Exhibition "Ancestral Mirror"
“Ancestral Mirror” is a final exhibition of the KULANSHI ART GROUP art residency, bringing together works by artists who reinterpret Kazakhstani mythology as a language for reflecting on contemporary reality, personal experience, and collective memory.
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"Ancestral Mirror" — the final exhibition of the KULANSHI ART GROUP art residency, held at the end of 2025. The project brings together works by artists exploring Kazakh mythology as a living and relevant language for understanding social, personal, and interpersonal processes in the contemporary world.
Within the residency, the artists engage with folkloric images and mythological structures, reinterpreting their sacredness, symbolism, and multilayered nature. For some, myth becomes an object of analytical study; for others, it serves as a space for individual myth-making or as a tool to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination.
The exhibition presents projects in which mythological motifs are explored through various artistic approaches — from analyzing traditional narratives and symbols to recontextualizing them in personal artistic expressions. Works by Aida Otelbay, Zharkyn Tastanbek, and Kira Lupan demonstrate different strategies of interacting with myth — from referencing folklore heritage to creating new, authorial mythological systems.
The exhibition is complemented by works of Ardak Mukanova and Zhanat Bimenova, created outside the residency but conceptually resonating with the project and expanding it through contemporary artistic practices.
The exhibition includes painting, graphics, textile, and digital art, forming a polyphonic statement on memory, identity, and ways of inheriting cultural meanings.
Participants:
- Zhanat Bimenova
- Kira Lupan
- Ardak Mukanova
- Aida Otelbay
- Zharkyn Tastanbek