Event Information
16 September 2024
5:00 pm–8:00 pm
Organiser
UCL Postsocialist Art Centre /
Tselinny Centre for Contemporary Culture
Location
Freedom Hall
Baizakov Street 280
Almaty
Kazakhstan
Free admission
A SAVA Workshop and Film Screening in collaboration with Tselinny Centre for Contemporary Culture in Almaty exploring the ecological and social transformations in Kazakhstan and Central Asia during the Soviet-era Virgin Lands campaign. Speakers include Alen Askar (KIMEP University), Aigerim Kapar (Artist and Curator, Almaty), and Maja and Reuben Fowkes (SAVA UCL). The screening of SAVA Creative Fellow Oleksiy Radynski’s short film Where Russia Ends (2024) will be followed by a Q&A with the artist.
17:00 – EXTRACTING THE FUTURE: THE SOCIALIST ANTHROPOCENE THROUGH ARTIST’S EYES. Maja and Reuben Fowkes (University College London)
17:30 – KHRUSHCHEV’S UTOPIA: TSELINOGRAD DURING THE VIRGIN LANDS CAMPAIGN (1953-1964) – Alen Askar (KIMEP University)
18:00 THE SECRETS OF LAKE BALKHASH. Aigerim Kapar
18:30 – DISCUSSION
19:00 – FILM SCREENING. Where Russia Ends (2024) by Oleksiy Radynski and discussion
About the Speakers
Alen Askar is a historian and academic at KIMEP University, specializing in Soviet history and the cultural transformation of Central Asia during the 20th century. His research explores the socio-political impacts of Khrushchev’s Virgin Lands campaign and its effects on the development of the city of Tselinograd.
Aigerim Kapar is an interdependent curator, researcher, and activist focused on art and decolonial practices. She is the founder of Artcom Platform, a Central Asian community-based contemporary art and public engagement organization and initiated the projects of care for lake ecosystems SOS Taldykol and Balqashqa Qamqor.
Oleksiy Radynski is a Ukrainian filmmaker and a Creative Fellow in the Socialist Anthropocene in the Visual Arts (SAVA) research project at University College London. The film explores the exploitation and erasure of Indigenous lands in Siberia under Russian imperialism, from the Tsarist period through the Soviet era and into modern times.
Maja and Reuben Fowkes are co-directors of the Postsocialist Art Centre at University College London and founding directors of the Translocal Institute for Contemporary Art. They are experts in the intersections of contemporary art and environmental humanities, with a specific focus on ecocritical perspectives in post-socialist contexts.