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Media center ArtEastArtEast was founded as a non-governmental organization in November 2002 by freelance artists of Kyrgyzstan. The main goal of the organization is to develop contemporary art in Kyrgyzstan by increasing artistic level and using new technology in art.ArtEast has been working in three directions: Informational - providing information and contacts with other like foundations, programs, exhibitions and seminars. Organization of the international network cooperation among art-institutions. Organisational - realisation of art projects, organization of exhibitions, workshops, trainings, consultation on fundraising and art-management. Technical - providing with appropriate equipment for realising personal projects in Kyrgyzstan as well as in other countries. In the Shadow of HeroesIn october 2006 ArtEast organiced the international Art-Project »In the Shadow of Heroes«. It has two components, an exhibition of contemporary art and a conference. Artists from Afghanistan, Armenia, China, France, Germany, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Netherlands, the U.S., and Uzbekistan will be invited to take part in the project.
Focusing on the state of contemporary art in Central Asia and the world as a whole, the goal of the project is to encourage international and intercultural dialogue among artists, art critics, and curators. The project s organizer is ArtEast, a Kyrgyz non-profit organization established by artists in 2002, whose mission is to develop contemporary art in Kyrgyzstan. One of the eternal problems for creative people is understanding the »heroes« of their time. Artists' identities are indissolubly connected to their surrounding environments, and their creative works, in one way or another, reflect the processes occurring in society at any given moment. Contemporary Central Asia is characterized, on the one hand, by collective phobias, skepticism, disappointment, and a lack of faith in tomorrow and, on the other, by adventurism, cynicism, and a desire for pleasure and success. The overwhelming prevalence of these moods and behaviors leads us to ask the question: How can we define the »hero« of our time? What is he like? In what contexts is he represented? Is there an inherent conflict in asking what makes for a »hero« in today's world, when »anything goes« in the arts? Can we speak with certainty of the loss of the enemy in artistic representations? How should artists relate to mass media treatments of »heroes«? Official post-Soviet images of the heroic are already very well represented on Central Asian territory. The present-day creation of heroic myths has resulted in the cloning of numerous animalistic, portrait statues on horseback all the way from the Caspian Sea to Mongolia. The search for cultural identity is in crisis. Somewhere within us, we experience an unwavering sense that what is most important has been left behind, beyond the limits of public attention, in the shadow of »heroes«.
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