RE-DIRECTING: EAST
Conversation # 16
Faruh Kuziev "Making Art in Odd Places"

June 4, 2014, 6.30 p.m., CCA Laboratory Building

Faruh Kuziev
"Making Art in Odd Places"
Faruh Kuziev will present and discuss some of the findings of an inquiry into cultural policies and processes as manifested in the Tajikistani contemporary art. From the perspective of his personal experience as an art manager, curator and artist, he will elaborate his interpretation of existing power structures. These often tie conservative and authoritarian regimes to art organizations favorable to them. The presentation will also touch upon the problem of controversial ways of constituting class subjectivity among the post-Soviet artists in Central Asia. The major objective of this Re-Directing: East Conversation is to question and outline new strategies for artistic dissent in the new post-Soviet Central Asia’s sociopolitical reality where progressive and unconventional art groups face pressure from both authoritarian regimes and the established artists as well as art institutions all tinged with conformity.

Faruh Kuziev (born in 1984) – an arts manager and curator based in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. An alumnus of the Fulbright Scholarship Program, he received his M.A. in arts management from the University at Buffalo, NY (2010-2012). In 2012, he was an artist-in-residence at School of Theory and Activism-Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). In 2013, he participated in the Second Moscow Curatorial Summer School. As an independent curator, he carried out such projects as Modalities (discussing patriarchy, sexism and violence through contemporary art) and Is it Hard to be Young? (exploring the Tajikistani youth’s socio-economic segregation and their sense of hopelessness). As an artist, he explores sociopolitical phenomena, in particular nationalism, obscurantism and the “othering” processes, employing public art, blogging and printed media. His works were showcased at a gender-oriented exhibition Based on True Story (Women’s Money) and Central Asian Pavilion at Venice Biennale (the National Museum Catalog). As a writer and presenter, he runs the first absurdist literary blog in his country (newlittj.blogspot.com), and contributes to the various media (e.g. www.art-initiatives.org, www.liva.ua, www.neweuroasia.net). He co-authored a series of articles on cultural policy in Tajikistan (e.g. Check and Stalemate to Contemporary Art and Contemporary Dirt).

RE-DIRECTING: EAST project is realized thanks to the support of City of Warsaw.

CCA media patronage: TOK FM, Elle Decoration, KMag, Label, Aktivist, Purpose, artinfo.pl, Stolica