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Yang Yeung is a writer on art and an independent curator. She devotes herself to following how artists think, move and make sense of the world. She founded the non-profit soundpocket in 2008 and is currently its Artistic Director. She was co-curator for The Listening Biennial (2021). Her recent publications include ‘What Good is This?’ for After Hope at The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, ‘caring is a quality: on being touched by Alecia Neo’s Care Index’ for Dance Nucleus, […]

Lena Pozdnyakova is an artist from Almaty living between Berlin and Los Angeles. Currently, she is a doctoral student at the Art History Institute, Free University in Berlin She is an alumna of the Design Theory and Pedagogy programme at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Architecture from Sheffield University and a Masters in Architecture from Anhalt University of Applied Sciences. Lena has previously worked in UrbanDATA and 3Gatti Architectural Studio […]

Anna Pronina is an interdisciplinary researcher, curator and cultural historian of the Soviet Union, with an emphasis on Central Asia, currently based between Tashkent and Vienna. Pronina pursues a PhD degree in History at Central European University (Vienna). Her research interests include architecture, performing arts, (post)colonial world, nation-building processes and cultural policy in Central Asia. Previous to her PhD research at CEU, Pronina received MA and BA in Cultural studies from Moscow State University. She is also an editor and […]

Aisha Jandosova is a Kazakh-Kyrgyz diasporic artist, designer, learner and educator, currently based in Providence, United States. Jandosova’s work is centred around making room for and creating healing spaces with/for her people. She is co-founder of BABALAR PRESS, an experimental research, writing and publishing initiative for relearning, reclaiming and reimagining Kazakh ancestral knowledges. In parallel, Jandosova is engaged in a long-term, process-based re-existencia (Achinte 2009, Tlostanova 2017) research, whereby she (re)makes and learns from the everyday cultural practices of her […]

Aida Issakhankyzy is an architect who is also engaged in artistic practices. She works in a variety of techniques, including traditional hand-drawn graphics and paintings, digital media, software and tools, photography and scenography. Her artistic practices can be described as research-based art or art-based research. She states all her practices as dedicated to the questions of space, time, light and architecture, while languages of art give her wider access to the forms of investigations and freedom to explore those questions. […]

Dana Iskakova is an artist born in 1997 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Her practice mainly focuses on interactive, ‘imaginary’ art and explores human perception and imagination. She studied finance at the International IT University and Liberal Arts at St. Petersburg University. She is currently working on a project about contemporary art and culture of Central Asia called Steppe Space at Artcom Platform. She is a member of the MATA artist collective. Iskakova has participated in international projects such as QWAS – […]

Madina Zholdybekova is a multidisciplinary artist and illustrator born in Kazakhstan. She addresses questions of women’s bodily integrity, sexuality, multi-dimensional motherhood, kelinism, decolonisation and authoritarian regimes, in work that includes illustration, weaving, sculpture, video and installation. Previously, Zholdybekova has collaborated with openDemocracy, Front Line Defenders and OSCE x CAYN. Her work has been exhibited at Documenta 15, Slavs and Tatars’ Pickle Bar, Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture and Garage Museum. 

Aziza Shadenova is a Kazakh artist born in Uzbekistan. She graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2011. The majority of her work is based around humour and absurdism involved in perception of life, memories, womanhood and immigration, often focusing on untangling of her roots and thoughts as an immigrant, a woman, a wife, an artist and as a human being. For her, these are observations and engagements with the past and present, and an investigation […]

Yelena Vorobyeva is a Kazakh conceptual artist who works mainly with her partner Viktor Vorobyov as an artistic duo since the 1990s. Their usage of different genres and techniques results in multi-layered, often ironic, works focusing on post-Soviet realities of constant change, disorientation and their effects on everyday life. The artists have been compiling a precise record of the ephemeral and quotidian details of daily life. They do so in series, sorting images according to their typology. While seemingly insignificant, […]