A New Silk Road: Algorithm of Survival and Hope
5 channel video installation with photographs
Tracks with rusty metal to China and back became a symbol of the very complicate process of migration, survival and transformation of mentality of the last 16 years in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz people’s lifestyle has been transformed during the last 100 years. Nomads in the past, semi nomads in soviet time, Kyrgyz people absorbed, from time to time, very destructive rules of global market, in the last two decades.
The road (people still call it “jibek jol” (“silk road”) on the high mountains connecting Kyrgyzstan and China is interesting by its history as well. Existed from ancient time -there still exists a caravan saray from Middle Ages there- the road reflected all socio-political changes within the country. The road was renovated after Second World War in short period when a good relationship between Stalin’s Soviet Union and Mao’s China existed. The old statues of Soviet leaders on the road are the mute witness of that time. But in the end of 50’s some part of the road became a runaway for military airplanes against China (now it is a huge parking for trucks). Today, former shepherds survive serving the trucks here. A small clay house and wagons offer the drivers bed and feeding.
Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev’s project is part of the group exhibition Dalla via Emilia al mondo, curated by Diane Dufour, Elio Grazioli and Walter Guadagnini.
