Large exhibition of Kazakhstan’s contemporary art opens in South Korea

ASTANA (TCA) — The National Museum of Kazakhstan has opened the exhibition “Eurasian Utopia: Post Scriptum” at Suwon Ipark Museum of Art in South Korea. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the museum. More than 100 works of 57 artists of the Soviet period and modern times are presented. The exhibition is the fourth and final in a series of foreign events of the Focus Kazakhstan international project, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

Focus Kazakhstan is implemented within the framework of the Ruhani Zhangyru program and is part of a special project “Modern Kazakhstan Culture in the Global World.”

The curator of the Focus Kazakhstan project, Roza Abenova, said that this project is an example of the first and successful experience in organizing a large-scale display of contemporary visual arts of Kazakhstan in the international arena. In four cities (London, Berlin, Jersey City, Suwon) about 400 works and archival documents of 94 artists were demonstrated. At the end of the project, catalogs will be published for each exhibition.

The Eurasian Utopia: Post Scriptum attempts to identify the narratives of Kazakhstan’s art through a study of the creative work of artists of the Soviet period and modern artists, to show the continuation of artistic tradition and break with it, the birth of modern art in the period of independence of the republic and the appearance of new discourses and new media. The peculiarities of the national school of painting, the phenomenon of “local modernism” and art in the period of independence are the key themes of this exhibition.

Curators of the exhibition Eurasian Utopia: Post Scriptum are Julia Sorokina (Kazakhstan) and Shin Eun Young (South Korea). According to Shin Eun Young, “Kazakhstan is historically closely associated with Korea, however, we know very little about the art and culture of Kazakhstan. And thanks to the first exhibition of Kazakhstan’s art, we have a wonderful opportunity to learn more about it.”

The Focus Kazakhstan project was organized by the National Museum and the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan. The exhibition in South Korea will run until March 3, 2019.

Sergey Kwan

TCA

Sergey Kwan has worked for The Times of Central Asia as a journalist, translator and editor since its foundation in March 1999. Prior to this, from 1996-1997, he worked as a translator at The Kyrgyzstan Chronicle, and from 1997-1999, as a translator at The Central Asian Post.
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Kwan studied at the Bishkek Polytechnic Institute from 1990-1994, before completing his training in print journalism in Denmark.

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