"Where Wings Grow"

Aspan Gallery presents a group exhibition “Where Wings Grow”. The project addresses nature as a space of personal and cultural memory, a search for roots and meanings. For many generations of Central Asian artists, trips to the steppe became not just a plein air, but a gesture of resistance to ideological frameworks and an attempt to find their own artistic language.

Already in the 1960s and 70s, artists, writers and researchers began to organize field expeditions, turning them into an act of cultural self-affirmation. Interest in archeology, awakened by the works of Alan Medoev, formed a new view of the natural landscape - as a living repository of the past. The steppe was revealed not only as a source of inspiration, but also as an archive where traces of pre-Soviet and pre-colonial history are preserved. This experience became the basis for the artistic practices of the following generations, for whom a trip to the steppe became a way to return the personal, historical and mythological dimension to art.

In the post-Soviet decades, the steppe continued to attract artists as a space of utopia, mystical search and personal liberation. It became the antithesis of urban everyday life with its social and economic crises. Today, in the work of artists, the steppe is increasingly presented not as an “empty” space, but as an independent participant in history - endowed with strength, wisdom and memory. But it is here that environmental disasters manifest themselves, leaving scars on the earth and in the collective consciousness.

The exhibition features works by Rustam Khalfin, Moldaqul Narymbetov, Saodat Ismailova, Ulan Djaparov, Askhat Akhmedyarov, Bakhyt Bubikanova, and Saule Suleimenova. Their practices engage with nature in diverse ways—from documentary observation and performance to poetic and conceptual expression.

Exhibition dates: 28 August - 2 November 2025

Thursday August 28 | 18:00-21:00 - Exhibition Opening, Aspan Gallery

Opening hours:

Tue-Sat: 11 am - 7 pm

Sun: 12 pm - 6 pm

Adress: Villa Boutiques & Restaurants, 140 A/3 Al Farabi, lower ground floor, Almaty. Free entrance.