Unyielding Beauty: Central Asian perspective
Screenings and lecture
Zachęta | cinema room (entrance from Burschego Street, up the stairs)
free admission
Wydarzenie w języku angielskim | Event in english
Screenings and lecture, June 21st–22nd,
Saturday–Sunday, 17–20
Bringing together documentary, short fiction features, and video performances, this selection highlights queer voices from Central Asia as they navigate the region’s everyday realities. In their search for safe spaces of expression, these artists adapt, migrate, and solidarize. A video camera becomes a licerating tool, a medium that offers a time-space of judgement-free experience, allowing for both self-perception and sharing with others, even if only through the screen.
In her talk, Saltanat Shoshanova will examine how contemporary art in Central Asia functions as a platform for articulating and challenging dominant narratives of national identity through queer representation. Drawing on case studies from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, she will discuss how artists use humor, subversion, and reimagined heritage to question state narratives that marginalize queer identities. The talk will also address how these artistic interventions intersect with broader geopolitical contexts, including the enduring influence of Russian imperial and Soviet legacies, and how they resonate within contemporary global queer art movements.
Dilda Ramazan is a curator, a member of DAVRA, the Central Asian research group, and a PhD candidate at Sorbonne Université. Her research and curatorial interests are related to Central Asian contemporary art (his/her)stories.
Saltanat Shoshanova is a doctoral researcher at the University of Regensburg, specializing in queer feminist art and activism in Central Asia. Originally from Kazakhstan, she is currently based in Berlin. She holds an M.A. in Art History in the Global Context from Freie Universität Berlin and has published on the topics including the Kazakh famine and contemporary art in Kazakhstan. Her research explores memory production, decoloniality, and identity through art and visual culture. For more information visit: shoshanova.com
Programme:
June 21st, 5 p.m.
Unyielding Beauty: Central Asian perspective, lecture by Dilda Ramazan
Come On, Scumbags, dir. Madina Mustafina, screening
June 22nd, 5 p. m.
Ertak, dir. Kamila Rustambekov, screening
Sebastian, dir. Bakhyt Bubikanova, screening
Wolves don't cry, dir. Aika Akhmetova, screening
Pearlshower Ceremonial Event, dir. Kapita Apai and Krëlex Zentre, screening
Ilustration: Pearlshower Ceremonial Event (2017) by Katipa Apai and Krëlex zentre (Maria Vilkovisky and Ruthie Jenrbekova)
