Kyrgyz Republic 2022

Title: Gates of Turan
Commissioner: Saltanat Abdyldaevna Amanova
Curator: Janet Rady
Exhibitor: Firouz Farman Farmaian

The Kyrgyz Republic is participating for the first time in its history with a dedicated country pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.  The exhibition is the result of Firouz Farman Farmaian‘s research that has foreseen 8 months of work with the Altyn Kol Women Handicraft Cooperative, a female-led cooperative in The Kyrgyz Republic. The artist presents a multi-sensory installation that features ten hand-stitched, hand felted Shirdaks, a carpet that is typical of Central Asia. The Shirdaks are designed by the artist to represent the tribal banners of ten nomadic communities of ancient Turan. Throughout the installation, the manipulation of light, colour, sound and shadow, the artist uses disembodied sculptural illuminations and soundscapes to animate the spirit of Turanian nomadic culture.

The installation also responds to the relationship between Kyrgyzstan’s celebrated epic The Manas and Iran’s famous epic The Shahnama written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi in 1000 AD.

The title “Gates of Turan” refers to the Persian word “Tūrān”, meaning “the land of the Tur”, a historic region encompassing modern Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and northern parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The original Turanians were an Iranian nomadic tribe of the Avestan age, and their descendants make up the tribes of Central Asia and Iran.