The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Almagul Menlibayeva, Hrair Sarkissian and Erbossyn Meldibekov each focus on a specific site or historical moment in countries that were formerly part of the USSR. Menlibayeva’s five-channel video installation expresses the devastation left by Soviet nuclear weapons testing at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. On the central screen, individuals relate horrific memories of the period and its continued effects. On the other four channels, Menlibayeva’s film manipulates the bare landscape via choreographed interventions, in which the actors’ faces are obliterated by images of nuclear clouds, evoking the official disregard for the local people. Sarkissian’s photographs share his encounter with the reality of Armenia’s landscape following first Ottoman and, later, Soviet rule. Shocked by the consequences of this period on the people and the physical landscape, as well as by the state of Armenia’s economic situation, Sarkissian shrouds the extremes he encountered by shooting in heavy snow. Meldibekov also explores the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Central Asia after the collapse of the former USSR. His sculptures of mountains in Afghanistan, created from battered kitchenware, reference the constant renaming of these impressive locations as leaders come and go. Likewise, his work Family album 2011 (a collaboration with his brother, Nurbossyn Oris) traces the renewal of public sculptures, as conflicting positions — from Leninism to Stalinism to independence — warrant a different memorial. It seems that neither a natural nor a man-made monument is overlooked as power changes hands and new statements of authority are made. Looking back to a much earlier period in history is Wael Shawky’s work Telematch Crusades 2009, the prequel to his major video project Cabaret Crusades , a chronicle of the crusades that lasted from 1095 until 1291 CE. As in his previous ‘Telematch’ works, Shawky works with children, and here they are cast in the role of a gang laying siege to a castle. 4 While the boys each ride a donkey to circumnavigate the castle, their intentions are unclear. The last frame is set against a vivid blue sea; as one boy descends from his donkey, his mind could easily be focused on running and jumping into the waves to break free from the game’s structure and the impact of historical legacy. The landscape again comes to the fore and the conclusion to this film – which could allude to the far-reaching social and political effects of the Crusades – melts into the sand and sea. Oraib Toukan’s work The Equity is in the Circle 2007–09 explores the area of West Asia commonly referred to as the Middle East. This term is considered Eurocentric by many due to its geopolitical application and attempts by the West to be involved in and restructure the region’s composition of nations. Toukan redirects this recent history by proposing a corporate auctioning off of Middle East nation states under hundred-year leaseholds. The scheme is supported by details on how to ‘cost’ a nation, video interviews with auctioneers and market consultants, an auction catalogue and a branded advertising campaign. One of its advertising catchphrases, ‘Own this view and everything in it’, reverberates throughout 0 – Now. Despite the entertaining edge to Toukan’s investigation, the impending privatisation of public and national territory, as well as an individual’s and a community’s relationship to their surroundings, are constantly being redefined by those in power. The art works in 0 – Now articulate the cultural diversity and differing conditions across West Asia yet, due to historical migration across the region, parallel narratives also emerge. Related experiences and ethnic connections have left in their wake numerous commonalities. At the same time, radical changes in power and ideology have also resulted in a palimpsest of contradictory positions and beliefs. While people have borne the complexities of this region for centuries, the landscape too has been marked and altered over the years. Many of the works in 0 – Now reference and aesthetically incorporate the landscape as the canvas of West Asia’s development. The APT reaches out to imagine ‘the elongated steppe zones, the isolated oases, and the major mountain passes and corridors of Inner Asia as the overland equivalents of ocean routes, ports of call, and canals’ 5 . This zone ties together the full range of the Asia Pacific region, and as the host of countless journeys in all directions, presents a humbling vision of historically unparalleled movements and exchanges of peoples and civilisations across the land. 1 Carter Vaughn Findley, The Turks in World History , Oxford University Press, New York, 2004, p.17. 2 See Slavs and Tatars’ website, <www.slavsandtatars.com> . 3 <www.slavsandtatars.com >. 4 The term ‘Telematch’ was borrowed by Shawky from the name of a television game show originally broadcast in Germany in the 1970s, in which teams from different towns would come together and compete in various contests. See the interview with Shawky on p.246 in this volume. 5 Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan, A Borderland in Transition , Columbia University Press, New York, 1995, pp.10–11. HRAIR SARKISSIAN Syria/United Kingdom b.1973 Untitled (from ‘In Between’ series) 2007 Archival inkjet prints mounted on aluminium, ed. of 3 + 2 AP / 120 x 175cm (each) / Images courtesy: The artist and Kalfayan Galleries, Athens/Thessaloniki 236