The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, in collaboration with the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, presents a series of open online workshops for teens. What inspires today’s artists? What does their studio look like? What subjects do they explore in their work? Participants will get the chance to “drop by” an artist’s studio, meet them personally, learn more about their practice, and even create something with their own hands.

The program is open to teenagers aged 13 to 19.

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Workshop 1: “How to Come Up with a Metaphor” with Madina Zholdybekova
July 12, Sunday, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Almaty time)

In the first session, participants will join artist Madina Zholdybekova (@madikendraws) to explore the concept of metaphor and try applying it through illustration. Madina describes the event as follows: “We’ll taste metaphors, test their colors, nibble on them from different angles, and breathe in their scents. We’ll build metaphors from tomatoes and cucumbers, from squares and circles, from giraffes and roosters. Participants will stretch their imagination muscles and learn to cultivate curiosity about the world.”

Madina Zholdybekova works in mixed media. In her illustrations, she reflects on motherhood, kelinship (the traditional role of the daughter-in-law), and other aspects of womanhood in Kazakhstan. She explores her relationship with the state and documents everyday life through sketching. She collaborates with Rocket Firm Digital Agency, the science magazine OYLA, Megaplan, and the OSCE’s Central Asian Youth Network.

Workshop 2: “Theatre Under Surveillance” with Anna and Vitaly Cherepanov
July 18, Saturday, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Almaty time)

The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, in collaboration with the Garage Museum, continues its series of open online workshops for teens. This time, participants will have the opportunity to join Russian artists Anna and Vitaly Cherepanov for an online performance, where they explore unconventional artistic practices and discover the world of documentary video art.

Since 2014, Anna and Vitaly Cherepanov have been working on their project Theatre Under Surveillance—a series of videos captured using public city webcams. (In 2019, the project is shortlisted for the Innovation State Prize in Contemporary Art.) Most of these videos document the Cherepanovs’ own performances, though at times they capture the actions of others—people or animals—or weather patterns and other unexpected occurrences. During the workshop, the artists present their video works, talk about the Theatre Under Surveillance project and how to create similar footage, and offer a few simple collaborative performance scripts to be enacted via Zoom. Three days later, all participants will receive a link to the edited video artwork.

Session 3: “A Journey Through Nizhny Novgorod Art with Artyom Filatov”
Saturday, July 25, 17:00–18:00 (Almaty time)

In the third session, participants will dive into the world of Nizhny Novgorod contemporary art together with artist and co-author of A Brief History of Nizhny Novgorod Street Art, Artyom Filatov. They will take a virtual tour of the Tikhaya art studio to meet its resident artists, watch a silkscreen printing machine in action, and join an art project.

Artyom Filatov is an artist and curator who creates objects, installations, and projects rooted in the history and cultural landscape of Nizhny Novgorod. His work includes the street art festival New City: Ancient (2014–2016) and the exhibition Back Home (2017). In 2019, he co-founds the project Sad im. with artist Alexey Korsi on the grounds of the Nizhny Novgorod crematorium. Filatov is a recipient of numerous art awards. Tikhaya is a shared art studio that brings together Nizhny Novgorod–based artists: Alexander Lavrov, Anton Morokov, Andrey Olenev, Elena Toptunova, Artyom Filatov, Yakov Khorev, and Vladimir Chernyshev. 

Most of the studio’s residents are actively involved in the local street art scene, collaborate with galleries in Nizhny Novgorod and across Russia, and participate in exhibitions both nationally and internationally.

Session 4: “Transformation of Elements in Art with Gaisha Madanova”
August 1, Saturday, 17:00–18:00 (Almaty time)

Gaisha will talk about how artworks can exist within a space and yet remain unnoticed by the viewer. She will also introduce participants to the technique of brain mapping, which she uses in the creation of her works. Brain mapping helps identify objects and gather references for artistic practices and motifs of interest. Together with the artist, participants will also explore examples from art history that shift our perception of what art can be.

Gaisha Madanova is an artist from Almaty who works across various media and techniques, including printmaking, objects, digital media, and installations. Her interests include observation, the body as an expression of the inner self, and strategies of transformation and displacement. She studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the Almaty College of Construction and Management and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. She is a co-founder of the international art collective Artpologist and the first conceptual Kazakhstani art magazine ALUAN. She also participated in the independent program for emerging artists, WHW Akademija (Zagreb). Her work has been shown at the 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, the PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art (Perm), and exhibitions across Europe, Central Asia, and South America. She currently lives and works in Germany.