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”.

ALPHABETS:

Türk alfabesi;

Azərbaycan əlifbası;

Vukovica;

Abetka;

Abeceda;

Mkhedruli alphabet;

Alfabeti shqip;

Makedonska azbuka;

lakːu maz;

Lezgi alphabet;

Tifinagh;

Nogai alphabet;

Mari alphabet;

Balkar alphabet.

*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.

credits:

Photographer: Zhanar Shaki @shaki_ranazh, Liza Kin

@lizakin_photo

Cameraman: Danilo Ceković @danilocekovic

Cameraman & editor: Bahtiyar Khelis @toomuchsnp

Participants: Ilmirat Mukhamedzhanovich Vafin, Tatar

diaspora representative;

Arash Jafari Sarouei (@arash604) Persian diaspora representative,

Yakub;

Hatiye Garip (@hatiyegarip) Turkiye;

Elchin Jafarov (@jafarovelchin) Azerbaijan;

Sonila Abdalli, Albania; Luka Lebanidze, Sakartvelo;

Ana Dragić (ena_dredzik) Serbia;

Tane Laketić (@wennduanwunderglaubst) Serbia;

Tetiana Kryvenko (@tataproducer) Ukraine;

Andrea Markoska (@markoskaandrea), Macedonia

Supervisor: Leah Feldman (@lost_intheether)

Sites: @tselinnycenter @cultura.kz Almaty, Kazakhstan

Site manager: Shakarov Amir @mynameisamirplombir

The project is supported by Chevron Kazakhstan, U.S.

Diplomatic Mission and the Eurasian Cultural Alliance

Slavs and Tatars public program in Tselinny Center of

Contemporary Culture, Almaty

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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.

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

ღ –Group show KUZEY: Displaced Identity, Exhibition of contemporary art about the peoples of Kazakhstan.