Art Beyond the Nation: “Statehood in Contemporary Art from Kazakhstan”

The lecture examines artworks by contemporary Kazakh artists who work with the material trappings of statehood, including flags and maps. Treating the structures of sovereignty themselves as material for artistic experimentation they examine the assumption that the nation is the only form of post-colonial liberation. In this way, they expose the contingent nature of political authority and imagine more inclusive forms of (post- national belonging.

Organised by Professor Klara Kemp-Welch, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History and Dr Maria Mileeva, Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art in collaboration with Professor Robin Schuldenfrei, Tangen Professor in 20th Century Modernism