Memories of the Future: The Soviet Past in Works by Contemporary Artists from Central Asia

• In Event: Memory in Creation: The Artistic Legacy of the Soviet Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

I’m interested in the way in which the Soviet experiment is channeled in works by artists from Central Asia, including Saodat Ismailova, Almagul Menlibayeva, Yerbosyn Meldibekov, and others. My focus will be on artists of the “middle generation” who were relatively young when the Soviet Union collapsed and whose work embraces complexity and nuance when it comes to the Soviet era and its impact on the region. I want to investigate how these artists negotiate the space between socialism and nationhood, between development and crisis, and what role they assign to art as a form of archivization and commemoration in a region where other forms of public memory are often scant.

Author

• Sven Spieker, UC Santa Barbara