Astral Nomads

Abstract

This article aims to observe, compare and comprehend different methodologies and approaches in the artistic practices of some representative Central Asian contemporary artists. The emphasis will be placed on the activities of artists who have been operating with both text and performance in their work since the 1990s including Sergei Maslov, Yuriy Dvinyaninov (Kazakhstan), Vyacheslav Akhunov (Uzbekistan), Marat Raiymkulov & 705 Group (Kyrgyzstan) all of whom have made non-stop investigations of text and performance as media that influence each other, overcome borders, merge into an inseparable whole, mimic one another and support each other. This kind of investigation gives artists the opportunity to find new forms of art development and open a way to yet unknown, unrecognized and undefined areas of art. This symbolic move has become a programme for the Central Asian art community, which is constantly looking for ways of further development in the flow of worldwide ‘glocal’ trends.

Notes

1 At one of the exhibitions Parade of Galleries (1998) in the A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan – he drank the remains of a cup of blood that a pupil had given to him to make a drawing. For this artistic gesture, Maslov was fired from the Art College and deprived of the opportunity to teach, despite the artist’s degree of Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences.

2 Creative Group 705 are based in Bishkek, Kyrgizstan – see https://vimeo.com/705kg and www.705.kg