In the very center of Almaty, on the site of the former Tselinny cinema, there is now something that can hardly be called a museum or gallery. The Tselinny Center for Contemporary Culture is not only a space where art is shown, but also a platform for talking about the times we live in. Here, contemporary Kazakhstani art regains its voice, and society gets the opportunity to hear itself.

Mission: not to show, but to engage

In an era when museums are increasingly becoming "Instagram decorations", Tselinny operates by different rules. It is focused not on "exhibition glitter", but on processes, dialogue and education. This is an attempt to build a sustainable institution that does not dictate, but invites - to think, doubt, open up.

The mission of Tselinny is not so much to demonstrate ready-made artistic statements, but to create an infrastructure for their emergence. This is important for Kazakhstan, where the art scene has long remained fragmented, and modern practices - marginalized. - Here we build a dialogue to strengthen the intellectual and artistic community in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The ideology of the center is based on the synthesis of performative practices and research work. This is not only a cultural platform, but also a physical territory of meanings and dialogue, - says the director of the center, Dzhamilya Nurkaliyeva.

The center strives to become a gathering point: artists, curators, researchers, viewers, students, those who are just beginning to ask questions about art, and those who are already building their professional identity on it.

It is noteworthy that the main task of the center is to tell and inspire stories. Each viewer here will be able to find a unique program and events, since projects here are created almost every time from scratch.

Ideas: rethinking, involvement, openness

The key idea of ​​"Tselinny" is to work with the context. With cultural memory, post-Soviet identity, with questions of language, history, national and personal. In this sense, it does not so much “show contemporary art” as help to understand why it is exactly like this, why it is born here and now.

Exhibition projects here always work in tandem with the theoretical and educational part. These are public lectures, master classes, reading clubs, and discussions. Moreover, the audience is not necessarily “prepared”.

“Tselinny” makes art accessible without simplifying it.

Openness is at the heart of everything: the architecture of the center (with transparent glass walls), open archives, meetings with artists, clear descriptions of works. Here they are not afraid of the question “what does this mean?” - on the contrary, such questions are considered the beginning of the path, and not a sign of incompetence.

Plans: regionalization, sustainability, international dialogue

One of the areas of development of “Tselinny” is working with the regions. Decentralization of culture is not a fashionable slogan, but a conscious choice: not only Almaty and Astana are important, but also Aktau, Uralsk, Shymkent. The center develops collaborations with local artists, researchers and independent initiatives.

An important task also remains the formation of the Kazakhstani art scene as a full-fledged player at the international level. Participation in international biennials, exchange of exhibitions, curatorial residencies are steps towards inclusion in the global cultural dialogue, while preserving the local code and specificity.

Another focus is archiving and research. The center seeks to collect and systematize knowledge about Kazakhstani contemporary art of recent decades: documents, catalogs, oral histories, video interviews.

In the perspective of the first years, the Tselinny center focuses on three key themes: ecology, gender and faith. These directions become the basis of the curatorial strategy and conceptual framework of all exhibition projects. They do not exist separately, but are organically intertwined, creating a single, continuous cultural process.

Thus, the center itself turns into a form of an endless exhibition - alive, developing and responding to the challenges of the time.

Why is this important

In conditions when society has a demand for honest conversation, for understanding the past and formulating the future, such sites as Tselinny become especially important. They create an environment where culture is not a form of leisure, but a way of thinking. Where art does not go into elitism, but returns to everyday life, becoming an instrument of self-knowledge.

The Tselinny Center is not about "elite art", not about pathos and not about gallery commerce. It is about attention - to details, to people, to one's own cultural space. And, perhaps, it is with such institutions that the slow but necessary process begins, which can be called cultural maturation.