Askhat Akhmediyarov

There is no Central Asia Pavilion this year. Instead, the International Art Development Association (IADA) is showcasing a group exhibition of contemporary Kazakh art and a series of workshops. Askhat Akhmediyarov’s photographic series, Nomad, addresses the seeping of various forms of modernity — television, consumerism, urbanisation — into "traditional" Kazakhstan. Akhmediyarov is seen arranging furniture in an unwalled room that looks onto the Kazakh steppe. The nomad is torn between a sedentary lifestyle — we see him lie in bed, watching television — and the landscape with which Kazakhstan is superficially conflated. Akhmediyarov presents us with a Kazakhstan in transition, a country caught between two worlds.