Traditional and contemporary art of Kazakhstan

Sergei Maslov’s (1948–2002) installation ‘Baikonur-2’, reconstructed from sketches of his 2002 project, was exhibited at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024) in the National Pavilion of Kazakhstan. The theme for the exhibition of the country’s artists from the 1970s to the present day (conceptually, ‘from modernism to new media’) was defined as a reflection of a utopian world – dreams, reveries and fantasies: ‘Zheruyik: A View Beyond the Horizon’. This futuristic project by the myth-maker Maslov was created in the 1990s (https://astralnomads.net/authors/sergey-maslov.html/tab/artifact/baykonur-2.html). In the project, he uses various forms of conceptual art – text, computer graphics and installation – to portray the Kazakhs as cosmic nomads who, in the author’s words, ‘arrived from Sirius 2,000 years ago’. The artist’s ‘Mirage’, as V. Ibraeva writes, was featured in the ‘No Mad’s Land’ exhibition in Berlin in 2002. Maslov presented an installation – a Kazakh yurt, the modified shape of which vaguely resembled a rocket. In his utopia, he envisaged the Kazakh yurt as a camouflaged rocket, which, if necessary, ‘could be modernised at any moment to produce an advanced aircraft’. Inside the yurt stood a monitor displaying computer graphics that illustrated the text. Maslov’s ‘True Story’ describes many incidents that threatened space travellers.

Source: Photograph by Ilarion Zago, provided by A. Musrepoff for his article: A. Musrepoff. Science vs Myth: Indigenous Art in the Age of Web 3.0 // KhZh. Issue 128. 2025 Digital illustration for the short story ‘Baikonur-2’

Source: https://astralnomads.net/