art and public engagement platform.
Our guiding concepts are cross-cutting in all of our processes and activities: intersectional feminism, transitional justice, nomadic knowledge, decolonization, intergenerational integrity and future generations.
We are committed to solidarity work with Central Asian ecosystems and communities through art activism, action-based research and decolonial practices, public art and ыcience education, participatory socially engaged art interventions, and collaborative co-creation of change. We value diverse forms, practices, opportunities, experiences of unity and creation in our society and see art as part of everyday life, where initiative and interaction between people from different communities and spheres are valued.
- Aigerim Kapar
founder & curatorPrivolniy | Balkhash | AlmatyFounder of Artcom Platform, a Central Asian community-based contemporary art and public engagement organization in 2015. Grassroots-driven agenda in Central Asia matters to her curatorial practice. With her team at Artcom Platform, Kapar curates and organizes collaborative knowledge production, public art and science education, art interventions, and research-based exhibitions. Collective memory, practices of care, nomadic heritage, environmental and climate justice, future generations are cross-cutting in all their processes and activities. She builds partnerships with academic institutions, civil society, business, government, and international organizations with a mission to support and promote artists and cultural practitioners as agents of change.
Aigerim Kapar curates long-term projects of care, engagement and advocacy for lake ecosystems in Kazakhstan: SOS Taldykol, Balqashqa Qamqor (Care for Balkhash). In 2020, she united Central Asian artists, cultural practitioners, and researchers to initiate and co-create the place for contemporary art and culture of Central Asia - Steppe Space - a рybrid reality project.
- Aigerim Ospan
co-directorAstana | AlmatyMultimedia artist, author of socially engaged art project of development of good-neighbourly relations “Korshiler” and research art project interacting with sparsely populated areas, villages, towns “Auldas”. Member of Artcom Platform, eco-activist of SOS Taldykol movement, curator of “Targak pen korshiler” ecological festival.
- Antonina van Lier
co-directorIle District | AlmatyInterdisciplinary researcher, and eco-art activist & practitioner based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. As the Project Director at Artcom Platform, she designs and facilitates community-based projects at the intersection of art, ecology, and social change. Joined Artcom through its interdisciplinary school Art Collider in 2021 and later initiated Köñıl, a multidisciplinary project reimagining relationships to living spaces through decolonial, feminist, and ecological lenses. Antonina is part of Care for Balkhash, an initiative working to protect Lake Balkhash through research, advocacy, and creative practice. Her work often combines walking as method, environmental storytelling, and participatory art to challenge dominant narratives and foster ecological justice.
- Karlygash Akhmetbek
director of visual communicationsSharbaqty | AlmatyIllustrator, graphic designer and socially engaged artist based
in Almaty. Currently she works in a core team of Artcom Platform and curates activities for communities around Balkhash lake ecosystems. She produced a community-oriented educational project called Beine through the Art Collider School. Beine strives to engage local students and residents to explore one’s space, document and make local, rural values, knowledge, and practices accessible.