Meet Aigerim Karibaeva, the Kazakh artist reviving cultural heritage through ethno-modern art

euronews (in English)

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.

Transcript

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, kindness.

04:31And in general, in our works, this is what we live by ourselves,

04:35and 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.

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