Contemporary art emerged in post-Soviet Asia in the mid-1990s as a natural continuation of the avant-garde discourse, which drew increased attention after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of independent states. Today, contemporary art has established itself and continues to develop in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, i.e. in the post-Soviet “stans,” where the level of loyalty demonstrated by political regimes is enough for a critical discourse to exist.
The preliminary ground for the development of contemporary art in the Central Asian region was prepared by the Soviet modernist project. During the evacuations and Stalinist repressions, vanguard ideas came to Central Asia with avant-garde artists who paved the way for local innovations via the work of their followers and students.
An important role in the process of establishing the new art practice was played by independent, nonprofit organizations, such as galleries, public foundations, artist groups, and collectives. The search for a new identity took place across all of the arts, including film, theater, literature, and visual arts. The generally proactive informal situation in the culture of the newborn post-Soviet Central Asian states facilitated the formation of a unified art scene in the region toward the late 1990s/early 2000s.
What are the outcomes of this nearly thirty-year-long co-development process? How are relationships between members of the art community evolving today? What kind of challenges do contemporary art protagonists currently face in the region? And what type of constructs of identity will come to the fore in Central Asia in the 2020s? The problems raised by these questions will help to form a timely model of the Central Asian art community.