Artists recreate memories from the dead Aral Sea (We Used to Be Seaweed)

Artists recreate memories from the dead Aral Sea (We Used to Be Seaweed)

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Aral sea

We Used to Be Seaweed creates a dialogue between historic and up to date views of the Aral Sea. Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea has been depleted to an eighth of its measurement because of large-scale irrigation initiatives.

Hosted on the Savitsky Museum, this exhibition recontextualizes the museum’s well-known assortment of Soviet avant-garde and Turkestan modernism to open new conversations about identification, atmosphere, and transformation.

We covered the loss of the Aral Sea on this time lapse under previously.

Aral sea dying

The exhibition brings collectively up to date artists whose works handle the ecological, cultural, and historic transformations of the Aral Sea area.

Alexander Ugay deconstructs the ocean’s vanished horizon by way of his cameraless photographic work. Saodat Ismailova’s movies look at the extinction of the Turan tiger and the lives of three generations of Aral fishermen.

Saodat Ismailova

Saodat Ismailova

Saodat Ismailova

Saodat Ismailova. 18,000 Worlds, January 21 – June 4, 2023, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam. Exhibition view of Zukhra, 2013. HD video set up, 30 min., color, stereo. Image courtesy Eye Filmmuseum. Photograph by Studio Hans Wilschut.

The2vvo contributes a sound sculpture combining discovered sounds, underwater and area recordings, and testimonies, exploring the interconnectedness of human and non-human life within the space.

the2vvo

the2vvo

Lilia Bakanova presents a textile set up about imaginary life within the Aral Sea, created from uncooked silk and cotton—supplies produced with water that was redirected away from the Aral Sea.

Lilia Bakanova

Lilia Bakanova

In dialog with chosen works from the museum’s assortment, these items mirror on the area’s histories, shared water assets, and the intertwined relationships between tradition, nature, and reminiscence.

What occurred to the Aral Sea by way of an artist’s lens:

Imagine a journey that begins with a protracted practice trip adopted by an off-road drive by way of the desert, ending at what was the Aral Sea. Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, it has decreased to an eighth of its measurement for the reason that Fifties because of water being diverted for cotton farming.

This made a drastic impression on the local weather and life in Central Asia, primarily in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Against expectations, this panorama reveals placing magnificence moderately than melancholy: the desert blooms with a poignant tenderness; colours are muted by a superfine sandy powder, making a velvety contact; unknown grass smells of chemically flavored lollipops.

Now think about that on this distant city with no vacationers the place you employed the automobile, there’s a world-class assortment of Russian and Central Asian avant-garde. This is Savitsky museum, named after an artist who rescued work discarded by museums throughout the USSR within the 1960-70s. This city, Nukus, was so removed from the Soviet authorities, that the gathering survived. It not solely educated and impressed native artists but additionally contains their works, many depicting the Aral Sea all through the twentieth century.

This exhibition will create a dialog between historic and up to date views of the Aral Sea and the life round it. The Museum supplies an ideal backdrop for the exhibition, given its historical past of resilience and assortment of work depicting the area’s transformations.

Featured up to date works will embody:
– A Kazakh-Korean artist explores the Aral space by way of imaginary historical past. Using AI, he reconstructs his household’s archive misplaced throughout deportation of Koreans from the Soviet Far East to Kazakhstan in 1937. The work will invite the viewers to think about a hyperlink between the erasure of tradition and panorama, between identification and displacement.
– An Uzbek video artist connecting insufficient exploitation of shared water assets and feminine labour in Central Asia.
– An set up that may interact with the guests by way of imaginary textures, sounds and smells, making the invisible resilience of Aral seen. This artist’s initiatives are targeted on accessibility to various viewers. To construct on this inclusive effort, she’s going to create t touchable variations of the work featured in our exhibition. This will complement the museum’s wheelchair entry by introducing a wider vary of sensory experiences.

– A photographic undertaking by a Kazakh photographer will bridge the Kazakh and Uzbek areas of the Aral, fostering understanding and sensitivity between communities by providing glimpses into one another’s lives and shared water challenges.Beyond wanting, touching, smelling and listening, the gallery is inviting individuals to become involved.

“Visitors can assist plant seeds that they will take house and later return to the desert as seedlings for the native biostation. We’ll additionally educate them how one can make biodegradable containers for holding water for these crops. This is about extra than simply elevating consciousness; it’s about small collective actions and new connections,” announce the artists.

February 13 to March 12; Savitsky Nukus Museum of Art Rsaev Str., Nukus 23100, 
Republic of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan

Artists:

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