In this episode of Voices From Central Asia, we meet Aigerim Karibaeva, a Kazakh artist who blends tradition and innovation to create ethno-modern art that preserves cultural identity and inspires others.
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00:00I think that humanity is impossible without art, and a person is impossible without art,
00:05because it is his best part, it is his most beautiful part of a person,
00:11it is all his high spiritual beginnings, and they are reflected in art.
00:21If we talk about my story, I have been drawing since I was a child.
00:26I had a great role model in my childhood.
00:33My uncle, who is an artist to this day, played a big role in my life.
00:42He is a merited artist of Kazakhstan.
00:45And then, in that childlike image, he had a very strong influence on me.
00:49I think that, in fact, it was my destiny,
00:53because in my early childhood I already dreamed, I wanted to become an artist,
00:58it was my childhood dream.
01:00But I came to this consciously, probably, at the age of 20,
01:04to understand this path, because I go to the Academy of Arts,
01:09I have been studying for 5 years and I am among people who are close to me in spirit.
01:15Our art showroom, as we call it, is really kind of unique.
01:26Here we create our identity, here is our soul, our work.
01:33We walked for a long time, did everything with our own hands,
01:37and created such a unique space.
01:40I think that there is no other art space like this.
01:46We are glad that customers come here to take a gift with them.
01:52A lot of foreigners come, who take our art for a distant country.
01:59Because we came to this space together with Pahit,
02:05and everything was formed into something so big, global even.
02:10Because from here we make our culture, Kazakh culture, recognizable, fashionable,
02:18in demand, relevant.
02:20A lot of people come here from all over Kazakhstan,
02:24and a lot of foreigners come here, and our creativity responds to them.
02:29And we understand that we are doing something relevant, necessary and important.
02:34We are Kazakhs, who have a huge cultural heritage,
02:38but we live in modern realities, with modern technologies.
02:43And in our opinion, art should correspond in our time.
02:48Therefore, our creativity can be called modern art,
02:53ethnomodern, ethnomodernism.
02:56Thus, we form our concept, form our message.
03:03What we do, how we do it, how we popularize our creativity.
03:09Therefore, our style is an admiration for our own culture,
03:14it is love for the whole heritage, the applied heritage,
03:21love for Kazakh symbols, for its wisdom and Kazakh culture.
03:28As of today, Kazakhstan has a huge need for self-identification.
03:34Why does our creativity have such a huge response from people?
03:38There is simply an understanding and value of its uniqueness.
03:43Therefore, all this can be conveyed through art.
03:47I think that only through art.
03:49Therefore, it is of great importance today.
03:58Creativity is light.
04:01We do not touch, for example, some painful topics,
04:05we do not multiply it, because we understand that this world is quite complex,
04:10it has a lot of complex processes,
04:12it has a lot of unfair, difficult processes.
04:16Therefore, we carry these values through our creativity with a red thread.
04:23And therefore, through our creativity, we want to give people a little light, warmth, goodness.
04:31And in general, in our works, this is what we live by ourselves,
04:36and what we encourage ourselves every day.
04:40And what we want to tell this world.
04:44We want to do something as good as possible,
04:48as bright and kind as possible, with our own efforts.