Almagul Menlibayeva

Fieldwork and archival inquiry are important components of Menlibayeva’s methodology. She has worked extensively across Kazakhstan, particularly in regions influenced by Soviet industrialization, environmental extraction, and the Gulag system. Her long-term projects connected to Karaganda and Karlag revisit the histories of political repression, forced deportation, and multicultural displacement that reshaped the region throughout the twentieth century. Collaborating with local communities, historians, researchers, and filmmakers, she combines documentary material, staged cinematic imagery, immersive sound, and textile structures to create layered installations where historical and speculative narratives coexist.

Underlying the artist’s research-driven practice is a sustained re-reading of Central Asia beyond the inherited geopolitical narratives. Additionally, Menlibayeva’s projects frequently examine collectivization, ecological catastrophe, famine, forced displacement, nuclear histories, and the ideological transformation of the region from a historical center into a perceived periphery. Drawing connections between the Caspian region, Siberia, the Silk Roads, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, the artist resists simplified definitions of Central Asia as a singular or static geography. Instead, her works construct fluid cartographies shaped by empires, trade dynamics, ecological shifts, and cultural exchange.