ALMATY – An international exhibition exploring women’s heritage, ancestral knowledge and cultural memory through contemporary art opened at the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture in Almaty on Oct. 15, bringing together 21 artists and thinkers from Central Asia and other parts of the world.
The project’s architectural and exhibition design responds to the history of Tselinny’s building as a former Soviet cinema. Photo credit: Laurian Ghinițoiu. Titled “Himoya: Matrilineal Energies, Oracular Kin,” the exhibition is curated by Natasha Ginwala and will run until April 4, 2027.
It features newly commissioned works, existing projects and site-specific installations, alongside a research program, workshops and educational events. The exhibition takes its name from the word “himoya,” which conveys ideas of protection, care and safeguarding vulnerability across several linguistic traditions, including Uzbek, Arabic, Azerbaijani and Sanskrit.
Through sculpture, sound, installation and performance, participating artists explore how knowledge and traditions pass between generations, particularly through women and family relationships. South Korean artist Haegue Yang presents an audio installation originally created in 2009 and adapted for its presentation in Almaty.
Photo credit: Korean Cultural Center. The project also examines how colonial histories, social repression and the loss of languages, rituals and ways of life have shaped cultural memory across Central Asia and beyond. “For Tselinny, Himoya is the culmination of conversations that began back in 2021,” said Alima Kairat, the center’s artistic director.
“Conversations about matrilineal memory, rituals, protection, inherited languages of shame and care that continue to live within us, even when we stop being aware of them.” Kairat said these topics are deeply rooted in the experiences of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, where memory is transmitted not only through archives but also through the body, gestures, everyday practices and intergenerational relationships.
“Turning to ancestral knowledge, the exhibition invites us to see it not as evidence of the past, but as a living force capable of reinterpreting the present and opening up new horizons for the future,” she said. Women’s stories and overlooked histories Among the exhibition’s works is “Iron Mother” by Uzbek artist Aziza Kadyri, an interactive installation based on the story of her grandmother, Umida, one of the few women to oversee the construction of the Tashkent TV Tower.
Umida later became its first director. Despite her professional achievements, Umida’s personal recollections of the male-dominated power structures of Soviet Uzbekistan remained unpublished. Kadyri transforms this family history into an installation resembling a dismantled television studio and control room.
Visitors take the position of a person operating a broadcast, gaining the ability to determine how Umida’s voice is heard. The work explores how women’s stories, long confined to family circles or excluded from official historical narratives, can gain a public platform.