International Public Art: Bishkek

MORE PHOTOS

2008-08-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

MORE PHOTOS by Николай Черкасов

http://vkontakte.ru/photos.php?act=album&id=38465071

Проект "Предки" - - - - - - - - - Project "Ancestry"

2008-08-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

Проект "Предки" - - - - - - - - - Project "Ancestry"

Данный проект осваивает техническое пространство въезда в гараж с обратной стороны Национального музея изобразительных искусств. Пространство представляет собой длинный пандус, спускающийся под землю и упирающийся в огромные ворота.

Я представил, что этот спуск дорогой в «подземное царство» наших предков, в древний мир. На створках ворот я изобразил Хранителей древности: киргизский национальный символ Бал бал таш (каменные изваяния, в которых вселялись души мертвых, охранявшие деревни киргизов), и русский символ – Матрешка. Они, как «семейная» пара, прародители киргизского и русского народов, стоят на стаже мира Тайн и Знаний.

На асфальте пандуса я изобразил «следы общей истории» в виде орнаментальных вставок, структурой напоминающих киргизские ковры (из коллекции данного Музея). Нижние следы представляют собой переплетения национальных киргизских и русских орнаментов. Выше в них вплетаются символы Российской империи, Советского союза и современного универсального капитализма. Итогом этого движения, символом, который располагается в самом начале спуска, стал символ моей «личной мифологии», как художника, своеобразная авторская подпись (33 суб-персоны), символизирующий венец эволюции мифологических представлений человека: от обожествления природы до обожествления собственной судьбы.

По форме проект – иронический, потому как в такой, игровой, шуточной, форме лучше «разговаривать с публикой» о серьезных вещах.
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This project works with space of entrance to garage. There is long access ramp behind of National museum of fine art, which goes down under ground and rest on huge gate.

I imagined this slope like the way to the oldest world of our ancestry. I painted the keepers of antiquities on the gate: Kirgiz symbol Bal bal tash and Russian national symbol Matreshka. They are like family, like parents of Kirgiz and Russian people, like keepers of secret attainments.

I painted steps of “general history” on the asphalt as Kirgiz and Russian ornaments, which changing, plaiting, accumulating new symbols: Russian empire, USSR and modern global capitalism. My personal symbol (33+1) became the result of this movement. This is the illustration of transformation mythical comprehension of people from idealizes of nature to idealize of personal life individual person.

Project "Ancestry" is facetious project about serious, fundamental things.

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More photos of documentation this project:

http://www.33plus1.ru/Decor/01_OUTDOOR_MURALS/080702_BISHKEK/BISHKEK.htm

About other my public-art projects:

http://www.33plus1.ru/Decor/Art/02_Shukupov_P/Videoart.html

http://www.33plus1.ru/Decor/Art/05_Guruleva_N/060711_Cub_1.htm

http://www.33plus1.ru/Decor/Art/00_General_Project/060926_VASIA/index.htm

http://www.33plus1.ru/Decor/Art/00_General_Project/070700_Dendraryi/index.htm

The Artists: Mumtoz

2008-08-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

SEARCH

The performance reflects the search for the national identity of Tajik girl.

Pendulum

Transition from one condition to another; everything has its own lever.

“The Coalition Forces Are Pleased To See This Great Transformation”

2008-07-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

by Hakan Topal (aka imam@xurban_collective), June 2008

Spending time as a visiting artist is a privileged position, which allows a meaningful engagement with a complex spatial configuration. Prior to my arrival, I obviously had certain prejudices and expectations about the city of Bishkek. However I feel that having an assignment in hand and hearing introductory presentations by resident artists and organizers opened certain doors otherwise impossible to penetrate, thereby creating a salient guided perception into a new city enabling me to make a relatively healthy visual comparison with other locations that I visited over the past years. But I have to admit that two weeks is an extremely short period of time to come to serious conclusions about a place.

It seems to me that things are getting more and more homogenous across the globe. Anywhere you go, buildings, cars and market places, shopping malls, and advertisements look alike. The uncontrolled transformation to market economies, as opposed to general expectations does not yield to social/cultural diversity, functions like a unifying cylinder, taking all the differences and pushing them down to the level of the market, ready to be consumed at any given point. Through educational and cultural institutions, specific market logic is being spread without any significant challenges, design and localization is only a branch of this larger change. Within this schema, ‘high’ art and culture are set aside as luxury products for nouveau-riches, or completely replaced by popular entertainment.

When this neo-liberal transformation takes place in a place where there is no possibility for democratic resistance, market rules becomes even more brutal, obey no external law, and changes the very fabric of society permanently (see Turkish society). Everything goes as far as you pay— sufficient bribery. Even through a quick observation in and out of Bishkek, you encounter many cases where police or other officials solicit money to solve “problems”.

It seems that there are not many options for countries like Kyrgyzstan. On one side western institutions (like NATO, IMF, World Bank) ensure that the transformation to the market economy is achieved by opening borders for international capital, on the other side, there are colonial forces such as China and Russia waiting for their turn to satisfy their imperialistic thirst. It is clear that the US Coalition forces has no interest in democratization processes as all discourse about freedom only applies to freedom of capital circulation. As long as governments play by the rules of the market, they are the rulers of their countries. The fresh capital pours in, the great divide between classes gets even more monumental.

Where does art remain in these large processes? I feel that we, artists, may be instrumentalized by various power nodes, specifically when it comes to “public art”. Therefore it is crucial that we keep certain critical attitudes towards our operational conditions. We have to be aware of funding structures and expectations. We need to address hierarchical structures that we are subjected to. The ‘new’ does not always lead to a common good. In order to achieve the possibility of significant art practices, processes have to be extremely transparent, if not democratic.

During the course of the symposium, we were expected to produce a “public art work” at a selected public site in Bishkek. My initial question was ‘how do we start at a new site without any given question in hand? Since there were no set theme for the event, the task of producing an artwork gets extremely open-ended. Furthermore, it is hard to know the political limits of artistic production in Kyrgyzstan. After all, you don’t want to put the organizers in danger after you depart the city. In a way, this was a productive challenge; the very limitation of utterance can be taken as a creative framework.

My contribution to the Public Art Symposium included a vinyl wall text installed at the façade of the National Museum. In addition, I cleaned the two sections of front garden of the building and planted 400 orange flowers.

The museum’s façade directly looks toward the exit of the Hyatt Regency hotel, which provides the most expensive international accommodation, used by western businessman. The building site, like most of the Soviet buildings is not well taken care of, somewhat rundown yet it is used as a casual meeting area by young people, appropriated mostly by lovers. As a museum, it holds a nice collection mostly acquired between the 1950’s and 1980’s, composed of realist paintings depicts Asian work life. Today, museum administration rents museum spaces to artists and organizations. We were informed that Bishkek Art Center had to pay a sum in order to utilize their public sites.

The vinyl text was written in English and Russian (not Kyrgyz); “The Coalition Forces Are Pleased To See This Great Transformation”, as well as synonyms of the word “change”. By “transformation’ I referred to three interwoven transformations;

a- The Great Transformation (1944) refers to a book by Hungarian economist Karl Polanyi who foresaw the devastating effects of market economy. Domination of market, therefore absolute commodification, yields an irreversible destruction of labor and land; it is an irretrievable alteration of livelihoods. When market rules override the ethical understanding of life, it yields a complete dissolution in society. Again see Turkish society as one of the worst example where religious neo-conservatism, a specific form of hypocrisy, breeds with an extremely polluted neo-liberal irrigation system.
b- The ‘great’ transformation that was happening around the museum initiated by various ‘western’ art institutions. For me it is important to note that the Public Art Symposium is supported by CEC ArtsLinks, ArtHub, Open Society Institute(Soros Foundation)and the Kettering Family Foundation. At the same time, there was already a public sculpture (monument) installed in front of the museum and it was funded by Unesco, US Embassy, Soros foundation and a GSM company.
c- And the transformation that I realized in the gardens. Cleaning the planting many flowers was, in a way, a cynical alteration, an unfortunate modification of the museum site. The white on white texts and orange flowers were nearly invisible, immersed to the environment, provided no easy reading for the audience. It was an attempt destined to fail, like any artistic practice, provided no external justification other than presenting itself as the great transformation.

A quick note about the production:
After developing the proposal, we were informed that, each artist had only 120$ project budget, although I tried to be extremely humble with my proposal but costs were higher than we expected. Project manager Nazira told us that the prices were going up since they submit the funding budget; therefore we had work whatever we had in hands (note:minimum wage is ~10$/month). Kendall kindly gave 100$ of his project fund and I had to finance myself to acquire additional 300 flowers. I originally planned to use more than thousand flowers to cover the fileds but it was impossible to justify the cost and I did not want to spend more. Therefore gardening part was somewhat incomplete, howeverI feel that it was sufficient to ‘show’ the transformation. I was relieved when the official gardener, an old lady from the museum, happily approved the changes and promised that she would keep the flowers alive.

"Еверигриния"

2008-07-25T23:20:00.000-07:00

Произведение "Еверигриния", сделанное в рамках мастер-класса для детей на Иссыкуле.

The Opening Celebration

2008-07-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

2008-07-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

2008-07-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

2008-07-16T15:18:00.003-07:00

The Artists: Victor & Eugeny

2008-07-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

Victor

Eugeny

2008-07-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

The Artists: Pasha (33+1)

2008-07-16T13:32:00.001-07:00

2008-07-16T13:31:00.001-07:00

The Artists: Hakan

2008-07-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

The Artists: Yulia

2008-07-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Artists: Lado

2008-07-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

The Artists: Marina

2008-07-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T12:52:00.001-07:00

The Artists: Dina

2008-07-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

The Artists: Natalia

2008-07-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

The Artists: Chingiz

2008-07-14T11:52:00.001-07:00

2008-07-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Artists: Vladimir

2008-07-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

Thinking, Talking, Shopping and Planning...

2008-07-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

Photographer George Kolotov captured some of us during the creative process.

goerge.kolotov@gmail.com
996-312-953165

2008-07-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T10:43:00.002-07:00

The Fine Arts Museum says YES!

2008-07-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

With a small budget and little time, we made the decision to select one of the sites where everyone would create a public art work. First and formost the site had to be public. We wanted people to come across the work without having to make an effort. The site had to be centrally located for so that when this is all said and done people will come to see and experience the work. Given those criteria alone, the Museum was the best location. We were however a bit nervous about the restrictions the museum might impose on us. When we returned to Bishkek from ASHU, we met with the Grounds Director to discuss what is possible and what is not.

We don't know what it is yet but…
Can we remove the plants in the gardens? YES
Can we dig holes is the gardens? YES
Can we stick things on the walls? YES
Is there electricity we can tap into? YES
Can we draw on the ground? YES
Can we place things in the fountains? YES, we put them on sometimes though.
Can we use the flagpoles? YES
Can we place sculpture anywhere on the grounds? YES
Can we paint on the garage doors and the driveway with permanent paints? YES

To our surprise, all the requests we made received a positive response. If this was any institution in NYC (even an art institution) it might take the 10 days we had to get any response at all.

A Little Goes A Long Way

2008-07-14T09:59:00.001-07:00

In all our discussions about public art, there was an emphasis on low to no budget projects. Each artist had a budget of $150. That money had to cover materials, labor and fabrication of each of the projects. The artist had 10 days to select a site, conceputalize an idea, design it, fabricate it and install it. To some this may seem impossible. But judging from the artists pst work, we were confident that they will deliver.

Chon-Kemin National Park on Horse Back

2008-07-14T07:36:00.001-07:00

After a couple days in the conference room we needed a little break. A horse back ride up the mountains was a perfect solution...

However, some of us forgot to put on sunscreen.

Let the Games Begin

2008-07-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

In between endless meals; a huge breakfast, followed by a tea break, then a three-course lunch then another break just before a three-course dinner, Arseny and I conducted the workshop. We started with an introduction about public art and our goals and expectations for the next 10 days. I started by making the distinction be public art and art in public places. Public art is site-specific. It has a direct relationship with some aspect of the site and is created with a specific audience in mind. The best public art projects will only work in the place where it is created for. On the other hand, «art in public places» is merely placing a work of art in a public environment – or plop art. From my understanding, there is no distinction between plop art and public art in the Russian word for «public Art». I wanted to make the differences clear.

The workshops also provided an opportunity for the artists to casually talk about their work and show examples of past projects.

ASHU

2008-07-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

Located in the Chon-Kemin National Park just outside Bishkek, ASHU Guesthouse and Conference Center is nestled within the Kyrgyz mountains. Stanbek Toichubaev, a local businessman and ASHU’s owner wanted to introduce the small village to contemporary art and at the same time provide employment opportunities for it’s citizens. ASHU is open free of charge to any artist who’s in need of a respite, a place to relax and create work in a beautiful natural environment. All that is required is that artists provide their own transportation to Bishkek and upon completion of their stay in ASHU, leave an artwork behind. This work becomes part of the collection of the guesthouse. With a fully equipped conference room, ASHU is also a great place to host workshops, small conferences and corporate retreats. This was our base for a few days while we discussed public art projects, got to know each other and relaxed.

Photos by Mumtoz

2008-07-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Poster

The Sites: The Museum

2008-07-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

The last site we visited was the Fine Arts Museum in the center of the city. This was not originally on our list but Susan, CEC ArtsLink’s Director, thought it would be a great location for public art after she had lunch with a friend and former museum staff. The museum's exterior has many architectural features where public art can be situated and its central location made it ideal.

The Sites: The Courtyard

2008-07-09T12:45:00.001-07:00

The third site we took a look at was in the middle of construction. Developers were constructing a new office building and wanted to embellish the back and/or front of the building with artwork. This would be a great opportunity for an artist but it is uncertain how affective we could be during our 10-day workshop. Not too far from this site was a large wall which surrounded the French Embassy. Both these sites were on very quite streets with very little foot traffic.

The Sites: The Orphanage

2008-07-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

The second site was a juvenile detention center. However, when we showed up to take a look, a guard who didn’t know why we were there stopped us and told us that we needed a letter from the government department that deals with Youth Services. Our alternative second site was an orphanage that B’Art have collaborated with in the past. It is also the place that the children go to after they leave the detention center. The orphanage was well kept for the most part except for some broken play equipment and the uncovered manholes in the playground. The kids were beautiful and very friendly.

The Sites: B'Art Bishkek Art Center

2008-07-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

The first site we visited was B’Art: Bishkek Art Center. This was an easy site because there was no permissions to be had. The artists can do anything there. There were opportunities within the center's courtyard and entrance gates. Even the trees were up for grabs. If public art was created here, who would be the audience?

Location, Location, Location

2008-07-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

With any public artwork the site determines what form the artwork takes because site-specificity is the cornerstone of public art. Our second day in Bishkek was all about location. Before our arrival, Shaarbek, B'Art's director, had the daunting task of finding locations that require little or no permission from governmental agencies. The plan was to visit the sites and weigh the pros and cons of each site then discuss them during out retreat up in the mountains at the artists' guesthouse called Ashu. In Ashu, the workshop will begin with introductions and presentations about public art from Arseny and me.

The Group

2008-07-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

Back row: Chingiz, Christoff (Defne's Husband), Kulnar, Jane Lombard (CEC's Board Chair), Astghik, Sasha(Interpreter), Marina, Kendal, Mumtoz, Julia, Natalia, Pasha (33+1), Stanbek (Owner, ASHU)
Second Row: Defne (Arthub Curatorial Consultant), Hakan, Susan (Director, CEC ArtsLink), Dina, Arseny, Vladimir
Reclining: Lado

Not Pictured, Shaarbek who took this picture, Victor (aka Chase), and Eugeny.

Also Li Zhenhua from China was to be part of the group however, due of visa complications, Li was unable to attend.

Why Are We Here?

2008-07-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, artists in Central Asia have had limited opportunities to exchange information and even fewer to work together on collaborative art projects. Artists in these countries are eager to renew dialogue with their colleagues with whom they share a long history. This workshop aims to provide them the opportunity to exchange information and ideas, and work together to create exciting public art works. This project also aims to address problems of racial prejudice in the CIS by showing the creativity and benefit of artists from different countries working together.
The artists are from Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey and they vary in age, contemporary art styles, media and experience. Arseny Sergeyev and I will be overseeing the projects and guiding the artists through design, fabrication and installation. Arseny is co-director, with his wife Nilya Allakhverdieva of the Russian non-profit organization Artpolitika in Yekaterinburg. The organization, which was founded in 1999, has conducted numerous innovative public art projects with artists from around the world demonstrating the value of both contemporary art and multi-culturalism. I am a public art and urban design consultant who’s worked in the field of public art for about 18 years. For the past three years, I’ve been working with CEC ArtsLink on creating public art projects throughout Russia and Bishkek. Check out the other blog links to the left.