NEW/OLD ROUTES -A Selection of Video Art From Central Asia

Participating Artists: Abilsait Atabekov, Erbolsin Meldibekov and Alexandr Ugay from Kazakhstan, Veaceslav Ahunov, Serghei Ticina from Uzbekistan, Ulan Djaparov, Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev from Kyrgyzstan

Curated by Stefan Rusu

Opening: January 11th, 2008, Friday 18:30
Exhibition dates: January 12th - 20th, 2008 (11:00 - 18:00)
Lecture: January 14, 11 am
Venue: BizArt Art Center

4/f, Bldg 7, 50 Moganshan Road, 200060 Shanghai

Tel: 86 21 62775358

www.biz-art.com, www.arthub.org.cn

Li Xuehui: xuehui@biz-art.com

Alexia Dehaene: guanchaoqun@yahoo.com.cn

New/Old Routes is an exhibition and publication that explores the nomad specificity of the Islamic states after the collapse of Soviet Union. An overview of the present situation of the Central Asian context by an external viewer becomes imperative; this visual material compiled by a guest curator creates a retrospective look at the internal and evolving processes of the socio-political and cultural background.

Overlapping networks and the relationship between the archaic-nomadic and the present-day post-industrial traditions provide a synthetic equation and an extraordinary cultural load. The re-use of tradition in these artists' practices become the necessary tool for articulation of contemporary art discourse to establish the nods of resistance against inertia, apathy and historical amnesia.

The project's first edition that took place in Croatia, Poland, and Germany promoted the positions of Asian artists and enabled cultural exchange between the contemporary art practitioners from Europe and Central Asia. The project's current version as presented in Shanghai, China at BizArt Center intends to open up the process of cultural exchange between China and Central Asia and show a number of diverse positions on the Asian identity, with a special focus on video production from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

About the Curator:

Stefan Rusu is artist and freelance curator based in Chisinau, Moldova currently he is the projects coordinator at the Center for Contemporary Art/Chisinau. In 2005/2006 he attended the Curatorial Training Program at Shtichting De Appel from Amsterdam where he co-curated Mercury in Retrograde ( www.mercuryinretrograde.com)

About ArtHub
ArtHub Foundation not-for-profit organization that supports contemporary art creation
in China and the rest of Asia
New/Old Routes is organized as part of the Bizart/Arthub's Prince Claus Fund-the Netherlands Network Partners 2008-2010.