Global ArtLab '09

Dushanbe & Dusk

2009-10-11T16:12:00.001-04:00

Dushanbe: Hacks and Hats

2009-10-11T15:55:00.003-04:00

My friend and collaborator Connor Dickie arrived a few days ago. He is working with me on my second project here which is entitled ’10 sec 1 bayt’ and which take place from Oct 12-Oct 14th, 2009.

“Many Tajiks are aware that for those cell phone users who have a plan with the Central Asian telecommunications company named Babilon, the first ten seconds of any phone call are free. To take advantage of this freebee, strategic users have developed a new art form – the ten second conversation.

Inspired by this contemporary cultural form and the Tajik tradition of 2-verse poetry (or ‘Bayt’), Marisa Jahn in collaboration with Connor Dickie, the Sogd Education and Culture Center, CEC Artslink, and Bactria are initiating a competition for the best ten second poems. You are invited to participate; newcomers to Tajik poetry are invited to try their hand.”

We have the website set up and ready to go for the competition’s launch on Monday morning (see www.10sec1bayt.com).

In the States we have various cell phone services that record incoming calls and parse them into mp3 files. They don’t offer this service here, and there other technical obstacles given the telecommunication structure here in Tajikistan. Further, we want the audio files to be instantly pubished to the web. TO solve these problems, Connor is building a robot that will automatically answer the phone when someone calls the line, record the file, reduce the file size, and post it to the web. Since we don’t know whether we will be able to access the call log for the duration of the project, Connor is creating an alternate automated system in which a computer will automatically take a photo of the phone that is positioned directly in front of the screen’s camera; the pic will then allow us to corrolate the audio file to the phone number. Here is an image of Connor hacking a cell phone headphone mic and another in which we are swapping hats with the local police force.

Dushanbe: Opening Reception at Bactria

2009-10-07T15:53:00.001-04:00

Here are images from the opening reception at Bactria for the students that participated in Kendal Henry’s public art workshop. Bactria is a Dushanbe-based arts organization whose resources and value to the local community never ceases to amaze. Daily language courses in French, English, and Russian along with a spectrum of arts programs engage the local community in diverse topics. The staff members, volunteers, and those that come to Bactria are impressive in their mutual support. At the opening and at the dinner afterwards I met with a textile designer, some of the artists who had work in the exhibition, and passersby. Particularly insightful was a conversation with Anna, a core Bactria member, who reflected on the ways that political shifts affect daily life in terms of public mobility, discourse, and cultural tolerance.

The Road from Khojand to Dushanbe

2009-10-06T16:23:00.000-04:00

A gorgeous drive from Khojand to Dushanbe was rife with stalls and stops... three hour stops...

Reception in Khojand, Tajikistan

2009-10-05T16:26:00.000-04:00

Images from the packed reception at the Sogd Culture and Education Center in Khojand. Two television crews interviewed various art mangers and artists. After our presentations the teachers and art managers stayed in their seats, engaged and debating. My host, Naim Khakimov, suggested to take the proceedings of the conversation and publish it as a document thematically organized around the question of what art is and what/how it signifies in a Central Asian context. Here is an image of Naim and his son Mirzo...

The Road from Osh to Khojand

2009-10-04T16:10:00.000-04:00

The Borrowed Kazan

2009-10-03T15:48:00.002-04:00

Jane, Fritzie, Susie and I wandered into the bazaar and suddenly we came upon The Borrowed Kazan, the project by Daniel, Zhenara, and Jerome. The project centrally featured a makeshift restaurant that fused local and international culinary traditions. The Kazan, which offered low-cost bazaar-priced meals to locals, was touching in its details and conceptual simplicity. Local artists had contributed the art on the walls, artisans had forged the grill and painted the restaurant’s sign, others had volunteered to work in the restaurant for the week. Profits from the restaurant benefi

ted an artist who was starting an art school for local youth. I recall first coming into the restaurant

and tearing as I saw how the project had folded in the efforts of so many...

Presentations in Osh

2009-10-02T15:52:00.000-04:00

Today we gave our presentations in the fine arts museum at Osh to a crowd of students and artists numbering around 50 or so. The questions we received in each location have been quite different. In Bishkek the audience brainstormed about how to optimize cultural exchanges; here in Osh the focus was more project-specific. Afterwards, Tamara, our host in Osh, prepared a beautiful and generous reception dinner in a choikana (tea house) replete with pomegranates, grapes, ploff (a regional rice dish with meat), tea, and vodka, we were regaled by Kyrgyz and Russian folk songs sung to us by our guests. When asked to return with song we wrung our hands for a little with embarassment until Amanda saved our skin and sung a beautiful song she’d learned in Rwanda.

Ala Archa, Kyrgyzstan

2009-09-28T16:04:00.000-04:00

At the airport in Bishkek, Kendal and I met a Dutch man living in Beijing who, like me, wanted to go to the mountains. The next day my Sino Dutch alpinist day friend and I caught rides up to the National Park outside the city for a 3 hour hike so vertical that I was left with a limp and muscles a-quivering for days after. The images of the mountains later made their way into my drawings...

At The Start!

2009-09-24T08:55:00.004-04:00

The process began with an introduction to public art. A two-hour presentation illustrated many aspects of public artworks including how artists communicated to a specific audience through their project. The presentation was tailored to stimulate ideas for the upcoming water inspired projects.

Drinking Water in Tajikistan

2009-09-23T22:42:00.000-04:00

MaximsNewsWATER: 18 August 2009 - World Bank: Nowadays, the water in Tajikistan's capital runs mostly clean and clear out of the city's taps. Fresh, drinkable water is a new thing for the residents of Dushanbe who, until very recently, had to boil their water, which was thick with mud and a source of disease.

Hurbi Safarova used to get her grandchildren to help her lug gallons of water up four flights of stairs to her apartment. Once she had it, shed boil it and even then she wouldnt use it for baby formula and didnt like to give it to the kids to drink.

SOUNDBITE (Tajik) Hurbi Safarova, grandmother:
Before, we used to boil the water before giving it to the children and now the water is clean and the children can drink the water without any worries.

The city of Dushanbe, with help from the World Bank, now provides clean water to 75 percent of its people. Much of it comes from this reservoir just outside the city.

Workers test the system several times a day.

Khairulloev Murodovich runs the program and sees water as a metaphor for life.

SOUNDBITE (Tajik) Khairulloev Nasrullo Murodovich, Dushanbe water canal:
Clean water means clean life, clean house, clean apartment—thats what clean water is.

It also cuts down on waterborne illnesses. Typhoid outbreaks are less common, which is important in a place where much of the population is under the age of 15, and particularly vulnerable.

These two old friends, lifelong Dushanbe residents, remember the days of dangerous water.

SOUNDBITE (Tajik) Charos Mirzomahmoudova, Dushanbe resident:
Before when the water was murky, we didnt allow the children to drink it and before, doctors were going from door to door warning people not to drink it.

SOUNDBITE (Tajik) Farmida Ismoilova, Dushanbe resident:
There were water borne infectious diseases, and now that the water is clean, we dont have to worry about it.

The next project for Dushanbes authorities is to pipe fresh clean water in the apartments of the 25 percent of the city that is still without it. That will require more work, and a larger investment.

BO (Water in Tajik)

2009-09-23T21:13:00.001-04:00

My first meeting with the artists was one of informal introductions. I wanted to introduce myself, give a little background and hear/learn about them as well. I wanted to know what they hope to gain from this experience. I was pleased to see a great mix, of age, sex, discipline and experience. Some were fourth year students at the university; the older artists were figurative and landscape painters. Some were designers and still others favored abstract art. They all expressed interest in learning more about contemporary art. When asked what contemporary art is, that answers varied. Some felt that contemporary art dealt with the issues that are present and others felt that it was “new” art. While discussing the meaning of contemporary art I asked, “As artists and citizens of Dushanbe, what are some of the issues you face, knowing that those answers will help determine the direction of our process and project.” Generally, as artists in Dushanbe, that are somewhat isolated and do not have many opportunities to participate in making contemporary art. A visit from Martha Jackson-Jarvis a year earlier has left a profound impression on them all and they longed for similar experiences.

In our discussions the problems around water surfaced constantly. The landscape around the city is peppered with large fountains and water features, mostly in front of banks, large hotels and government buildings. However, many apartments in the city are without water on a regular basis with certain districts having water 3 – 6 scheduled hours a day. The city’s is hydroelectrically powered which poses problems in the winter when the water powering the dams freezes. Some of the artists always have water (including a pool in the back yard) while others have none at all and have to carry water in buckets for daily use. Since the presence and in most cases the absence of water influenced all aspects of Tajik life on a social, economical, behavioral and cultural level, we’ve decided to create contemporary and public art around the issues of WATER!

Images of Khojand, Tajikistan

2009-09-23T16:01:00.000-04:00

You Never Miss the Water Till The Well Runs Dry

2009-09-22T02:17:00.001-04:00

My first night’s sleep was sound and the bed was extremely comfortable. I did keep waking up to check the time, as I didn’t want to miss the water. Too tired to take a shower when I arrived, I looked forward to a hot one before meeting the artists. At 11:30 I decided it’s time to get out of bed, unpack and begin my day. I walked into the bathroom, turned on the tap and was greeted by a loud gurgling, choking sound and a few drips of water. I turned again but the gurgling only got louder. I instantly realized that the small bucket of water near the tub is all I have to bathe, drink, flush the toilet and brush my teeth for at least the next 5 hours. The value of that bucket of water skyrocketed. Having grown up in the Caribbean with frequent water shortages I knew the value but living in NYC I had somewhat forgotten. In my head I heard my mother saying, “You never miss that water till the well runs dry.”

Welcome To Dushanbe

2009-09-22T01:45:00.003-04:00

At 3 AM I arrive in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Having never been here before I didn’t know what to expect. I tried to get clues everything I saw; the people, the landscape, etc. being well aware that first impressions can sometimes be wrong. My flight from St. Petersburg was filled with men with about 10 of the 100+ passengers being women. This wasn’t a surprise because I was told that lots of Tajik men go to Russia to work and return with the earnings to support their families.

After leaving the chaos that is most arrival/custom halls, I was greeted by Faruhk, my host. I felt bad that he had to pick me up at such an ungodly hour knowing that he’d probably already put in a full day at work. We spoke briefly and decided that I’d meet with the artists and students that are interested in participating in the project later in the day at about 3 PM.

We then made our way to the apartment where I’ll call home for the next couple of weeks. The apartment was located right off one of the main streets. A tour of the space revealed a large (by any standard) apartment with all the amenities for modern living. A flat screen tv with Satellite TV in the living room, a washer in the eat-in kitchen, a queen size bed in the bedroom with ample closet space, even a little office with desk and chair. Each room had large windows, which no doubt would allow for a lot of natural light. Just before leaving, Farukh informed me that there will be no water from 1 PM – 5PM, and pointed to a small orange bucket filled with water - my emergency supply. I made a mental note to be up before 1, said our goodbyes and prepared for bed hoping to get some rest before my first meeting.

From There to Here, Slowly to Quickly

2009-09-21T11:19:00.002-04:00

This residency has been, like the journey to Central Asia, a long road.

What began as a video storytelling project has grown into a renovation of a disused studio at B'Art in south Bishkek - the opportunity to create not just a conceptual space for children's histories in Kyrgyzstan but a studio space where future residencies and workshops can take place was just too good to pass up!

Shaarbek called a few days before my departure for Kyrgyzstan to tell me he had a new studio space for the project near to B'Art's exhibition space. When we went to look at the studio with ten university students on my first day in town, we realized it was a good distance away from being ready (or even safe) for children to work in.

A few of the students put exceptional elbow grease and drive behind the effort to clean up and prepare the space for workshops. However, it soon became apparent that we needed experts to push the process along. This weekend, what had become a very slow transformation from abandoned to habitable kicked into high gear, when B'Art helped us to find Ullak, a professional who worked with a team of students - Grisha, Edil, and Sherinbec - eager to gain skills. The studio is getting its final coat of paint as I write these words, and our workshops with the children started today.

The good news about the last week of labor time is that it has given the student volunteers time to fine-tune a series of plans for projects with children that will warm the space of the studio for future workshops and residencies. Simultaneously, the children who will attend the workshops all this week and into next weekend have been gaining skills in documentation and video storytelling.

Tomorrow we begin making an 'indoor sky,' inspired by interior design student Nikolai Cherkasov and Art-Akademie student Grisha Volkov's project plans. Based on the idea that wherever we travel or find ourselves, the sky will still be above us, we will create light boxes to cover the bare ceiling bulbs in the studio, with fabric painted to look like the sky, and working with young felt crafters, we will create a flock of sky denizens, from airplanes to birds, to inhabit the ceiling and the cracks and hollows of the space.

We will continue exploring the creation of home throughout the week, alternating video and performative modes with hands-on design and craft with children from SOS Kinderdorff, B'Art's immediate neighborhood, and graduates of programs at local children's shelters who are now studying at Art-Akademie Bishkek. From painting and placement of furniture to the planting of an indoor garden, we are filling the space with practical and fantastical evidence of our home making. Slowly, the moments we have all been waiting for have begun to arrive more quickly! The children are here and we are working!

-Amanda Eicher
CEC Artslink resident
B'Art Center, Bishkek

Zarafshan

2009-09-18T15:43:00.001-04:00

I woke up today in Zafarobad at 5 am. I travelled there yesterday evening with my translator because the town is a Yaghbobi town. THe Yaghnobi speak Sogd, a linguistic precurosor to contemporary Tajik; there are only 13,500 speakers in the world who speak it. Some are in mountains tucked away; the rest were airlifted b helicopter in the 70s and forced by the Soviet govmt to tend the fields in n area north of Khojand near Uzbekistan. There were several attempts to flee back to the Yaghnob valley, which is fabled for its splendor. The 'escapees' were forcibly returned to Zafarobad by helicopter. There I met with an Australian couple, Jeff and Beth, who were developing a collectivized system of water maintenance and irrigation that would help the region; they were incredibly knowledgable and hospitalble, nearly fluent in both Tajik and Yaghnobi. They also had two Australians visiting them; one a plucky homeschool teacher whose cheer I was really glad to encounter and her husband a mechanical engineer who’d developed and implemented a blast furnace in Sydney. For their holidays they came to visit Jeff and Beth and to assist with the irrigation project. They were interested to hear about what I was writing about and offered not only tea and cookies, dried fruit and nuts, but stories in return.

I took up Jeff and Beth’s offer to stay the night and they recounted stories about their past 2 years in the region. Beth, who wore a traditional dress and headscarf, was lovely to speak with; she provided a very considerate and critical position for which she apologized later and attributed to a sense of disparagement about the lack of trust among the Yaghnobi resulting from an infrastructural collapse. It made it so that the risk-averse Yaghbobi, for instance, were trepidacious about loaning and borrowing money, and collectivizing efforts to advance the community.

The ride home with Ismatoloh the driver was one of my exhilerating moments so far in Tajikistan. He couldn’t speak what I spoke (English, Spanish, French) nor I his languages (Tajik, Sogd, Uzbek, and Russian). We taught each other words in our respective languages over the course of the two hour drive, which took extra long because he tended to look down at what I was writing and slow down the car, swerving every now and then. I learned how to say Russian phrases and then improvised (“Please waiter, could you bring me fifty birds?”) I learned about his family and he about mine; we drew a family tree and learned the names of each other's significant others.

Ismatoloh said he loved school, which became apparent because when I thought he might be exhausted from our lesson he kept it going on and on. I of course was glad. In Khojand he took me to the dress bazaar and I bought a headscarf and a long magenta dress with cotton pants. Ismatoloh taught me how to say let’s go in Russian: —“Idiom”‑— and drove me back to my neighborhood.

Palace Arbob & Lake Kairakum

2009-09-17T15:30:00.007-04:00

Today, after writing from 6 am till 11 am, I went to a communal farm called the Palace Arbob that built in the 1950’s and fashioned after the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. It in fact used

to be called the Moscow farm until 1967 when its visionary owner passed away. It is one of the USSR’s exemplary farms, not only for its productivity but for the splendor of its communal halls that blend 19^th century neo-classical Soviet architecture with traditional Tajik decorative arts. I had been studying the Silk Road but hadn’t yet seen what silk worms look like; here at Arbob they had elaborate diaramas explicating the process and extolling the farm’s agricultural achievements.

Afterwards, Mirzo took me to Lake Kairakkum, an artificial lake that resulted from a dam built 50 years ago to provide hydroelectric power. Everyone on the minibus proclaimed that it was much too cold and dirty during this month to swim in; I took a look the beaches were in finer conditions that those in New York. Nor was it cold.

Across from a bowl of borsht at dinner, a young Tajik student who’d studied English in highschool spoke to me. He taught me a few more Russian words so that I can expand by palette to meat dishes as well. He was a salesman and pulled out a laptop and I sat through three whole powerpoint demos about the absolutely ridiculous new age products he was trying to sell. Biodiscs that rectify the scattered molecules of so-called dirty water, tennis bracelets for the missus, briefcases, titanium gold clubs (in Tajikistan? It’s a 70% mountainous terrain and the average income is $7000 a year). I wondered if he’d actually ever sold anything. Maybe he figured me, the American, as his big break.

When I yawned, to further demonstrate disinterest and to get out of the conversation, he began telling me about the Chi pendant, which he was wearing. As he said, “You are tired? The Chipendant (he blurred the words together) makes it so that you will have more energy. With the Chipendent you can by yourself move a 150 kilo person with two of your fingers.”

I couldn’t believe this was actually happening — that I was being approached as a potential customer. Would that he knew that the only thing I am good at buying is books. Or maybe he was just practicing his sales pitch in English to an overly patient random. He continued, “Look at me. I am full of energy and I have been praying all night without sleep.”

Indeed, last night was the night in Ramadan where people prayed all night. Below are pictures of the morning announcing the end of Ramadan when 50,000 people fill the main square in Khojand to pray; I had been worried that the minibus drivers had not slept and I certainly did not want to die in a minibus collision in Khojand’s main highway.

I told the young man that I wasn’t in fact tired but anxious to get more word done; I made a mental note to learn politce excuses to save myself from future new age product demos.

Istravashan

2009-09-14T15:25:00.003-04:00

Mirzo and I have been reading and learning about Sogd culture. Yesterday i was given a tour by a local historian of a 2500 year old town named Istravashan, which featured prominently in the region’s history. The half hour drive there shot through barren fields occasionally punctuated by cotton fields. Cotton, the primary export of

Tajikistan, was introduced by the Soviets and is inappropriately suited for the barren fields here in Tajikistan. It takes 60 tons of water to produce 1 pound of cotton, a requirement that has Tajikistan at the mercy of Kyrgystan’s supply of water. I have been asking people what they imagine would be a more appropriate crop to switch towards but I’m never given a very good answer…

In Istravashan, a local historian (see left), a man in his 50's in an oversized suit with a thick head of hair, bounded around, offering Mirzo and I stories of the city's infamous battle with Alexander the Great. Although Istravashan boasts the craftsmanship of their local metalworking and woodworking guilds, perhaps what it will be known for through time is the fact that its stalwart denizens wounded Alexander twice in about 326 BCE. In fact, thse were the only two times that Alexander was ever wounded, which apparently sent him into a fury and incited him to chase his opponent northbound—a pursuit which was what brought him as north as Khojand.

Mirzo and I scrambled around the fortress and dug outs, recalling the video we’d watched about the plucky valor of those young Sogd men who were known at the time for forging the strongest of weapons and the resiliant of bows.

Perhaps the most lively vignette that Mirzo and I both agree upon was a visit through the most was a drive through the vineyards

where the sweetest of grapes lay grounding in mounds along the ground (a technique which makes the best use of water as opposed to the elevated growing method used in California, for example). The farmers there make 3-4 times more than the average Tajik, and surrounding him are pears, melons, persimmons, nuts, and other Mediterranean splendors. We were invited for tea – or rather, I was invited to take tea – my hosts and the farmers are all fasting for a few more days since it’s still Ramadan.

Khojand: Pedagogy and the Soviet Legacies

2009-09-11T15:21:00.003-04:00

Today Mirzo and I toured two different technical schools which are referred to as colleges or vocational training schools. Both were colorfully painted in lightblue, the Soviet preference for institutions. The first focused on industrial production with a metal shop, woodshop, auto repair, and sewing classes; the second, who envied the first, focused on what was considered women’s work: sewing, embroidery, and baking. The baking classes had been introduced through a German company that wanted to elevate the culinary and patisserie arts of all of Central Asia. The first one boasted more equipment and it was in part because of loans from the European Union to purchase new equipment. In exchange for the equipment, the school promised to extend education to the underprivileged including orphans and disabled people. I suppose this was part of the EU’s concerns over Tajikistan’s humanitarian trajectory and a way to structurally build in humanitarian aid.

U.S. Artists in Residency in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

2009-09-03T18:43:00.000-04:00

In September 2009, five US artists (Amanda Eicher, Daniel Gallegos and Jerome Wagg, Kendal Henry, and Marisa Jahn) will travel to Bishkek, Osh, Dushanbe and Khujand to conduct social practice art projects in the local communities as well as participate in public programs. These projects, aimed at encouraging engagement and accountability between the audience and the artist, will both bring new ideas and concepts to local artists and reach out to individuals in the community, who previously may have had no relationship to contemporary art.