Alexey was born in Ukraine. He started drawing at school. He loves to draw nature, sky, water … He studied at the Kharkov cultural and educational school in the direction of folk instruments. In Kharkov, he worked in amateur music performances. Seriously began to draw after serving in the Army, he took painting courses. He […]
Interview Alexander is a sculptor, artist, and teacher. He has been working as an artist-sculptor. He gives preference to the social genre in sculpture. The sculptor is concerned about a person and his place in society, his values, his thoughts and deeds, his feelings and attitude to what is happening. He is the winner […]
www.ocamagazine.com #35 summer 2020 text & photos by Mikhail Rybakov Vasily Koren, is still a little-known name in Belarus, but for the first time this name, significant for the Belarusian historical and cultural heritage, has begun to be heard on the streets and in the media in Belarus. In January 2020 in the State Museum […]
www.ocamagazine.com #35 summer 2020 text and photos by Pavel Podzorov pavelspne@tut.by The modern world is complex and diverse, it is full of opposing trends. Never before our earth has been subjected to such political and physical overloads. Never before has man taken from nature so many resources and never been so vulnerable to the power […]
www.ocamagazine #35 summer 2020 text by Tara Pandeya Dance is an integral part of life in Central Asia; it can be seen both in rural settings and on the proscenium stage, from highly developed virtuosic classical styles to nuanced and subtle folk-dance forms. Western audiences might be surprised to learn that Central Asia has an […]
“Imagination is more important than knowledge,” — those words of Einstein might describe Yelena Bezrukova’s approach to art. She herself confesses that she has no professional training in art – she is entirely self-taught. But this has not been an obstacle to her pioneering the concept of projective graphics! But then the whole idea of […]
“Viking Extraordinaire”, Sölvi Fannar, doesn’t believe in following just one career path, in fact he has actively pursued several. He has acted in films, played music professionally, modelled, been a sports athlete, dabbled in poetry, and even spent time as a health professional. Recently, he is better known for his work in films, especially working […]
Born in Belarus, Marc Chagall is a talented painter, a bright art practitioner of the avant-garde of the twentieth century who took over the world with his unique style and special outlook on life. Chagall is one of the few artists who formed a whole era in art. It is hard to name a person […]
Faig Ahmed dismantles and reforms Azerbaijani traditions of carpet making, creating remarkable new works of contemporary art. Through his art practice he reconsiders these ancient crafts and their history by deconstructing both their physical form and their traditions, and questions the conventions associated with their craft by repositioning them in the contemporary art environment. From […]
The name, Rauza Yeraliyeva, has finally become a true discovery for the fine arts circles of Kazakhstan! It is surprising, perhaps, that the formation of her creative biography began only after an eighty-year threshold. All this time after receiving art education in her distant youth, she did not sit back, wholly devoting herself to her […]
In March 2018 I was lucky enough to spend six extraordinary weeks in Kyrgyzstan directing the first ever Kyrgyz translation of Macbeth, translated from the Russian into Kyrgyz, at the state theatre in Bishkek. I was working with 30 Kyrgyz actors who spoke no English and I don’t speak Russian or Kyrgyz. To add to […]
The tradition of private collecting has existed in Russia for centuries. Such donations and gifts helped to create the collections of many university cabinets and museums of the pre-Revolution Russian Empire. For example, the collection of the present-day National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan (Kazan) is based on the collection of Ivan Vtorov, a […]
The London DQ show is part of the Kazakh Culture Days in the UK, hosted by The Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Kazakhstan and supported by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Dimash Quadaibergen is an international, multiple award winning and world-famous Kazakh […]
When it comes to Persian culture, it is impossible not to mention the immortal names of great poets such as Rumi, Rudaki, Firdausi, Khayyam, Nizami and Hafiz. Persian poetry is the key to understand the culture of Iran, as it permeates all aspects of the life of the Iranians. And even in Persian fine arts, […]
The artist, Zhurkabayeva Guldana, is on the threshold of her first mature personal exhibition “WAY TO YOURSELF” that will be held at the Museum of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This sums up the results of what has been done since her first personal exhibition of 2008. Since then the artist has […]
A Look at the Unique Creative Environment of the Old Town of Vilnius Tomas Čepaitis has been an ECG member since 2017. He is an essayist, English translator, and speaker of Lithuanian, Polish and French languages. He is also the publisher of the “Glashatay Zarechiya” newspaper and the “Zarzecze” Publishing house in Vilnius, and has […]
INTERVIEW WITH Bolot Shamshiev Few will know much about the cinema in Kyrgyzstan. What currently hampers its development is never aired and never makes the top priority list of state and international organizations. But there is a cinema to note and so Open Central Asia decided to meet one of its prominent players, the People’s […]
Interview with Hollywood Celebrity Monty Cox Cox is a veteran in the entertainment industry. He is an internationally recognized, award-winning, Exotic Animal Trainer, 2nd Unit Director, Stunt Co-ordinator, Actor and Stuntman. Monty is first ECG member in Hollywod. He grew up in a trailer court in Oakland, California and his father was a merchant […]
In an interview with OCA magazine, jeweller Gulsara Davis, a linguist by education, but according to her nature a creative personality, tells of her life in London, to where she moved from Bishkek a couple of years ago and how she is fascinated by the creation of pearl jewellery. OCA: Tell us a little about […]
Azat Akimbek is a distinguished expert in art and antiques and a well-known philanthropist in Kazakhstan. He is renowned for his unique collections of antiques from Central Asian, Caucasian and Russian heritage. Azat holds a special award ‘The Honorary Arts Worker of the Republic of Kazakhstan’. In 2011, Akimbek was awarded the ‘Barys’ State Order […]
Motto: «World without national or government borders! We are one! We are a single field!» Project description. Photo project “On the Great Silk Road” is a showcase of diverse eastern women living in Kazakhstan. This manifold is shown as a gallery of feminine types through images in eastern outfits. These are stylized eastern images of […]
Azeris have a wide range of musical forms and styles to satisfy their needs. They also enjoy international as well as their national music. However, to love and enjoy music is quite different from feeling oneself in it, i.e. as an Azeri, to identify oneself with a specific type of music. National music has specific […]
This year marks the 100th anniversary since birth of Sharaf R. Rashidov, the first secretary of the Uzbek communist party (in office from 1959 until 1983). Rashidov was born on November the 6th 1917, the day before the Bolsheviks under Lenin seized power in Russia. His birthday seems symbolical as he would become the highest […]
The Maria Shevel Prize was established for the first time this year. The prize is awarded to contestants in the Literature Category for works focused on children’s topic and written in any language or genre. Maria Shevel is a Ukrainian architect (b. May 1st 1943). After graduation she departed for Central Asia to participate in […]
On August 1st 1991, Marzia Zakiryanova’s life had been split in two through a single twist of fate which left this mother of two small children disabled. Narrating her tale of self-conquest, the author speaks about how she managed to hold her family together and win the respect and recognition of people around her. By […]
Sara Ishanturaeva was a renowned theatre and film actress, People’s Artist of the USSR and icon of dramatic art in Soviet Uzbekistan. Along with holding an extensive resume of outstanding roles in plays such as Ostrovskii’s Thunderstorm and Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Othello, Sara was also the deputy to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th convocations of […]
OCA: Pavel, you graduated from the geography department of the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University. Did your studies help in the writing of your story? Pavel Shumov: I was lucky, I chose to study in this field and it has organically become my life. Geography as a profession is impossible without expeditions, hiking, trips etc, where […]
“The War was not our War! And this war of not ours had found us somewhere, somehow. It took us by its severe storm and threw us where we are right now!” Cengiz Dağcı said and added, ‘Fifty years! Fifty years away from my homeland, it became a wound that never heals…That wound never healed, […]
Olim Kalimov is one of the few miniaturist painters in Tajikistan. Demonstrating his own specific comprehension of Persian miniature classical art, Kamalov’s works encapsulate his knowledge of tradition, as seen in his use of colour and his fine brushwork. The inimitable beauty of the miniature comes from the refined lines, the brilliance and genteless of […]
For a very long time theatre played a major role in entertaining people. Theatre would be a clear indicator of the cultural tendencies of the society. Uzbek theatre played an important role in the cultural development of the Uzbek socialist society, and Abrar Khidoyatov was one of the main figures of the development of Uzbek […]
Born in 1941 in the Kyrgyz Republic under the Soviet Union, Akmatov has first-hand experience of extreme political reactions to his work which deemed anti-Russian and anti-communist, resulted in censorship. Determined to fight for basic human rights in oppressed countries, he was active in the establishment of the Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan and through his […]
OCA #22 SUMMER 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM OCA: Kamal, please briefly tell us about yourself and your film making. Kamal Hasanov: I was born and raised in Azerbaijan, in Baku but I received my higher education in America. After returning, I began to work at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and after four years working as a […]
OCA #22 SUMMER 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM OCA: Tell us about your background and biography? Cyrus Yanveh: My father Zalmon was born in a small Jewish hamlet in Belarus. He was conscripted into the Russian army at the age of 14. My mother Anna was born in Palestine, a Sabra one of the first girls born in […]
OCA #21 SPRING 2016 WWW.OCAMAGAZINE.COM INTERVIEW WITH ACTOR RASHID SHADAT Uzbek actor, Rashid Shadat talks to OCA’s Aleksandra Vlsasova about his life as an international actor. 2015 saw him involved in many well known films and television programs, including 24 (TV series), Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Now You See […]
On the 12th of August, on a grey London Wednesday morning we met at King’s Cross station, rushing to get to our seats on time. I was going with a theatre group to film their puppet show from Khorezm at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of my documentary about the Central Asian Theatre Group – Orzu Arts. […]
