Kendal Henry, a New York-based public art curator, was leading a workshop, focusing on the creation of site-specific objects using recycled materials for the Art Prospect &Trash 5 Festival at Altyn Kazyk.

 

Every Art Prospect Festival has included workshops that give young local artists an opportunity to learn about public art and at the same time apply that knowledge to an art work that is included in the festival. For this year’s festival, the process began with a tour of the Altyn Kazyk community to learn the history, gather impressions and experience the environment. Resilience of the Altyn Kazyk community was a reoccurring theme and inspired the works o art. Through their projects, the artists wanted to protect that resiliency, celebrate how far this community has come and look to an optimistic future.  

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Ilia Denbrov’s Mountains use lenticular technology to show the Altyn Kazyk’s past when fire dominated the landfill and the serene Kyrgyz mountains and fresh air as a possible future. Viewed head on, the image is in transition – a metaphor for where Altyn Kazyk is today, Views from either direction serve either as inspiration or a warning depending on where the community goes from here.  

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Valentin Fedorov’s Transition use the bridge as a physical and metaphorical symbol of passage. Physically, the bridge is a connector to the amenities on the other side of the river like schools and public transportation. Painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, the bridge serves both as a beacon and a means for safe passage in the dark.

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Ivan Kalinichev’s A Portal to the City Center and A Portal to the City Landfill use augmented reality technology to transport viewers from the city to the landfill and from Altyn Kazyk to a greenspace within the city. Through QR codes, participants experience unfamiliar territory within their own city while directly connecting them to the landfill.

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Peri-Nurperi Orunbaeva’s Koz tiybesin, korgosun references the traditional symbol of protection to create this land art as a way to keep children safe around the community’s reservoir. So far this year thirty-five children have drowned in Kyrgyzstan.

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Vladimir Tarasov’s Wind of Unchange employs the use of cheval de frise which is a spiked structure made from wood and used by the military to close off a passage or block enemy advancement. In this instance the barriers represent the Kyrgyz people and the enemy is both the garbage caught in the structures and the perceived lack of policy change on climate and environment issues.

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Ilia Denbrov

Mountains

The reality that surrounds us depends on us; everyone contributes to its formation by his or her actions or inactions. It may seem that one person does not change anything, but this is the only way big changes happen - when the vectors of action of many people coincide. Banal indifference and inaction can lead to terrible consequences for everyone.

Not long ago a huge mountain of garbage was burning here, threatening an ecological catastrophe. Garbage created by people. But thanks to people this problem is being solved. The dump has been extinguished, and the reclamation process is underway. In many years, nature will take its course and turn this place into picturesque green hills again.

What do you want the earth to look like? The future depends on the daily choice of each of you.

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Valentin Fedorov

Transition

 

Peri-Nurperi Orunbaeva
Koz tiybesin, korgosun

Ivan Kalinichev
A portal to the city center. 

This is a virtual portal to the city center. It is made to reconnect Altyn Kyzyk and the center of Bishkek. 

 

Ivan Kalinichev
A portal to the city landfill

A shortcut inside Bishkek, in case of an unexpected waste.

 

Vladimir Tarasov.
Wind of Unchange

Wind blows.
Garbage stays here.
We do something, but it's not enough.
Wind of Unchange blows.

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Photos below are made by Ilia Denbrov