Kyrgyzstan Censored a Feminist Art Show at the National Museum of Fine Arts. Now Its Director Has Resigned

An exhibition of feminist art at
the National Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, has been
censored by the government and resulted in the departure of the
institution’s director.

Dubbed the “first Feminnale of
contemporary art,” the show featured 56 artists from 22 countries.
It opened November 25 and was slated to run for 17 days—a nod to
the 17 women who died in a warehouse fire in Moscow in 2016, many
of whom were Kyrgyzstani migrants. 

But shortly after the opening,
the Kyrgyzstan government removed several works from the
exhibition, including a sculpture by Kazakh artist Zoya Falkova of
a punching bag reconfigured as a female torso. Officials also
forbid Danish artist Julie Savery from re-performing a work that
involved disrobing in front of audiences.

The country’s minister of
culture called the event a “campaign with naked women under the
flag of feminism,” explaining that a special commission would be
formed to review the “scandalous exhibition,” according to
Kyrgyzstan news agency 24.kg. The minister also declared that Mira
Dzhangaracheva, the director of the museum, had been relieved of
her duties.

Dzhangaracheva took to Facebook
to provide her side of the events. “They didn’t fire me,”
she
said, adding that she resigned after receiving death
threats. She also responded
with a letter calling out the government and the right-wing
nationalist group Kyrk Choro, who she believes advocated for the
show’s censorship. “It is a pity that it was initiated by
people who never came to the museum,” she wrote. “Apparently
someone wanted to distract attention and they did it.”

The former president of
Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbayeva, was outraged by the censorship and
wrote a letter castigating the government for its
response.

“Stop, gentlemen!”
she
wrote. “You may have
administrative power, but there is a public voice and female
solidarity. The exhibition is dedicated to all the problems of
women, and is dedicated to the fight against violence against
women. What have you, the Ministry of Culture or the entire
government, done to solve this problem?”

“This is violence against
women,” said one of the
curators of the exhibition, Altyn Kapalova. “This is pain. This is fear. Artists from all
over the world express their feelings, but we are forbidden. As
always they try to shut us up but it won’t work. Art is
uncensored.”

The post Kyrgyzstan Censored a Feminist Art Show at the
National Museum of Fine Arts. Now Its Director Has Resigned
appeared first on artnet News.