Old/New Routes: A Selection of Video Art From Central Asia

Old/New Routes is an exhibition and publication that explores the nomad specificity of the Islamic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. An overview of the present situation in the Central Asian context by an external viewer becomes imperative; this visual material compiled by a guest curator creates a retrospective look at the internal and evolving processes of the socio-political and cultural background.

Overlapping networks and the relationship between the archaic-nomadic and the present-day post-industrial traditions provide a synthetic equation and an extraordinary cultural load. The re-use of tradition in these artists’ practices become the necessary tool for articulation of contemporary art discourse to establish the nods of resistance against inertia, apathy and historical amnesia.

The project’s first edition, which took place in Croatia, Poland, and Germany, promoted the positions of Asian artists and enabled cultural exchange between contemporary art practitioners from Europe and Central Asia. The project’s current version as presented in Shanghai, China at BizArt Center intends to open up the process of cultural exchange between China and Central Asia and show a number of diverse positions on the Asian identity, with a special focus on video production from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Participating Artists: Alexandr Ugay, Abilsait Atabekov, Erbolsin Meldibekov from Kazakhstan, Veaceslav Ahunov, Serghei Ticina from Uzbekistan, Ulan Djaparov, Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev from Kyrgyzstan

About the Curator:
Stefan Rusu is an artist and freelance curator based in Chisinau, Moldova; currently he is the projects coordinator at the Center for Contemporary Art/Chisinau. In 2005/2006 he attended the Curatorial Training Program at Shtichting De Appel from Amsterdam, where he co-curated Mercury in Retrograde.