Anna Kin (b. 1999) is Almaty-based research-driven artist, manager of cultural projects and language enthusiast. Currently working in the field of socially engaged art and new media.
Explores the traces of the Soviet Empire through the languages and cultures of the peoples of Central Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. The artistic method includes the practice of caring and solidarity. Her approach involves transeversal design and radical proposal for the worlds in transition
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ღ*
Research-driven project. Radical proposals for worlds in
transition. Language enthusiasm. Re-inventing future.
New Media. Sonic Art.
Almaty-based artist Anna Kin’s latest video art project "ღ" presents the state of different ethno-linguistic groups following imperial collapse and political transition. For this artwork, people from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia are asked to recite their alphabets. By doing so, Kin aims to showcase languages that have suffered forced assimilation by their former political regimes. Now, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, these languages are either rejuvenating or fading. "ღ" is an invitation to explore individuality, diversity, and the power of language. The project is a work in progress, and Kin plans to keep extending this video art collection as a lifelong project.
“As an artist who employs language, I’ve come to realize how my relationship with it has shifted. Language is both a weapon and a healer—it can be used to enforce agonizing hatred at the state level, or it can poignantly place a therapeutic conversation and a prayer. I see brotes as a form of prayer—one that continues through art, holding onto something beyond rational”.
*Anna Kin’s project is called “ღ”, which takes its title from the Georgian letter ghan whose form playfully echoes the heart symbol, poignantly places a conversation about anticolonial language politics in dialogue with affect. Her work asks not only what languages sound like, but how they animate our sensuous and emotional experiences of the world, that is, how they articulate our lived attachments to political and social worlds in transition. In her film we see not only a crucial effort to catalog the sonic and gestural worlds of languages in crisis and transition, but an artwork that challenges how we think about our affective and somatic embodiment of language more broadly”. – Leah Feldman, project’s supervisor.
ALPHABETS:
Nogai and Serbian, Albanian (video)
Tifinagh and Ukrainian (video)
Duration: 5min 17 sec
2023
Farsi, Lezgi, Mari (video)
Albanian (Kosovo), Balcar and Abeceda (video)
Duration: 5min 43 sec
2023
North Macedonian, Lak, Azerbaijani (video)
Kartvelian and Turkish (video)
Duration: 5min 25 sec
2023
Lak language history of replacement by Ruslan Magachuev (video)
Tatar language history of replacement by Ilmurat Vafin (video)
Duration: 20min 53 sec
2023
ღ*- press release
Total installation, Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile presents “ღ” (read: ghani), a total installation by Kazakhstani artist Anna Kin, exploring anticolonial language politics through sound, gesture, and suspended letterforms, 2025 Sep, Berlin
Multi-channel videos, spatial sound, suspended laser-cut letterforms, participatory microphone.
Team:
Zuleykha Ibad is a curator and cultural manager whose work explores the
intersections of art, ecology, and transnational exchange. She is senior
curator and vice chair of Iopener e.V., a member of SALOON Berlin, and has
coordinated international projects across the Caucasus, Europe, and
America, including collaborations with Ta(r)dino 6 Art Platform and ARIA
Antwerp.
+49 15221525456 / zuleykhaibad@gmail.com
Lev Tarikov is a cultural producer who has staged runway shows, co-
curated art exhibitions, and led multimedia campaigns across New York,
Berlin, and Almaty. His portfolio spans collaborations with galleries, cultural
institutions, fashion labels, museums, and art festivals.
+7 7078674928 / tarikovlev@gmail.com
Production team:
Evgenii Bakhtin;
Liza Kin;
Lena Pozdnyakova;
Anatoly Kim;
Kristina Klimova;
ღ*
Solo exhibition. Multi-channel video & sound installation, special commission for ARTBAT festival, Supported by Eurasian Cultural Alliance, Chevron and Goethe Institut in Kasachstan. 28 Sep-10 Oct 2023 in Egin Space, Almaty
Multi-channel videos, spatial sound, suspended laser-cut letterforms, darkened space.
ღ*
Group show KUZEY: Displaced Identity, Exhibition of contemporary art about the peoples of Kazakhstan.
Extracts of the artwork, screen, spatial sound.
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ღ – Live performance of the sound art project, segment of the extended artwork “ღ”. Berlin art book fair, organized by Station of Commons, Miss Read x lumbung radio Prefair Program 17-21 September 2023 at Gerichtstrasse 45, Berlin.
For this sound experiment I blended phonemes from collected alphabets: albanian, turkish, kartvelian, and azerbaijani and mixed them with acousmatic field recordings of both urban and rural areas.
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OpenSourcingLove–
collaborative crowdsource project created together w/Aigerim Tumenbay. It’s idea based on the concept of cognitive bias. By definition: “a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing information. Frequent result of one’s brain’s attepmt to simplify information processing.”
collaborative crowdsource project created together w/Aigerim Tumenbay. It’s idea based on the concept of cognitive bias. By definition: “a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing information. Frequent result of one’s brain’s attepmt to simplify information processing.”
Background story: Last summer, me and my friend started simultaneously noticing lots of heart shapes everywhere we went. Upon sharing them on social media, we began to receive more pictures from friends and strangers even, so we created a profile on are.na,and lots of people all around the world have contributed improvements to its design and functionality. Our worldwide #opensourcinglove movement, also known as #osl can be followed on instagram.
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Waves: Radio as Collective Imagination
offline publication, mentioned as an Open Sourcing Love artist collective founder, contributor. 2024 Nov, Berlin, Germany
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OSL zine
Published with a support of British Council, presented in the frame of Styq decentralised city festival. 19 June 2022, Almaty
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Love and Solidarity Weekend
- a cycle of events, where we suggested letter writing practice as a form of expressing solidarity and support. The project employs a letter-writing format and the artifact of a letter as a tool for reflection and a symbol of self-love. We believe that writing love letters is an inspiring action capable of motivating people to engage in positive change, especially amidst the challenging times we are experiencing worldwide. We consider it a powerful means to raise awareness about society’s issues and challenges. Through sharing personal stories, insights, and perspectives in these letters, we aspire to document significant shifts in our shared comprehension of the world, raise awareness, and connect with the vibrant energy of individuals contributing to the change toward a more conscious generation.
Our love-solidarity letter writing and recording session, featuring postcard cover images of Open Sourcing Love artworks, took place at the Goethe Institut in Kazakhstan, continued during the Missread Art Book Pre-Fair program in Berlin and concluded at the Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit center, where letters from our workshop were handed to kids from Ukrainian at-risk families.
Open Sourcing Love – Love and Solidarity Workshop
Contributors: Open Sourcing Love artist collective, There There
Event: Missread Art Book Fair, Miss Read x lumbung radio Prefair Program
Organized by Station of Commons, Missread, HKW
Dates: 17-21 September 2023
Venue: Gerichtstrasse 45, Berlin
At this event we suggested love letter writing practices as a form of healing, after we invited participants to recite their letters for a live stream at lumbung radio, here you can listen to some extracts.
We believe that letters written during turbulent times can become valuable historical documents. They provide a personal perspective on events, emotions, and experiences that might not be captured in official records. These letters can serve as primary sources for future generations, helping them understand the impact of these times on individuals and communities. Love & Solidarity Workshop is an emotional journey created to build up a connection with the community where love and solidarity reign.
OpenSourcingLove – Love and Solidarity Workshop hosted by Open Sourcing Love artist collective with the support of the Goethe Institut in Kasachstan, at the Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit center, Berlin
23 Sep 2023
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Metamorphosis, 2022
Video loop, 1 minute 17 seconds. (Open Sourcing Love)
edit: Aigerim Tumenbay
sound art: Anna Kin
The artwork were presented on 9th of October 2022 in Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
Shapeshifting pop-up group show & joint performance piece curated by Maya Rubio & Gabi Abrao
Music
Video sketches
A pause.
Why a pause?
Meditative computer music produced with experimental method, both analog and electronic eqiupments. I used to collect a lot of different noises: bowling egg, der Kühlschrank, sound of the rainy forest, rivers, wooden sticks and forbidden percussion instrument. I also experimented with the vocal, and recorded it in the bathroom to shape a volume sound. The layout of the bathroom has a longer reverb and makes the voice more dreamy.
A pause is a symbol of latency, it is a confrontation with high-efficiency.
Delight of the latency is that it preserves the dignity of the unspoken words, unshown gestures, undone actions.The exhaustion of all available human resources occurs because several social order denies the value of latency, the value of a potentiality that remains presently unactualized, but preventively collected.
Delight of the latency is that it preserves the dignity of the unspoken words, unshown gestures, undone actions.The exhaustion of all available human resources occurs because several social order denies the value of latency, the value of a potentiality that remains presently unactualized, but preventively collected.
links to the video sketches:
https://vimeo.com/668859298
https://vimeo.com/668858475
https://vimeo.com/668856290
https://vimeo.com/668859298
https://vimeo.com/668858475
https://vimeo.com/668856290
Die Abenteuer des Baron Münchausen–
The dreamer's mind is free from constraints, depict resistance powerless against it. The character of Baron Münchausen – always recalls the image of my father. This work is my experiment with the soviet film adaptation, layered on the footage of my dad I took before and after he got a brain stroke. I re-mastered a sound and made a video row using a kaleidoscope and a different scenes of the film.
Link to the full video: https://vimeo.com/668867326
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Publications
2026 (TBA)– Take One Object, Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), novel
2025 June– Elastic Continuum, K. Verlag (DE), contribution of a translation and narration of an artwork segments and as a research advisor
2024 Nov– Waves: Radio as Collective Imagination, Misread Berlin, offline publication, mentioned as an Open Sourcing Love artist collective founder, contributor. Berlin, DE
2024 Aug– Language and its Social and Political Contexts, LCCA Summer School catalogue: featured as contributing artist, Valmiera, Latvia
2022 June– Publication of Open Sourcing Love, limited edition artist peace about cognitive bias of the heart, editor and project’s founder, supported by British Council
Almaty 2025/ Anna Kin archives/
Social arts/ New Media/ Film/ Workshop/ Modes of relating/ Radical proposals for worlds in transition/ transversal design/ Language activism/
Re-inventing future
socials: https://soundcloud.com/anazabanga
https://www.instagram.com/anaza_banga/
e-mail: annakin.brief@gmail.com