ALMATY – The Italian Institute of Culture in Almaty hosts “Thin Walls / Aitys / Lost in Translation,” a solo installation by Kazakh contemporary artist Syrlybek Bekbotayev, on view between June 12 to July 12. The exhibition marks the final presentation of Bekbotayev’s participation in the Jeruiyq art residency, part of the Kazakhstan National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.
The project takes aitys, Kazakhstan’s ancient musical-poetic duel, and situates it within a cramped urban apartment, reimagining the performative tradition through a contemporary lens of surveillance, media, and everyday life.
Photo credit: The Astana Times
Using cellophane film for interior walls, the artist creates thin, semi-transparent boundaries between rooms, where different faces of aitys unfold – an unfinished performance in the bedroom, political commentary in the living room and kitchen-table conversation overheard across walls. The layout provokes a sense of claustrophobia and constant observation, drawing attention to the complex social hierarchy encoded in post-Soviet living spaces.
The idea of setting the installation in an apartment stems from Bekbotayev’s own experience of moving from a rural area to the city.
Photo credit: The Astana Times
“At night in the steppe, it felt like we were the only people on Earth. Instead in the city I could hear neighbors having dinner, arguing, washing dishes – all just a meter away behind the wall,” the artist added.
Bekbotayev sees these interiors not just as architectural units, but as stages for cultural production and reflection. Aitys, he argues, is a living tradition. As a form of conceptual, performative art based in orality, rhythm and language, it remains deeply rooted in Kazakh identity while adapting to shifting platforms and power structures.
“We are used to viewing contemporary art through a European lens, but I’m more interested in parallel, alternative histories to ask new questions about what appears immutable,” Bekbotayev said.
Free to the public, “Thin Walls / Aitys / Lost in Translation” offers Almaty audiences a rare chance to engage with one of Kazakhstan’s contributions to the 60th Venice Biennale. As the final exhibition of the Jeruiyq art residency, it brings global attention to contemporary Kazakh art that is rooted in tradition, yet unafraid to challenge and reinterpret it on the international stage.