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| Kazakhstan. Blue Period, 2002-05 |
Live and work in Almaty, Kazakhstan as artists, writers and curators. As
a married couple, the Vorobyevs began working together on conceptual
art projects in the early 1990s. Since 2002 they have been working on
Kazakhstan. Blue Period, an extensive photographic installation. They
earnestly play with the world using painting, photography, and video.
The results are a multi-layered reflection of both the simplicity and
complexity of contemporary life in Central Asia. They have exhibited
widely in Central Asia, Russia, and Eastern Europe, at galleries
including: Kazakhstan. Blue Period, Impronte Contemporary Art, Milan,
2010; Postmonument, 14 International Sculpture Biennial, Carrara, 2010;
Lonely at the Top # 2, MUHKA, Antwerp, 2009; Progressive Nostalgia.
Contemporary Art from the Former USSSR, Centro per l’arte contemporanea
Luigi Pecci, Prato, 2007; On Geekdom. Artists from the Former USSR,
Benaki Museum, Athens, 2007; Time of the Storytellers. Narrative and
Distant Gaze in Post-Soviet Art, Kiasma, Helsinki, 2007; and also at the
Venice Biennales, 2009 and 2005 and the Biennale of Sydney, 2006.
On their work
Kazakhstan. Blue Period, 2002-05:
We became interested in the subject of "socio-colouristic" relations
while travelling in the south of Kazakhstan in 2002 as participants of
the international project “Non-Silk Road". We visited several provincial
towns and in Taraz our attention was drawn to the decorative
bas-reliefs with blue banners on one of the administrative buildings
which obviously used to be red. We soon realised that the wide spread
repainting of old Soviet motifs provided a telling illustration of how
things had changed in the politics of our country. (Source:
http://calvert22.org/artists/elena-vorobyeva-and-viktor-vorobyev/)
