Kazakh alphabet was changed several times during the first half of the XX century - this was a strategy of the cultural policy of the soviet Regime. Today, Cyrillic is used officially in the country. However, the Arabic and Latin scripts also continue to exist. They are used by Kazakh diasporas, descendants of refugees of the 1920-1940, who now live in China, Afghanistan, Turkey, Germany, the United States and other parts of the world.
The installation features three alphabets of the Kazakh language – Cyrillic, Latin and Arabic. 21 letter cube build up the phrase “You too are a brick to the world” from a poem of Abay, Kazakh poet of the XIX century.
The cubes are arranged in such way that the phrase can be read simultaneously in three alphabets. It mixes different textual codes, and thus hinders the comprehension. Such fragmentation refers to the fragmentation of modern Kazakh society, as well as the broken transit of cultural tradition, when different generations cannot communicate with each other because they use different codes. The cubes are not fixed to the ground, so with human and animal influence and over time, the construction gets "de-constructed" - letters get mixed and create new incomprehensible "words" and new random structures.
Made as part of the artist residency commissioned by the Committee Biosphere UNESCO Kazakhstan at Ile-Alatau National Park
