„Kazakhstan, is it you?” This question has launched the photo exhibition by a French artist Yuri Bilak in the Ogrod Saski in Warsaw on 28 September 2010 at 16.00. It was prepared together with a team of Kazakh journalists from the Respublika newspaper and its primary objective is to demonstrate the dynamic development of the country, and to reveal its other veiled face. The artists say that the pieces displayed have quite a multi–faceted character.
The pictures, besides leaving a lot of things out of focus, create a logical integrity, and allow the viewer to relive moments of anxiety and happiness of the contemplated exhibition. What connects all pieces together is the desire of its authors and organizers to experience Kazakhstan simultaneously from a positive and negative side, especially in terms of cooperation in humanitarian issues, like human rights, security in a wide sense, Kazakhstan’s betrayal in the OSCE, or the trust, multi-vector equality implemented with the system transformation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The organizer of the photo show is the Open Dialogue Foundation lead by Dr. Janusz Onyszkiewicz, and newspapers Nowa Europa Wschodnia, Ośrodek Karta and Kultura Liberalna. The concept of the show was born after the publication of an album on the former socialist country.
The organizers of the exhibition in Poland say, “the goal of the exhibition is to bring Kazakhstan’s reality and problems closer to the citizens of the United Europe, because the road to successful democracy in the young post-Soviet countries just as much depends on them.”
Undoubtedly, Kazakhstan is a country worth admiring. To achieve that, it deserves profound studies into its infrastructure, culture and traditions. Neighbored by such countries as China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, it is a blend of various nationalities and customs unique on the global scale.
We invite you to see and discuss the exhibition. The show will be open in Warsaw until October 8. Expected exhibition in other European cities – spring 2011.
