Kazakhstan Life & Culture - The Times Of Central Asia

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TCA Interviews

Memory Is a Living Matter: An Interview with Artist Gauhar Bisengaliyeva

On July 24, Almaty's Kasteyev Museum of Arts hosted the opening of Gauhar Bisengalieva’s solo exhibition, Matter of Memory. The artist, who works under the name Arukhan, recently returned from Italy, where her solo exhibition, The Spirit of the Steppe, was presented at the historic Palazzo Marchesale, in Italy’s southern Apulia region. Her new project at the Kasteyev Museum continues her exploration of memory. Working with felt, steppe grasses, and other organic materials, Arukhan's work explores the processes of time and the transformation of matter. In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, Gauhar Bisengaliyeva discusses her artistic practice and the ideas behind Matter of Memory. TCA: The title of the exhibition is Matter of Memory. What does the idea of memory as matter mean to you? At what point did memory cease to be an abstract concept for you and become an artistic medium? Gauhar Bisengaliyeva: For me, Matter of Memory is a space that I create, a space for reflection. Felt is the foundation of my artistic language. For me, felt is a material that preserves the memory of the steppe. It embodies the energy of the earth, the wisdom of generations, and humanity’s connection to nature. Through it, I feel my roots. For me, the steppe is not an image of the past, but a living force that nourishes me, allows me to grow, and determines the direction of my creativity. That is why my works are neither a return to the past nor an attempt to preserve it. I am interested in memory as a living substance that continues to act in the present and becomes a source of the future. That is why Matter of Memory is not an exhibition about the past. It is a space where memory becomes a living matter, capable of nourishing a person, bringing them back to their roots, and revealing new meanings. [caption id="attachment_53543" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Photo: Theo Frost[/caption] TCA: In your works, you use felt, steppe grasses, and other organic materials. Why have these particular materials become your primary means of expression? Gauhar Bisengaliyeva: I work with natural materials, each of which goes through its own life cycle and therefore possesses its own memory. Felt, steppe grasses, wool, plants – they have already lived their lives, absorbing time, light, wind, and earth. Working with time holds a special place in my practice. Using my own innovative methods of processing wool, I explore how time can manifest itself in the material. For me, time cannot be seen directly, but it can be felt through changes in texture, light, structure, and the very state of the felt. [caption id="attachment_53544" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Photo: Theo Frost[/caption] TCA: You have been collaborating with the State Archive of Film, Photo, and Audio Documents of Kazakhstan for many years. How does working with archives influence your art? Gauhar Bisengaliyeva: It all began with my family archive. Later, this personal story led me to collaborate with the State Archive of Film, Photographic, and Audio Documents...

Games of the Future

Peru’s PlayTime Wins Dota 2 Title at Astana Games of the Future

Peruvian team PlayTime won the $1 million Dota 2 tournament at the Games of the Future 2026 in Astana, defeating China's Yakult Brothers 3-0 in the grand final. The 16-team competition included clubs from China, Southeast Asia, Europe, South America, and Kazakhstan. PlayTime received $350,000, while Yakult Brothers earned $160,000 as runners-up. China's Team Resilience claimed third place after defeating Kazakhstan's Rune Eaters 2-0. Team Resilience collected $120,000, while Rune Eaters received $70,000 for finishing fourth. Team Resilience player Kongbo "Niu" Li said the team gained confidence after the opening map and maintained control throughout the series, according to the official Games of the Future website. For Rune Eaters, the highlight was a quarterfinal victory over China's LGD.Pinghu. Alim "aik" Bespayev said the win was the emotional high point of the team's campaign, while the semifinal defeat affected its preparation for the third-place match. Rune Eaters finished fourth after reaching the semifinals. The Games of the Future run from July 29 to August 9, bringing together more than 800 athletes representing over 50 nationalities across eight phygital and esports disciplines. The updated total prize pool is $4.65 million. The Games began in Kazan in 2024 and were held in Abu Dhabi in 2025. Astana is the first Central Asian city to host the tournament. Kazakhstan was selected over Peru and Chile after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed bringing the Games to the country during the inaugural event in Kazan. Earlier, The Times of Central Asia reported that China's 17 Gaming became the first champions of the Astana Games after winning the PUBG: Battlegrounds tournament.

International Olympiad

Astana Hosts Largest International AI Olympiad to Date

More than 500 high school students from 106 countries have gathered in Astana for the third International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence, making it the largest edition in the event’s three-year history. The competition runs from August 2 to 8. The Olympiad is being held under UNESCO patronage. Astana was selected in March after developments in the Middle East led organizers to relocate the event from Abu Dhabi. The IOAI cited safety, ease of travel, government support, and the experience of the local organizing team among the reasons for choosing Kazakhstan. The main individual competition consists of two six-hour rounds. The first, held on August 4, developed themes introduced in preparatory work completed before the event. A second round on August 6 will present three new problems. Contestants work in Python and primarily use Jupyter Notebook, with medals decided by their combined scores across the two rounds. Before arriving in Astana, students were given a month to work through three educational tasks that did not count toward the final results. One asked them to train a model to guide a delivery robot to a package and then take it to the correct destination while avoiding obstacles. Another was an AI version of Twenty Questions, requiring contestants to identify a hidden animal from roughly 1,400 possibilities using no more than 15 yes-or-no questions. There is also a team robotics competition. After an opening simulation round, the ten highest-scoring teams moved to Alem.ai to adapt and debug their programs ahead of a live final using Galbot robots on August 7. The format tests whether code developed in a simulated environment can work on physical machines. This year’s program also includes a separate AI Models Track. Research laboratories and technology companies can enter AI systems that attempt the same type of machine-learning problems as the students. The systems compete remotely in two six-hour sessions and must write and submit their solutions without human assistance beyond starting or restarting the process. The Olympiad has grown quickly. Its inaugural edition in Burgas, Bulgaria brought together nearly 200 students in 2024. The following year, 310 students from 63 countries and territories competed in Beijing. The Astana field is more than 60% larger than last year’s. Kazakhstan enters the competition with a strong record of its own. Its students won three gold, one silver, and three bronze medals in Beijing last year. The local host is the Competitive Programming Federation of Kazakhstan, which has previously staged the ICPC World Finals and international science olympiads. Opening the event, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the participants’ work could lead to new solutions in medicine, education, environmental protection, and other fields. He linked the Olympiad to his goal of turning Kazakhstan into a fully digital state within three years and to the designation of 2026 as the Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence. He also acknowledged that the country was only at the beginning of that process. Tokayev noted that Kazakhstan ranks 24th among 193 countries in the United Nations E-Government Development...

Football

PSG Academy Kazakhstan to Open in Astana

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) has announced the opening of its first football academy in Kazakhstan, extending the club's global youth development network into Central Asia. The training center is due to begin operating in Astana in September. According to PSG, Kazakhstan becomes the 24th country to join the PSG Academy network. Up to 300 boys and girls aged between six and 14 will begin training in September at the Air Arena indoor sports complex, which has an artificial pitch meeting FIFA standards. Local coaches will also undergo training based on the club's development program and receive continuing support from PSG’s technical staff in Paris. According to Almaz Alsenov, the founder of PSG Academy Kazakhstan, the organizers intend to expand beyond the capital by opening regional academies across the country. However, no locations or timetable for this expansion have been announced. The PSG Academy network includes more than 200 training centers across what the club describes as 24 countries, providing football education to over 50,000 children each year. Unlike PSG’s selective professional youth academy, its international academies operate as franchised football schools and accept children of all ability levels. Comparable PSG Academy programs in other countries charge participation fees. The Astana academy has not published its prices or announced a scholarship scheme, making it difficult to assess how accessible it will be to lower-income families. In 2025, Kazakhstan became one of the first countries to sign an agreement to join FIFA Arena, a global initiative under which FIFA is funding 100 mini-football pitches at Kazakh schools, primarily in smaller towns and rural areas. The program is due to be completed by 2027. According to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Tourism and Sports, football is the country's most widely played sport, with more than 1.1 million regular participants and over 40,000 young players training at 242 youth sports schools. Dastan Satpayev’s move to Chelsea has also raised the international profile of Kazakh football. On July 28, the Kazakhstan international scored in his first appearance for Chelsea during a 6-4 pre-season victory over Western Sydney Wanderers. His transfer from Kairat is due to take effect when he turns 18 on August 12.

Foreign Students

Kazakhstan International Student Scholarships Draw 16,000 Applicants

More than 16,000 people from 71 countries applied for 550 scholarships at Kazakh universities for the 2026-2027 academic year, giving applicants a success rate of just 3.4%. The successful candidates represent 49 countries, up from 26 in the previous academic year. The largest numbers of applications came from the Palestinian territories, Indonesia, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Kazakhstan's state scholarship program provides 490 undergraduate scholarships, 50 master's scholarships, and 10 doctoral scholarships. The awards cover tuition and provide recipients with a monthly stipend. For the first time, students from the United States, Italy, Germany, the Maldives, and South Korea have been awarded scholarships under the program. A total of 27 universities are participating in the initiative, offering 886 academic programs. The largest numbers of scholarship recipients will study at Astana IT University and L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Astana, Satbayev University and the Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages in Almaty, and Sh. Ualikhanov Kokshetau University in Kokshetau. The program involved 37 universities and offered 2,668 academic programs last year, compared with 27 universities and 886 programs this year. The ministry did not explain the change. Launched in 2019, the scholarship program is designed to attract talented international students to Kazakhstan while expanding academic cooperation with other countries. It is open to foreign nationals, including ethnic Kazakhs living abroad who are not citizens of Kazakhstan. The ministry said ethnic Kazakhs from abroad accounted for a “significant” share of applicants, but did not disclose what proportion of the 550 scholarships they received. Applicants can select Kazakh, Russian, or English as their language of instruction, depending on the degree program. They must demonstrate sufficient proficiency before admission, as the scholarship program does not include preparatory courses in basic subjects or foreign languages. Competition for the scholarships has intensified. Applications increased from 13,723 candidates from 57 countries for the 2025-2026 academic year to 16,098 applicants from 71 countries this year, an increase of 17.3%, while the number of awards remained unchanged at 550. The scholarship program is part of Kazakhstan's broader effort to establish itself as a regional higher education hub. During the 2025-2026 academic year, the country hosted 35,075 international students from 88 countries, an increase of 11% from the previous year, while the government has expanded partnerships with foreign universities and opened 32 foreign university branches, attended by approximately 12,000 students. International students nevertheless account for only about 5% of Kazakhstan’s total university enrollment. Kazakhstan occupies the top three positions in the QS Central Asia University Rankings 2026. Al-Farabi Kazakh National University ranks first, followed by L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University and Satbayev University. Eighteen Kazakh institutions appear in the QS World University Rankings 2027, although none ranks among the global top 100. Al-Farabi Kazakh National University leads the country at joint 177th, followed by L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University at joint 338th and Satbayev University at joint 351st.

Games of the Future

China’s 17 Gaming Wins PUBG: Battlegrounds Title at Kazakhstan’s Games of the Future

China’s 17 Gaming became the first champion crowned at the Games of the Future 2026 in Astana after winning the three-day PUBG: Battlegrounds competition. Sixteen teams played 15 matches for shares of a $1 million prize fund. 17 Gaming received $300,000 for first place. This was DIGA Esports’ first tournament of this scale. The Kazakhstani team finished 14th with 59 points and received $15,000. It won the eighth match in front of the home crowd at Beeline Arena. “The first day was about adapting to the tournament. It became easier on the second day, and I think we performed well on the third,” DIGA Esports player Sanzhar Kaliyev said in comments published by the Games of the Future. “Some of our players had never even competed in major European tournaments before, while here we were facing world champions. So finishing 14th against teams of this caliber is not a bad result for newcomers.” Kazakhstan approved a government esports development strategy in June 2025. The document estimated that around 3.5 million people in the country were interested in esports and online gaming in 2024. The strategy calls for leagues in schools and universities. It also proposes regional competitions and at least one national or international esports tournament each year. A Central Asian esports hub is listed as a long-term goal. Kazakhstan has also hosted other major competitions. In 2025, Astana staged PGL Astana 2025, a Counter-Strike 2 tournament organized by the Bucharest-based esports company PGL. Almaty hosted the PUBG Mobile Super League Central & South Asia. The sector has also received increased government support and investment. Phygital basketball is the next discipline to conclude, with its champion due to be decided on August 3. Running until August 9, the tournament features more than 800 competitors representing over 50 nationalities across eight disciplines and has a total prize fund of $4.65 million. Competitions include esports and phygital disciplines held in both digital and physical stages.