Art of Her

The YEMAA Center for Contemporary Culture in Atyrau holds one of the few residences for young artists in Kazakhstan. The residence is not the usual format for our cultural landscape. It unites people from different cultural fields in one place in order to exchange experiences, training, mentoring, mentoring, and most importantly, to contribute to the development of both residents themselves and culture as a whole.

Резиденция центра современной культуры YEMAA представляет собой своеобразный бленд из интеллектуальной составляющей и строго художественной. Для того чтобы лучше понять, как работает резиденция изнутри мы поговорили с куратором Адией Рамазановой о том, какие бывают сложности, неожиданности, есть ли место спонтанности и в целом об искусстве и культуре. 

Adiya, let's start from the beginning, tell us how you came to the project?

О проекте узнала от Кульшат Медеуовой (Евразийский национальный университет имени Л.Н. Гумилева; кафедра философии, профессор; доктор философских наук), о том что летом в Атырау планируется какое-то интересное мероприятие среди художников, и им нужен кто-то, кто мог бы поработать по теме культурной памяти, так как проект подразумевал образовательную программу по фронтирным исследованиям. Я подумала, что заманчивое предложение, можно было во время отпуска путешествовать в другой город, продолжить исследование, в общем, я сразу согласилась. Через некоторое время мы созвонились с Асель (ред. Асель Ахметжанова, куратор в современном искусстве, со-основательница центра современной культуры Yemaa), и вот тут-то началось такое!  Когда Асель поделилась своим видением о проекте, что планировалось, что ожидается, скажу честно я опешила, потому что планка была поставлена высоко, то есть требования от куратора, да и от всех остальных участников, были высокие. Но все же желание выйти в поле, попробовать что-то новое вне преподавания взяло вверх, и вот так я оказалась в Атырау в этом проекте.

Was it difficult for you to decide to act in this unusual role for yourself? Have you been deciding for a long time?

I will not say that it was difficult, before arriving in Atyrau and the beginning of the work of the art residence itself, the organizers and I had been in touch since May. Asel advised, guided, together we worked out the educational part of the program, worked on the concept, shared ideas, which helped to integrate into the workflow almost immediately. But still, this is my first experience of art curating, and a subtle fear is in me to this day. Every day here I discover something new in communicating with people of art, sometimes I feel that I lack practice in the field of contemporary art, it's a completely different sphere with its own rules and values. But I am, so to speak, in the subject, for example, now reading the book by Hans Ulrich Obrist “A Brief History of Curatorship”.

Great. And tell me, having worked for almost 2 weeks in the residence, what is the difference between your world of the academy, where, if I imagine correctly, the work is quite heavily regulated by the state educational policy and, so to speak, a living pulsating "field"? It seems to me that in the "field" one can directly practice theory and be, so to speak, on the crest of modern problems of culture and philosophy? And also, probably, everything changes all the time, right?

Чуть-чуть не так, смотри, сегодня многие государственные и национальные вузы становятся все более автономными и имеют возможность регулировать образовательные программы, опираясь на рыночные условия и исследовательские тренды в науке. Другими словами, в университете мы можем отойти от ТУПов и предлагать свои программы. Однако, чтобы внести предмет в образовательную программу нужны апробация, разработка программы, определение навыков, результат обучения, обсуждение и т. д., что занимает от одного года до несколько лет. А за это время какие-то исследовательские подходы или культурные явления могут измениться. Но несмотря на это, последние годы мы устраиваем выездные лекции со студентами, приглашаем практиков на свои занятия. Все это не без бюрократических процессов, конечно. Это большой прорыв, т. к. когда я была студенткой мы больше изучали теорию и историю, а сейчас мы больше ориентированы на методы и тексты современников. То есть сегодня тенденция такова, что академический мир все больше и больше становится открытым и выходит в поле, поле же перенимает опыт академического мира в виде краткосрочных программ. В этом смысле хочется отметить выгодный, если так можно выразиться, и передовой мультидисциплинарный подход центра современного искусства YEMAA.

It's good to know that. And what place does modern art occupy in cultural studies and philosophy today? Have you crossed paths with him in the framework of any professional research?

We used to think that art as a whole is for the ages, and perceive it as some kind of revelation for the chosen ones. But the world is changing rapidly and our perception of art is changing. So it was during the Renaissance, when art went beyond the temples and went into society, and then there were many opponents who believed that it was not art. And now there are many critics of contemporary art who believe that it does not carry any historical burden. However, contemporary art conveys the mood of society very well, intertwining with everyday practices, through performances and art projects enters into discussion here and now. So, within the framework of fundamental projects implemented since 2011 at the Department of Philosophy of ENU under the leadership of Medeuova Kulshat, we consider contemporary art as part of social and cultural memory. The research results are introduced into the educational process in the form of subjects “Commemorative studies in the modern culture of Kazakhstan”, “Anthropology of morality”, “Space in the cultural landscape of Kazakhstan”, etc.

Returning to the residence, tell me, what was the funniest episode?

I think the first two weeks are the most memorable, although everything is mixed up and somehow intertwined. When we discuss something with residents, we sometimes start to get confused about who, what, where it was. Sometimes it's funny. But from the first days it became clear that it was necessary to keep a record. Residents quickly got their bearings, so in addition to photographing and sketching their associative ideas, they adopted the skill of keeping records. All the interesting things are ahead, because residents are starting to implement their ideas.

And the most nervous?

A slightly tense moment for us was probably the fact that we were being filmed. We are still used to filtering our videos and photos. Now I even understand what the working side is.

What turned out to be the most difficult for you? And on the contrary, the simplest?

It was quite easy for me to draw up a residency program and conceptualize it, because I have experience in organizing summer schools and international conferences. But there were some difficulties. For example, the selection of participants. Mentors, lecturers and organizers and I conducted a qualifying round together, conducted interviews with applicants, the task was to select only 5 residents out of 54 applicants. Since the residence comes with an educational program, the conditions for submitting documents provided for writing an essay and a motivation letter, and for my part I paid more attention to the correspondence of the essay to the topic of the residence, and in the motivation letter I paid attention to the applicants' desire to acquire new skills. The second difficult point was not to overload the residents with theory and texts, this is still not a university, but to hear them and send them on request. 

And how many hours a day do you work? How does a typical day at the residence work? Does your teaching experience help you in the residence?

Of course, my pedagogical experience helps me to look at situations from the outside, to anticipate some moments, to direct the flow in one direction or another in time, to understand temperaments and characters. As for a typical day, the first two weeks were very busy with lectures and workshops, excursions to Atyrau and museums of the city, expeditions to the Mangystau region and Saraishyk. Lecture days started at 9 am with a lunch break and lasted until 7 pm. After dinner, we arranged peripatetic walks, so to speak, we worked out the theoretical part on the field. We went on city tours at 7 a.m. while the temperature was still at 25-28 degrees, and at 11 o'clock we were already returning to workshops. In addition, there are homework assignments in the residents' program. For example, reading books on lectures by Kulshat Medeuova, composing anime by Saule Dyusenbina, collage of sound with an image by Diaz Adil. I must say, I, like residents, sometimes did not have time not only to put the received information and impressions of everything that was happening in my head, but even to scroll through some materials or photos taken during the day, this, you know, is everyone's favorite activity now. In general, I hope that the program helped to reveal the topic of the residence, and its richness pushed residents to implement their final works. 3-4 weeks of residents are devoted to the implementation of their creative ideas.

Tell me about the concept. "Frontier" — that's when I heard this word, "Wildwildwest" immediately rang in my head, cowboys, Indians, you know, that's all. To tell the truth, I thought that just as there were no white spots left on the world map, so there were no frontiers left on it, but you really revived this concept.

Кстати, насчет «Wild wild west» это все еще актуальная штука. Например, в общественном сознании, принято считать западных людей дерзкими, южан “движняковыми”, северян суровыми и т. д. Но в силу глобализации и цифровизации все границы, конечно, размываются, и вроде как уже нет никаких делений, и не обязательно сосредотачиваться на каких-то своих особенностях. Что касается концепции фронтира — это не просто и не обязательно граница между мирами, мы в резиденции пользуемся этим понятием, обозначающим пространство взаимного обогащения, местом встречи разных культур. К примеру, в самом западном регионе, в Атырау, мы можем отчетливо наблюдать следы и влияние разных фронтиров – от суфизма к процессам колонизации и к деколонизации. То есть понятие не обозначает какой-то конфликт и столкновение, а обозначает экологичность и перетекание одного в другое. Пройдя же по всем этим историческим следам – европейская и азиатская стороны Жайыка, Жилгородок, площадь Исатая и Махамбета и Новая площадь — мы вернулись к своим истокам, резиденты начали изучать мифы и сказания по Серикболу Кондыбаю. То есть начали вникать изучать себя не так как принято исторически, а по-своему.

In general, yes, the concept of the frontier was originally introduced by Frederick Turner and was associated with colonial processes and the recognition of the "other", the definition of "one's own". In general, I repeat – at present, the frontier is not considered as a conflict zone, but rather, on the contrary, as a space for communication, interaction. The frontier focus today shows what role borders play in the construction of the modern social world. Social and humanitarian studies trace the versatility of the concept of frontier - cultural frontier, colonial frontier, museum frontier, frontier city, etc. First of all, it is a zone of contacts of different cultures, different economic, social systems or peripheries.

Within the framework of the residence, the emphasis was placed on the cultural border of one region – the cultural frontier of the city of Atyrau. The historical and modern background of the city distinguish Atyrau from other cities and make it a significant place and field for research on the concept of the "frontier".

The conversation was conducted by Asel Mukasheva, columnist, consultant of the residence.

The project was created by the YEMAA Center for Contemporary Culture in partnership with the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia, Chevron, Aspar Kashagan and Infinity plaza eco-park.