Artivist Lab: "I Inherit What You Lost"

Artists from the countries of the Eastern Partnership and Central Asia explore the "dissonant heritage", which includes tangible and intangible remnants of the challenging times of the 20th century. The exhibition will present artistic reflections responding to the complex history via architecture; buildings, monuments, and urban elements, with historical links to wars, colonization, persecution, and propaganda.

The exhibition is the response of young artists from the Eastern Partnership and Central Asia to address the theme of inheritance and loss. For inheritance is both an element of physical space and a political mechanism, both a resource and a trauma. Individual, personal narratives enter into dialogue with official history and established geographies. By giving voice to the artists of these regions, the project opens up to the presence of different approaches and perspectives existing in a single time and space, rejecting the primacy of a “homogenous sequence of events conforming to the vision of the victors” , as Simona Škrabec wrote in relation to W. Benjamin's reflections On the Concept of History. Art becomes a tool to discover that part of the past which has been erased from official memory, and history becomes the sum of individual fortunes.

• As part of the exhibition, a lecture entitled 𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐑: 𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐘, 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐘, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐀 will take place on Friday, 1 June at 6pm. How do the artists and activists of Astana reflect on the dramatic changes in the urban and natural landscapes? Can the residents of Kazakhstan's capital city reclaim their right to the city and their right to memory? 𝐓𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐬 𝐈𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐤𝐨𝐯 is an architect, researcher, cultural activist, and curator from Astana.

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The exhibition was created on the basis of an open call, after which a series of meetings, workshops and discussions between selected artists, curators and invited professionals took place for half a year. The exhibition was launched in Szczecin, Poland, at Locatorne on 14th of April 2024.

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Represented countries: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, North Ossetia, Tatarstan, Kaliningrad

Artists: Yanka Rondo, Aynur Abutalibova, Maria Balas, The duo from the North Caucasus, Intizor Otaniyozova, Varvara Sudnik, 1/13 

Curator: Tamara Moyzes, Aleksandra Artamonova

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Exhibition partners: Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, City Hall of Prague, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, Cultural Foundation Floating EKA, ACADEMIA SZTUKI W SZCZECINIE, LOCATOR