Almaty-Berlin
Art Perspective into Central Asia's Post-Socialist Era
photography, video installation,digital MULTIMEDIA
contact: almagul2@gmail.com
Almagul Menlibayeva
CONTEMPORARY ART CENTRAL ASIA / KAZAKHSTAN
Coordination “ASTANA EXPO-2017”
Jama Nurkalieva
Production
Arnlod Katzen
American- Eurasian Art Advisors LLC
Coordination de production
Emilie Lecouturier
Installation technique et audiovisuelle
Magnum
ADC Production
Credits pour l'exposition
ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA
"Transformation"
Cette exposition est organisée par
la Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais
et «Expo 2017 Astana, Kazakhstan».
Commissariat
Jérôme Neutres, directeur de la stratégie
et du développement, RMN-Grand palais
Scénographie
Almagul Menlibayeva
Assistée d’Emilie Lecouturier
Almagul Menlibayeva
When I look at the Steppe, 2016, 53.23 m x 19.36 m.
It is the biggest site-specific installation of the carpet made for the space for Salon d'Honneur.
The original design based on her ongoing project Migration of the knowledge.
11 channel video installation, surround sound by OMFO
Curated by Jerome Neutres
Almagul Menlibayeva is currently one of the most renowned Kazakh contemporary
artists, both in her country and internationally. As a socially conscious artist whose
principal medium is video installations, Almagul Menlibayeva, who lives between
Almaty and Berlin has already been invited to show her work in a wide range of art
centers and events, most notably the last Venice Biennale (2015).
This exhibition presents a brand new installation designed especially for the Salon
d'Honneur at the Grand Palais. The RMN-Grand Palais is co-producing this event as part
of its artistic partnership with Kazakhstan, in collaboration with "Astana EXPO-2017" as
a prelude to the International Exhibition “EXPO-2017” that will take place in the Kazakh
capital between 10 June and 10 September next year.
With this custom-made installation, called "Transformation", Almagul Menlibayeva is
taking over the monumental space of the Grand Palais Salon d'Honneur (a 1,200 m2
rectangle with nearly 17 meter-high ceilings). Without dividing the space in any material
way, the artist slices, cadences and inhabits the Salon d'Honneur with her installation of
an original creation made up of multiple screens and projections of a series of works that
intermingle, contrast and communicate with one another, as well as a synchronized sound
installation. This immersive installation also features an original carpet designed by the
artist, in a contemporary interpretation of Kazakhstan's most traditional creative medium.
Using the work Kurchatov 22 (2013) the artist explores the disastrous impact of the
repeated nuclear tests (1949-1991) in the town of Kurchatov when Kazakhstan was part
of the Soviet Empire. Here, Menlibayeva presents a new format of the installation,
combining two new videos produced specially for the exhibition.
Tokamak (2016) returns to the town of Kurchatov to film a new latest-generation nuclear
the reactor, an ultra-sophisticated fusion system now used for civil nuclear power but which
necessarily echoes the region's military history.
Finally, Astana (2016) – named after the new capital of Kazakhstan since 1997, built in
just a few years on a desert steppe – attempts to comprehend the transformation process
of a landscape and a society through the futurist architecture of this 21st-century city and
the major works in preparation for the Astana “EXPO-2017”.
Examining the combination of history, architecture and science and the transformation
processes of a society through this fresco of the Kazakhstan of yesterday and tomorrow,
Almagul Menlibayeva delivers a piece of global significance.
Jérôme Neutres
Directeur de la stratégie et du développement
Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand palais
Fabrication et installation du tapis
Ege
Service Pose Moquette
Réalisation / Caméra / Montage
Almagul Menlibayeva
Deuxième caméra
Anwar Musirepov
Composition musicale
German Popov
Remerciements
Grand Palais, Paris France
Astana EXPO 2017 Kazakhstan
American-Eurasian Art Advisors LLC.
Video installation Transformation interacts with historical architectural styles of different eras and ideologies. In the space of the monument historic Beaux-Arts architecture combined with Classical and Art Nоvаue the Soviet architecture veined in the iron heart of the nuclear landscapes of the test fields in the film Kurchatov 22 (8-channel video installation, 2013-2016), the new era of the futuristic architecture in the movie Tokamak (8-channel video installation, 2016) with the work of Astana (3 channel video installation) installed on the ceiling of the Beaux-Arts architecture of Salon d'Honneur. The witness of the past and the unresting futurists together with the viewers are having an opportunity to have a unique experience of the space of video installations as "mental architectural video sculptures".
SOLO SHOW transformation
17.12.2016 - 02.01.2017, Grand Palais, Paris
Plan of the exposition in the monumental space of the Grand Palais Salon d'Honneur (a 1,200 m2 rectangle with nearly 17 meter-high ceilings), Grand Palais, Paris, France