Almagul Menlibayeva in the 2021 Asian Arts Biennial

PCAI Collection travels

PCAI is happy to present Almagul Menlibayeva’s work Ulugh Beg Orbit. The New Silk Road in Space, at the Mongolian and Tibetan Gallery of the Ministry of Culture in Taiwan, on the occasion of the exhibition Life in-betweens: Mongolia and Central Asia, A Contemporary Art Perspective, a satellite exhibition of the 2021 Asian Arts Biennial.

It is the first international presentation of the video work, which was supported and co-commissioned by PCAI in the framework of the second Lahore Biennale. The video work overlays Ulugh Beg, an ancient astronomer in Central Asia, with the role of a space gateway that contemporary Central Asia plays today in order to ponder over the Space Silk Road to the stars in futurism. Almagul Menlibayeva is one of the most prominent contemporary artists from Kazakhstan. She excels at producing works of video to present the complex and diverse faces of contemporary Central Asia. Either in Global Entry 1, her photographic work in collaboration with an eminent fashion house, or her image works recently, one can see how the contemporary Kazakhstan culture swings and blends betwixt the nomadic tradition and globalization. Almagul graduated from the Academy of Art and Theatre, Almaty. With her works seen in significant international exhibitions multiple times, she was awarded Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Ministry of Culture in 2017.

 

More about the exhibition:

The area of nomadic culture in Inner Asia formed by Mongolia, the far-east region of Russia, and countries in Central Asia has been the intersection for exchanges of goods, cultures, and ethnic groups between Europe and Asia. Nevertheless, the traditional nomadic culture with life and industry fused as one encountered a substantial change in the process of modernization. In the post-war modernized system, the scenes of prairie tribes are being replaced by skyscrapers of socialism. The emergence of urban civilizations is also cultivating the new generation of creators strange to the prairie life. Centering around the differences between the generations old and new in the prairie area in Asia, this exhibition seeks to guide audience to comprehend and appreciate the challenges and changes the prairie culture has faced in the processes of modernization and urbanization. Meanwhile, through the perspectives of the new-generation artists in Mongolia and Central Asia, it ushers the audience in Taiwan into the thriving landscapes of metropolises such as Ulaanbaatar.

The show is co-curated by Takamori Nobuo, Gantuya Badamgarav and Chen Hsiang Wen

Organizer: Ministry of Culture (Taiwan)
Organizer of 2021AAB: National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art
Partners: MCASA, Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative PCAI, Ching-tien Community Development Association, Longan Village Office, Mongolian and Tibetan Foundation

Dates: February 19 – July 23, 2022

Exhibition teaser


Activity aligned with Goals 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17