BERLIN

Yellow Matters

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The long-term curatorial project 'Yellow Matters' by SOMA Art Gallery Berlin will present 7 Asian – backgrounded women artists whose work is mainly focused on the identity.

 

“In Central Asia we have the concept of mankurtism, which describes the loss of the national roots, the traditional values and culture. Previously it referred to slaves, called Mankurts, who completely lost the memory of their past live by undergoing a special, torture-like treatment.Today we use this term to describe people who have, consciously or unconsciously, adopted other cultural values.This loss of memory concerns the manners, the morals and even the language, which are being replaced by other values.One of the causes of this phenomenon in our time is globalization.

Modern life in Kazakhstan with its new sets of values has become so natural, that it seems almost impossible to connect with the ancient nomadic traditions. Perhaps it would also be not suitable anymore. Now, since we are no longer nomads, I would like to know, what should we keep and what should we give up, as a new generation? What do we need to keep in mind in this present process of change?

Considering and reflecting upon all this, one wonders whether it makes any sense at all to deal with this issue, or if it would better to simply live in the flow of these events without thinking about them?”

 

The Artist Gulnur Mukazhanova is born and grown up in Kazakhstan has been based in Berlin since 2009, graduated from the Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan and Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin.

 

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Artists: 

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Gulnur Mukazhanova (Kazakhstan)

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2017/03