More Than 200 Artworks by an Eminent Kazakhstani Art Collective Are Being Held Hostage by Unpaid Contractors After a Splashy International Exhibition

Last year was supposed to be a monumental one for Kazakhstani
art. Not only was the country poised to participate for the first time in
the Venice Biennale, it had also set in motion a worldwide tour of
hundreds of important artworks to Asia, Europe, and the US. But
months after the Venice pavilion was abruptly cancelled,
the reputation of its ambitious art platform has crumbled. Hundreds
of artworks have been impounded by an unpaid contractor, a number
of artists claim their works have been damaged in uninsured
transit, and some curators say they have still not been paid.

Those involved with the exhibitions, as well as the curator of
the country’s canceled national pavilion, are now taking to social
media, calling on the National Museum of Kazakhstan and the
country’s Ministry of Culture to atone for the situation, which
they fear has done irreparable damage to the country’s reputation
in the cultural sphere.

Most startlingly, around 200 works made by the celebrated Kazakh
art collective Kyzyl Tractor were seized upon their return to
Kazakhstan following an exhibition at Mana Contemporary in Jersey
City. They are now sitting in a subcontractor’s warehouse while
litigation is ongoing over a lack of payment.

The works were showcased in last year’s multinational touring
art project “Focus Kazakhstan,” which orchestrated shows in Suwon,
South Korea, Jersey City, London, and Berlin. In total, some
400 artworks by 94 artists traveled the world to these four
exhibitions, each of which focused on a different angle of
Kazakhstani art. It was the first time that Kazakhstani art was
presented so prominently outside of its home country.

The Trouble Begins

Back in 2017, Kazakhstan’s culture ministry and the country’s
national museum contracted the company BBK Pro LLP to handle the
massive international art project, which reportedly had a $1
million budget. The company was hired to manage transport, storage,
and payment to artists and curators.

But an investigative report in the Kazakh magazine Vlast reports that BBK Pro
has not yet made good on all of its pledges. Although a significant
portion of the money was distributed and expenses covered, the
company reportedly is still in debt to its local and international
partners to the tune of somewhere between $53,000 and $100,000—not
to mention money owed for artworks that were allegedly damaged in
transit.

The New York-based Kazakhstani curator Vladislav Sludskiy, who
co-organized the US exhibition,  had felt confident the
project would go smoothly due to the involvement of the Ministry of
Culture and the National Museum. “We could not imagine that it
could screw up,” he tells artnet News. “I also know first-hand that
this is often how things work in Kazakhstan. There is an unwritten
rule that you will get your money, but not on time.” Still, the
delays were substantial enough that he ended up paying the artists’
fees out of his own pocket.

Now, many are getting impatient. Kyzyl Tractor’s artworks have
been impounded since December 2018, according to curator Roza
Abenova, who spearheaded the “Focus Kazakhstan” project and
says her repeated appeals to the museum for help have gone
unheeded. Abenova previously served as head of contemporary
art at the National Museum, but stepped down after it came to light
that the Venice Biennale pavilion, overseen by the institution,
would be canceled.

“It is outrageous that this gigantic, flagship museum and
government structure should act so unprofessionally with regard to
external suppliers, and treat senior artists so badly,” says
curator Nadim Samman, who was originally appointed to organize the
Venice pavilion. “The utterly unaccountable managerial class are
ruining the good work of talented and passionate curators and
insulting the very artists and culture they are meant to
serve.”

Neither the Ministry of Culture nor the National Museum
immediately replied to a request for comment from artnet News.

Art Held Hostage

Perhaps the most dramatic
problem, which has only now been made public, is the seizure of 200
works by one of Kazakhstan’s most important art collectives, Kyzyl
Tractor, by an unpaid logistics company. The show in New Jersey was
the esteemed group’s first US retrospective and included
irreplaceable archival material. “This situation damages the
reputation of Kazakh art institutions among foreign partners on
contemporary art scene,” the art collective wrote in an open letter
published on Facebook last week. 

Co-curator Vladislav Sludskiy says that the logistics
company called him to ask how to better climate control the
warehouse to preserve for the works while litigation is ongoing.
(Their unpaid bill is worth a reported $53,000.) But he
fears that, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit with BBK
Pro, the works could be destroyed.

artnet News reached out the two individuals reportedly behind
BBK Pro, Arman Tursunkulov and Bauyrzhan Kurmanbekov, but did
not hear back by publishing time. Both men denied wrongdoing to
Vlast. Tursunkulov told the magazine he did “everything I
was required to do” and that the financials had “nothing to do with
me.” Kurmanbekov denied having been director of BBK Pro and
any connection with the Focus Kazakhstan project.

The seizure of art is just one chapter in the prolonged saga,
however. Curators say BBK Pro made exorbitant requests while
cutting corners on important aspects of the project in Berlin in
particular. The curators behind the German chapter of the show,
David Elliott and Rachel Rits-Volloch, said the company requested
an armed motorcade to transport the art, which Rits-Volloch says
she refused.

Later, the curators claim they witnessed BBK Pro employees
handling the art with bare, ungloved hands. Rits-Volloch also says
that the artists flown in from Kazakhstan for a residency program
tied to the exhibition were not given enough per diem as they had
been promised. “We found out that they couldn’t afford to eat, but
they were too embarrassed to tell us,” she says.

The Berlin organizers say they
are still struggling under the weight of a devastating €20,000 debt
accrued from the project. In a March letter shared with artnet
News, the National Museum confirms that it gave the promised money
to BBK Pro and that, as far as the museum was concerned, the
project had been completed.

“The Kazakh Ministry of Culture
entrusted a huge budget to BBK Pro for four international
exhibitions intended to bring Kazakh contemporary art onto the
international stage,” says Khazakhstani artist Almagul Menlibayeva,
who helped organize the Berlin exhibition. Now, she says,
“before the Kazakh Ministry
of Culture can even think of making any other international
exhibitions,” it must “hold BBK Pro accountable for their
actions.” 

The post More Than 200 Artworks by an Eminent Kazakhstani
Art Collective Are Being Held Hostage by Unpaid Contractors After a
Splashy International Exhibition appeared first on artnet
News.