Multimedia Exhibitions
celebrating everyday aesthetics in a world of villages.
- My Mountain of Heaven from Kyrgyzstan
- Seed Forms from Tajikistan
- Night Journey from Iran
The traditional village may seem like a relic of the past, but in some sense, we all live in villages whether they are rural, urban, suburban, or even digital. Whatever form they take, the small communities we inhabit and identify with are vital to our lives.
"In the My Mountains of Heaven" Exhibition
Michael Garbutt, Sehar Naz Janani & Soheil Ashrafi | Kyrgyzstan
When the future seems to belong exclusively to the city, how do the residents of Dobolu, a remote Kyrgyz mountain village, experience daily life and maintain their deep connections to nature? This exhibition at Naryn AS Art Gallery offers a window into Dobolu’s everyday life, its places, its people, and the connections between them. In one room, a multimedia installation immerses visitors in the landscape and presents portraits of the residents we met. In another room, located in front of the yurt that is part of the gallery’s permanent collection, a living room table is set with the foods and beverages typically offered to guests in village homes. Visitors are invited to join Dobolu residents at the table and view a photographic slideshow that highlights the haunting everyday aesthetics of domestic life. From October 2024, the geo-tagged photographs can also be viewed on Google Maps.
Seed Forms
Sabina Khorramdal | Tajikistan
Seed Forms transports viewers to the mountainous landscape of Pamir, at the source of the Panj River, which divides Tajikistan and Afghanistan. There, artist Sabina Khorramdel and Zeny Ogrisseg—a yogini, chant leader, and mystic of sound—performed a collaborative ritual to heal cultural suppression in the region and honor its ancient spiritual traditions. This installation captures Ogrisseg chanting primordial universal syllables that flow along the river to the Wakhan Corridor. The soundscapes feature mantras from the Tibetan Bön tradition, believed to have originated in a land called Tagzig (a name thought to be an early form of “Tajik”). Khorramdel meditates on these sounds and translates them into another dimension through abstract painting. Her easel draws inspiration from traditional Central Asian timber door portals adorned with intricate vegetative motifs and solar imagery from the Badakhshan region. The muslin canvas, serving as a symbolic threshold, invites contemplation of transcendence and a journey into an inner, intuitive, and metaphysical realm.This multi-sensory experience immerses viewers in the land of Pamir, inviting them to connect with the sacred vibrations of the region’s spiritual heritage.
Night Journey
Ehsan Zareie | Iran
In Night Journey, the medium of film transcends the boundaries of cinematic conventions and the script. This work invites the audience to engage with the film on an imaginative level, where minimal dialogue dissolves into a night sound and imagery is only to enrich an auditory experience akin to the recitation of a poem. As the car travels through the landscape, night itself becomes the subject, where the interplay of sound and light—two fundamental elements of cinema—carries the weight of the narrative. Here, the filmmaker’s connection with the audience is distilled to its purest form, relying on the delicate balance of what is seen and heard, inviting viewers to lose themselves in the mystery of night and the human condition.
