FOCUS KAZAKHSTAN Forum

As part of Thinking Collections: Telling Tales

ACAW 2018 signature exhibition at Mana Contemporary
November 17, 2018

12 arts professionals from institutions in New York and beyond joined for a special walkthrough and discussion surrounding the exhibition Focus Kazakhstan – Thinking Collections: Telling Tales and its presented artists, one of Central Asia’s legendary contemporary art collectives, Kyzyl Tractor (Red Tractor).

The unprecedented survey reunited one of Kazakhstan’s most celebrated art collectives Kyzyl Tractor, noted for their feverish experimentations and legendary performances in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The group is acclaimed for reorienting nomadic, Sufi, and Shamanistic philosophies as a new artistic language in juxtaposition with the region’s seismic socio-economic and political shifts.
 
The exhibition was a signature program of Asia Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) 2018 and is a part of Focus Kazakhstan, a landmark initiative celebrating the art of Kazakhstan through four thematic presentations in London, Berlin, Suwon, and Jersey City. Focus Kazakhstan was initiated by the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in association with the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the framework of the program, Ruhani Zhangyru.
 
Curators:
Leeza Ahmady (Director and Curator of Asia Contemporary Art Week) and Vladislav Sludskiy (Manager and Curator of Ethan Cohen Gallery and co-founder and organizer of ARTBAT FEST)

Moderator:
David Borgonjon (Curator, Writer)

 

Participating Respondents:
Livia Alexander (Curator, Writer and Chair of the Department of Art and Design at Montclair State University), Daniela Bertol (Research Artist, Scholar, Designer and Author), Beth Citron (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Rubin Museum), Jin Coleman (Art Advisor, Curator), Christina Davis (Independent Curator, Researcher), Jeanne Finley (Media Artist), Robert Lee (Executive Director and Curator of Asian American Arts Centre), Lydia Matthews (Professor of Visual Culture in Parsons Fine Arts program and Director of the Curatorial Design Research Lab at the New School), Rashmi Viswanathan (Postdoctoral Fellow of Global Contemporary Art at The New School University and Senior Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies), Christina Yang (Director of Education and Public Programs at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Amy Zion (Curator, Writer)