Talk
Open Forum: Nurperi Orunbaeva / Fighting Through Art: The Experience of Art Activism in Central Asia
On personal experience and the work of the MoFA+ in advocating for women’s and queer rights.
Nurperi is one of Kyrgyzstan’s leading contemporary artists. Working across mixed media, she addresses both the historical and present conditions shaping Kyrgyz identity. Her practice engages the country’s deeply patriarchal structures, the ways in which they have shaped cultural norms, and the position of women within these narratives. She also brings the violence of Russian colonialism in Central Asia into focus, tracing its continuing impact on collective memory.
Biography
Alongside her artistic work, she serves as a curator at the Central Asian Museum of Feminist and Queer Art — currently the only feminist museum in the country. This role is undertaken in a climate where feminist discourse is frequently dismissed as a “Western corruption,” queer identities are denied or punished, and women are still expected to defer to male authority. Her curatorial practice therefore operates within a context of real social risk, making the museum’s existence, and her contribution to it, both necessary and politically significant.
