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News5th April 2008 As of today pictures of the opening can be found under [ Exposition / Opening ]. Accompanying text will follow.1st April 2008 We are very sorry to only report the news today. Last week has been a week full of stress. We only had 4 days to prepare the exhibition consisting of more then 200 works of art. We had to deal with Soviet style exposition walls and with museum 'guards' from the 80's wanting to shut down the museum during the opening of the exhibition. During all this a TV appearance was scheduled and many interviews with TV and Radio were planned, along side a big press conference. But in the end all this has led to a successfull and great exposition. Many curious visitors and people from the press have visited the opening and we got a lot of positive reactions from all sides. A lot of people, especially the younger generation, yearn for a change in culture and as such this exhibition proved to be quite a sensation.
Here are a few impressions of last week. More picture of the opening will follow. We are working on the documentation of all pieces of art for the website. With respect to this there will be a mailing in the coming days to all involved.
12th March 2008 Emil Djumabaev is a film director. We visited the customs office together with him only once, in order to liberate the few packages they withheld. While we were waiting for the customs officer who was going to help us, Emil told us why the Kyrgyz people never organise any happenings or performances. He believes that life in Europe has already been completely planned, as one knows well upfront what will happen. In Kyrgyzstan life itself is already a big Happening: as one leaves his home in the morning, he doesn't know where he will sleep that night or what will happen during that day. Until now, this is one of the most striking elements of the Kyrgyz way of living. Today we got a telephone call form the museu,. The advertising agent has published our banner and at the same time removed the banner of the running exposition... 8th March 2008
Our sponsors search has found an end. The advertising is designed and will be printed coming Monday. We have 500 posters, 500 flyers, and a banner. Tonight our co-worker and friend Nika is coming to town and poor her, she has to start helping us immediately. Almost all the problems seem resolved now, there only remains a little fright that the basement does not hold enough space for all the art works, and I am still waiting for the last package, which hopefully arrives on time. Next week we are engaged with the TV stations and I am quite anxious about it. My public appearance could have come at a better time and Maxim can no longer walk since he has twisted his foot. So we will probably display a fairly impoverished image. In addition to your work, there are the results of workshops with young artists from Bishkek, who's work will be displayed around the museum. For our cultural work we have enjoyed support from the [ Swiss Confederation ], which bear the cost for a.o. materials used for the currently emerging art works of this workshop.
We would like to warmly thank all artists who have sent in their work, it is really amazing what's going on here. The people who come into Kadicha's office look at the packages and are very curious and excited, of course we always show what is possible. The praise we get now, I would really like to pass on to you, because without these works of art and the commitment of the artists, we could never have organised or exhibited anything. Maxim has just had a total power surge and really wants to organise a counter exhibition in Berlin, in due time, but without all the organisation stress. I certainly need a small break as well. [ DHL ] brings your work to Berlin, with which we are particularly pleased as we completely trust DHL. Furthermore lots of greetings and gratitude to Nürnberg, from where we were also supported by [ Kunst- und Kurhaus Katana e.V. ], so now there is a bridge between Bishkek and Nürnberg. Encouraged me even more in the idea to travel personally to Nürnberg to visit the Nürnberg artists and to return their works in person, perhaps lay some foundation in Nürnberg for my own artistic career, or maybe give a small lecture on Kyrgyzstan with videos from Kyrgyz artists. 16th Februari 2008
Unfortunately, just before entry closing date, we were in the midst of chaos again. This time we had a major powerfailure and thus also no internet connection. It started with just around our house, but it soon spread to an entire part of the city. We tried our best in answering all emails using an internetcafe. If we have overlooked one or two email, please forgive us! In the meanwhile we have been reconnected with the rest of the world and coming weekend we are going to work through all emails again in all peace. At present we are collecting packages from the post daily, although two packages got hold up at the border. Thanks to the relentless efforts of our team we managed to free them! In the beginning it all semmed to be very difficult, but as soon as one of the employees understood these were meant for the museum, things smoothed up quite fast. 2nd Februari 2008
Unfortunately, recently we have somewhat neglected the website, but we are still here. At minus 20 degrees Lätitia is frozen on a little bit. Maxim as true Siberian seems unaffected by the weather. Our main work at the moment is just answering a lot of e-mails and find sponsors. Exciting news is that the project is now under the auspices of the German Embassy in Bishkek. In addition, we are giving workshops at the moment, which could lead to something even more exciting. A very big praise goes to the participating artists, we already received have about 60 parcels, and many times we can't even carry all of them from the post office to the museum. Kadicha, who works at the museum, has been doing this almost entirely alone. Her office is slowly filling up. The contents of the packages are exciting, and it helps put in that extra energy and overcome any fatigue attacks. 21th December 2007 Christmas is celebrated in Bishkek just as well, but not until Santa Claus appears on New Year's Eve and brings along his gifts. We do miss the Western food delights at the moment. We wish everybody happy holidays and the best wishes for the new year.For the press there is even a present: the press bulletin [ in German ], [ in English ] and [ in Dutch ]. 30th November 2007 New is the [ entry form ] to make our planning easier. Therefor we ask all artists who have the intention to participate to fill out this form and e-mail it to us.The Kyrgyz National Museum for Fine Arts is our official partner as of today. The exposition will therefor take place in the museum, which means there is [ a change of address ]. We ask you to send your post and parcels directly to the museum. In case anybody has already sent something to the old address, please inform us and we will trace it. 11th November 2007 We have already recieved a lot of positive feedback, and are now very pleased to bring you some good news. We have decided to organise a re-exhibition in Berlin, after the »parcels« have been brought back to Germany by a conveyance firm. Kyrgystan artists will also be taking part.As from next week, we will start an interview series with Kyrgystan artists. The interviews will be released on this website. |
