Planet, Italy (2019), Phantom Stories: Leitmotifs of Post-Soviet Asia, Sweden (2018), Between Heaven and Earth, UK (2011), Individual Memory in Global Economy, Italy (2010), East of Nowhere. Contemporary Art from Post-Soviet Central Asia, Italy (2009), The Paradox of Polarity. Contemporary Art from Central Asia, USA (2007), No Mad’s Land, Germany (2002).
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About Muratbek Djumaliev and Gulnara Kasmalieva
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Muratbek Djumaliev and Gulnara Kasmalieva (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) are an artistic duo based in Bishkek, whose practice spans video, photography, and socially engaged projects. Their work critically examines Kyrgyzstan’s transition to independence and the enduring legacies of the Soviet era, offering nuanced reflections on life, identity, and social change.
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The duo has exhibited extensively on the international stage, participating in prestigious exhibitions and biennials such as the Venice Biennale, Singapore Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, and Aichi Triennale. Their solo exhibitions have been presented at leading institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, Winkleman Gallery (New York), Laura Bulian Gallery (Milan), The Cube Project Space (Taipei), and Aspan Gallery (Almaty).
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Kasmalieva and Djumaliev have also played a significant curatorial role in shaping the contemporary art scene in Central Asia. They organized the Bishkek International Exhibitions of Contemporary Art (2005–2008) and the public art festival Art Prospect-Bishkek (2017–2018). In 2002, they co-founded the artist-led organization ArtEast and later established the School of Contemporary Art (2009–2019), a dynamic pedagogical platform that fosters social engagement and collaboration. The School’s success was recognized internationally, culminating in a participation at the Gwangju Biennale in 2012.
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Yadykar Ibraimov (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is an Uyghur artist and activist. His work explores themes of memory, identity, and displacement across Central Asia, often focusing on Uyghur and Kazakh communities.
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A graduate of film school, he has directed several documentary films, including Voice of the Glacier, which won multiple awards at international film festivals, and Questions, supported by CinéDOC and European film programs.
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His photography project about Uyghur genocide survivors, created within Magnum Photos’ Beyond the Silence initiative, has been exhibited internationally and acclaimed for its intimate and powerful storytelling.
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Saodat Ismailova (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) is a filmmaker and visual artist, working between Tashkent and Paris.
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Having studied film, she began her career directing fiction films and documentaries that received recognition at international festivals. In 2013, she presented her first video installation, Zukhra, at the Central Asian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale — a pivotal moment that marked her transition toward blending cinema with contemporary art. Her work has since gained wide acclaim, with major presentations at both the 59th Venice Biennale and Documenta Fifteen in 2022.
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As part of the first generation of post-Soviet Central Asian artists, Ismailova explores the intricate cultural, historical, and spiritual fabric of her region. Her works capture the poetic and multifaceted essence of Central Asia — a land shaped by the meeting of diverse traditions — while weaving together myth, ritual, and everyday experience. Through her delicate approach, Ismailova highlights controversial social and ecological issues, as well as questions of female identity and agency in contemporary realities. The idea of womanhood, and particularly women’s role in preserving cultural memory and passing down ancestral knowledge, lies at the heart of her practice, often expressed through narratives of intergenerational storytelling.
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Recent exhibitions include Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023), the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), Documenta Fifteen (2022), and solo shows at the Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam (2023), and Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing (2023). Her works are held in major collections including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), FRAC (France), Almaty Museum of Arts, and Tselinny Temporary (Almaty).
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Madina Joldybek (Jezkazgan, Kazakhstan) is a multidisciplinary artist, illustrator and educator.
Her practice revolves around themes of women's bodily integrity, sexuality, multi-dimensional motherhood, kelinism, identity, and authoritarian regimes. Madina employs various mediums such as weaving, illustration, painting, collage, sculpture, video, and installation in her work.
Joldybek is the inaugural recipient of the B. Bubikanova Art Prize, and a member of the DAVRA, a research collective that fosters dynamic exchanges of experiences and knowledge to strengthen the Central Asian art scene. Her work is part of the public collection at the Kasteev State Museum of Arts, as well as private collections.
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Aziza Kadyri (Uzbekistan) is a London-based Uzbek multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans textiles, sculpture, new technologies, experimental costume, and performance.
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Her work is defined by a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that enables the creation of immersive experiences across both physical and digital spaces. A central pillar of her practice is community participation. This commitment led her to co-found Qizlar, a self-organised grassroots collective grounded in principles of interdisciplinarity, intersectionality, and social change.
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Kadyri’s projects explore themes such as migration, displacement, social invisibility, identity, decolonisation, feminism, and the loss of language. These recurring concerns serve as entry points for examining social structures and the lived experiences of women in Central Asia and its diasporas. Alongside her artistic work, she actively investigates new ways of engaging with cultural heritage—particularly textiles and costume, media historically associated with ‘feminine’ labour. By integrating contemporary technologies, she reimagines traditional narratives and practices, transforming them into forms that resonate today and contribute to processes of alternative mythmaking.
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Her work has been exhibited internationally including at Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China; Somerset House, London, UK; Cinematheque, Cleveland Institute of Art, Ohio, US; Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany.
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Äsel Kadyrkhanova (Kazakhstan) is a visual artist and researcher holding a PhD from the University of Leeds. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam. Her work examines art as a vehicle for memory, particularly within the context of post-Soviet, postcolonial Central Asia. Kadyrkhanova investigates transgenerational memory and trauma, engaging with themes of silenced histories, inherited grief, and unmourned personal and collective losses.
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Her artistic practice spans drawing, textiles, installation, and moving image. She is interested in haptic visuality, embodied experience, affect, and the visual languages of trauma. Kadyrkhanova’s works have been exhibited internationally, including at QAGOMA (Brisbane), the Centre for Contemporary Art (Glasgow), the Centre for Heritage, Art and Textile (Hong Kong), documenta 15 (Kassel), the Calvert Foundation (London), Hackelbury Fine Art (London), the Tselinny Centre for Contemporary Culture (Almaty), the Kazakh National Museum of Arts (Almaty), YARAT (Baku), and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow), among others.
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Her publications include contributions to the edited volumes Stalinism in Kazakhstan: History, Memory, Representation (Lexington Books, 2021) and Suture: Reimagining Ornament (Hong Kong: MillCHAT, 2023), alongside other scholarly writings.
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Daria Kim (Uzbekistan) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans performance, sculpture, video, sound, painting, and drawing. Since 2019, she has lived and worked in Berlin, where her artistic approach continues to evolve in response to both her surroundings and her own embodied experiences.
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Daria’s work is driven by an ongoing fascination with materiality and process. She engages deeply with the physical behaviour of substances—particularly slime and other malleable, unstable materials—using their dynamics as metaphors for emotional states, bodily presence, and shifting psychological landscapes. Her recent projects explore the nature of anxiety, the tension between control and release, and the transformative potential of slowing down processes that are often dismissed as inefficient.
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Currently studying at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), Daria brings a research-oriented approach to her practice, blending experimentation, sensory engagement, and conceptual inquiry. Since 2021, she has been an active member of DAVRA, a collective that supports collaborative, interdisciplinary, and community-driven artistic practices.
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Gaisha Madanova (Almaty, Kazakhstan) currently lives and works between Almaty (KAZ) and Berlin (DEU). In 2009, she graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Almaty College of Construction and Management. From 2012-18 she studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts where she received a Diploma under the mentorship of Prof. Hermann Pitz (Sculpture class) and participated from 2016-18 in the project class led by Prof.Julian Rosefeldt (Digital and Time-based Media). In 2019-20 she participated in Independent International Art Study Program for Emerging Artists WHW Akademija led by the What, How & forWhom collective in Zagreb (HRV).
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Gaisha Madanova was a founding member of the international art collective Artpologist established in 2007 and a founding member of the Munich-based artist Roundabout collective (2014-2017). In 2015, she founded the first conceptual art magazine in Kazakhstan, Aluan - Exhibition on Paper. Her artistic practice encompasses a diverse range of media and techniques, including printmaking, object-making, digital media, and installations. Her works often explore topics such as watching and being watched, the body as an expression of the inner self, or the strategies of transformations and displacement.
Her works have been featured in noteworthy group exhibitions such as Drei Tage bis zum Ende der Kunst (Gallery Nova, Zagreb, 2020), WorkS.Hope online: With the Collection (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, 2020), Die Grenze (traveling exhibition in collab. with Goethe-Institut, 2017-2019), Eurasian Utopia: Post Scriptum (Suwon IPark Museum of Art, Suwon, 2018), Bread&Roses: Four Generations of Kazakh Women (Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, 2018), Postnomadic Mind (Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London, 2018), Suns and Neons Above Kazakhstan (Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, 2017), Balagan!!! Contemporary Art from the Former Soviet Union and Other Mythical Places (Kühlhaus Berlin, Berlin, 2015), A Time For Dreams - 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (Moscow, 2014), and One Step/Pe Forward (Venice, 2013), Face of The Bride (PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, 2012). Additionally, since 2012 she has curated various projects inside and outside Kazakhstan, such as VIDEO[Artifact] (2012); Diyalog: New Energies, Viennafair (2013); mikro[smART]raiony, Artbatfest (2014); Internal Storage - Not Enough Space? Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (2017).
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Almagul Menlibayeva (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is an acclaimed contemporary artist known for her work in multi-channel video, photography, textiles and mixed-media installations. The artist has gained international recognition, participating in major exhibitions such as the Sydney Biennale (Australia), the Venice Biennale (Italy), and the Gangwon International Biennale (South Korea).She lives and works in Germany and Kazakhstan.
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Her practice engages with themes such as the legacy of Soviet modernity, the socio-political and economic transformations of post-Soviet Central Asia, and decolonial perspectives on gender, ecology, and Eurasian nomadic cosmologies and mythologies. Menlibayeva received the Main Prize at Munich’s Kino der Kunst International Film Festival in 2013 and was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2017.
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Menlibayeva’s works have been presented in numerous international institutions, including the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (M HKA), Antwerp; the Queens Museum, New York; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca; the Stenersen Museum, Oslo; ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe; the University of California, San Diego; the Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City; Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz; and the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
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Yerbossyn Meldibekov (Tulkubas Railroad Station, Kazakhstan) is a Kazakh contemporary artist who lives and works in Almaty. Meldibekov is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, performance, video, and photography.
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His practice centers on documenting and interrogating political processes in Central Asia. Drawing on historical images, monuments, landscapes, and figures, he reinterprets them with humor and absurdity to highlight the paradoxes inherent in the construction of national identity. By reflecting on the transformations of post-colonial Central Asia, Meldibekov critically engages with different social and political frameworks imposed on this region, constructing new, unique visual narratives that reveal the contradictions and enduring legacies shaping its identity nowadays.
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In 2015 Aspan Gallery staged Meldibekov's' mid-career restrospective Eternal Return at the A. Kasteev Museum of Arts, Almaty, curated by Viktor Misiano. Notable recent group shows include Eurasian Utopia: Post Scriptum at the Suwon I’Park Museum of Art in Suwon (2018), Signature Art Prize at the National Museum of Singapore (2018), Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan at the Yarat in Baku (2017), BALAGAN!!! in Berlin (2015), the special project of the 6th Moscow Biennale Svoiia zemlia/Chuzhaia territoriia (2015), Grammar of Freedom at the Garage in Moscow (2015), 1st Kyiv Biennale (2012), 9th Gwandju Biennale (2012), Central Asia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2011, 2005), Time of the Storytellers at KIASMA in Helsinki (2007), Progressive Nostalgia at Luigi Pecci Centre in Prato (2007).
Yerbossyn’s works are in the following collections M HKA | Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Burger Collection, Hong Kong, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, Devi Art Foundation, India, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, BPS22 Museum, Charleroi, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, National Museum, Astana, Almaty Museum of Arts, Almaty.
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Gulnur Mukazhanova (Semey, Kazakhstan) is a Berlin-based artist whose practice engages with traditional Central Asian materials, such as felt and brocade, reimagining their conventional domestic uses. She transforms these materials into intricate installations and props for her photography and video projects, emphasizing their performative qualities and capturing them in transitional, dynamic states.
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Mukazhanova’s work often reflects on her home country of Kazakhstan, itself navigating processes of cultural, social, and economic transformation. Through this lens, she explores broader themes of globalization, identity politics, and the shifting boundaries of tradition and modernity. Her installations possess a striking physical presence, enabling her to make powerful, globally resonant statements while remaining rooted in the specificities of her own cultural context.
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Notable exhibitions include The Wind Makes the Sky: La Biennale di Venezia on the Traces of Marco Polo at Ca’ Giustinian, Venice (2024); Eluding Capture: Three Artists from Central Asia at MAA MoCA, Massachusetts (2024); Transfeminism, Chapter IV: Care and Kinship at Mimosa House, London (2024); Racing the Galaxy, Astana Show, Kazakhstan (2019); Bread & Roses at Momentum, Berlin (2018); Post-Nomadic Mind at The Wapping Project, London (2018); the 4th International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow (2014); and the Central Asia Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007).
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Ardak Mukanova (Kazakhstan) is a multimedia artist, designer, and researcher whose practice explores the evolving relationship between digital and physical worlds. With BA and MA degrees in Graphic Design from St. Petersburg University and an MFA in Design & Technology from Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York, she brings a strong academic foundation to her multidisciplinary work.
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Ardak’s expertise spans graphic and motion design, XR and interactive media development, online education, exhibition and spatial design, and the creation of immersive multimedia experiences. Her projects often blend technology with narrative and spatial experimentation, resulting in innovative works that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries.
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She currently contributes as a designer and researcher at Studio TheGreenEyl, an internationally renowned practice with offices in New York City and Berlin, where she collaborates on concept-driven installations and experiential environments. Alongside her studio practice, Ardak teaches and works as a designer at Karaganda Buketov University in Kazakhstan, fostering new approaches to digital creativity and design education.
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Anvar Musrepov (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is an artist, curator, and theorist. A graduate of the Rodchenko School and the diploma program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, his projects explore identity, decoloniality, and technology through the language of new media, video installation, and performance.
Musrepov’s work has been shown at exhibitions and festivals in Kazakhstan and abroad, including: Amateurinnen (Filmmuseum Wien, Vienna, 2021), European Media Art Festival (Osnabrück, 2022), Performance Festival PPL (Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, 2017), Pavilion of Limited Liability (57th Venice Biennale, 2017), Eurasian Utopia: Postscript (Suwon I’Park Museum of Art, Suwon, 2018), and the 60th Venice Biennale (Venice, 2024). Furthermore, the artist's projects have been covered by numerous international outlets, including e-flux, The Art Newspaper, The Calvert Journal, On-culture, Moscow Art Magazine, and others.
As a curator, Musrepov focuses on designing educational programs and artist residencies for emerging artists: Ghost Expedition (Mangystau Region, Almaty, Astana, 2018), First Contact (Astana, 2019), Deep Currents (Afissos, Greece, 2019), Re-practice (School of New Media, Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, Almaty, 2023), and Jeruiyq Art Residency (Venice–Astana, 2025).
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Intizor Otaniyozova (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is an artist, whose practice currently focuses on installations, video, and site-specific interventions. At the core of her work lies a profound engagement with text and language—her artistic process often begins with words, which then transform into visual, spatial, or performative forms depending on what the work demands.
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For much of her life, Intizor believed words were all she had, growing up in an environment where no one around her was connected to the arts. This duality: her deep love for language and her simultaneous frustration with its limits continues to shape her practice. Art emerged in her life almost by accident, and she remains captivated and challenged by the fact that some experiences elude verbal expression, driving her toward alternative, experimental modes of communication.
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Artcom Platform (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is a collective of artists, researchers and curators founded in 2015 in Almaty. Working at intersections of contemporary art, ecology, and community engagement, Artcom develops feminist and decolonial practices rooted in the steppe and lake ecologies of Central Asia.
Over the past ten years, the collective has initiated projects and ecological movements such as Care for Balkhash, SOS Taldykol, Art Collider, and Steppe Space. These long-term initiatives bring together artistic interventions, interdisciplinary research, and public education, creating spaces where communities, scientists, and cultural institutions can act together in response to ecological and social challenges.
Artcom’s work has been presented internationally at biennales, exhibitions, and academic forums, including the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (Berlin, Germany, 2025); Jatim XI Biennale (Gresik, Indonesia, 2025); “Interweaving Climate, Water(s) and Communities” (House of Culture, Balkhash; Aspan Gallery, Almaty; Ainalayin Space, London, 2024–2025); Ecological Futures symposium (Power Plant, Seoul, South Korea, 2024); Aral Culture Summit, Art and Culture Development Foundation (Nukus, Uzbekistan, 2024); Techno-Ecologies and Bodies of Memory (Berlin, Germany & Marrakesh, Morocco, 2025); and “Bir zamanlar dÉ™niz,” YARAT (Baku, Azerbaijan, 2025), while remaining deeply connected to local communities. The collective sees art as a form of solidarity, ecological justice, and care for memory and future generations.
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Sana Serkebaeva (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is an artist and filmmaker. She received her MA from the Royal College of Art in 2020, where she specialized in Moving Image.
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Sana participated in the Lux Critical Forum in 2022/2023 and is currently a member of the Delux Film Collective. Her practice queries ideas of speculative narration and storytelling in relation to filmmaking. Sana works with methods of intuition and improvisation, creating fluid processes between research practice, writing, filmmaking, and painting.
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She is the recipient of Elephant Trust 2025. Her experimental films have been showcased on online platforms such as FACT and CultureHub, and her works have been exhibited at venues including the Millennium Film Workshop, ICA, and LUX. Additionally, her films have been featured at various exhibitions and festivals in the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, and beyond.
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Aziza Shadenova (Uzbekistan) is a British artist of mixed Kazakh and Uzbek heritage, born in Uzbekistan and now based in the United Kingdom. Working across painting, photography, moving image, and installation, her practice delves into the complexities of identity, memory, and lived experience—particularly as shaped by post-Soviet cultural transformation and the personal realities of migration.
After earning her BA in Graphic Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2011, Shadenova took part in Winter: Poetics & Politics, the Central Asian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (Venice, 2013). Her solo exhibitions include My Cocoon Tightens – Colours Tease at Ainalaiynspace (London, 2022) and Textures of Grieving at HOP Projects (Folkestone, 2018).
Shadenova describes her work as “visual absurdist poetry.” Humour and absurdism function as central methods in her practice, helping her unravel the contradictions of her cultural upbringing, navigate fragmented psychological states, and articulate the disorientation of immigration. Influenced by the twentieth-century avant-garde and the Theatre of the Absurd, she draws on these sensibilities to question belonging, memory, and the fluid, shifting boundaries of identity.
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She has participated in numerous institutional group exhibitions, including Recipes for Broken Hearts, curated by Diana Campbell for the Bukhara Biennial (Bukhara, 2025); The Pleasure of Misuse at the Royal Society of Sculptors (London, 2025); Lining Revealed: A Journey Through Folk Wisdom and Contemporary Vision at the Mill6CHAT Centre for Heritage Arts & Textile (Hong Kong, 2025); and I Swear I Saw That, curated by Sara Raza. Shadenova’s works are held in private and public collections worldwide, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Moving Image London (UK); ABR in Almaty, Kazakhstan; and the National Museum of Kazakhstan in Astana.
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Dariya Temirkhan (Almaty, Kazakhstan) was born in 2000 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and grew up in Uralsk. She currently lives and works in Almaty, primarily working with mixed media, collage and video art.
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Her collages transport viewers into a realm of fragmented memories, where personal recollections merge with evolving ideas. Using cutouts of words and images sourced from magazines and newspapers, she constructs her own visual narratives, creating a possibility for a new artistic language. In her artistic practice, Temirkhan examines the Kazakh language as a medium for shaping new archetypes for younger generations, enriching contemporary culture with layers of historical and aesthetic resonance.
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Since 2019, Temirkhan has taken part in numerous exhibitions. Furthermore, that year, she participated in the Alau exhibition, followed by the blvd art ball x in February 2020 and 8 1/2, an exhibition dedicated to International Women’s Day, in March 2020. During the quarantine period, she contributed to several online projects, including the Artcom platform, Styq Online, and the Ost Anders Festival. Later that year, she also took part in Arbat Fest 2020, which uniquely took place inside a supermarket due to global restrictions. Whereas, in May 2021, she participated in the inaugural exhibition at the YEMAA Cultural Center, newly opened in western Kazakhstan.
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Shai-Ziya (Almaty, Kazakhstan) is a pioneering video artist, avant-gardist, curator, and provocateur, Shai-Ziya played a crucial role in shaping Kazakhstan’s contemporary art scene, merging irony and everyday reality into a unique and deeply resonant visual language. His body of work includes video art, performances, art objects, collages, and photography. In the history of art, Shai-Ziya is also remembered as the father of Kazakh video art.
In his practice, Shai-Ziya used video both as an artistic tool and as a means of documenting events. He always carried a professional film camera with him, and by the year 2000, he had recorded around 600 hours of footage, mostly about Almaty and its residents. He was interested in working with new media and experimented with sound and editing while creating his video fragments. The artist used everyday objects to create his art objects, collages, and performances, as seen in the photograph above where he uses a toy as an element of a performance.
Strangely—or perhaps inevitably—many talented artists are sometimes only recognised after their death. During his lifetime, Shai-Ziya remained relatively unknown to the wider public, his work circulating mostly within underground and experimental circles. Yet today, he is rightfully acknowledged as a pioneer of Kazakh video art, while the majority of his works now has been acquired by the renowned American collector of nonconformist art, Norton Dodge.