Syrlybek Bekbotayev

From the artwork series Music in the steppe, 2011

Music in the steppe, 2011

Syrlybek Bekbotayev was born in 1987 in Konurtobe, Kazakhstan. He belongs to the new generation of photographers and videographers of the contemporary Central Asian scene.

Among his works is the photographic series the Music of the Steppe. It is based on life in the steppe telling the story of its routine and bringing out the place and part played by women in this world. It pays tribute to women of yesterday and today; by telling her story and describing her, he transforms her into an ongoing rhythm. She is the music of life, the “Music of the Steppe” or the ritornello of life.

With Big Information, Syrlybek Bekbotayev depicts scenes that denounce the absence and the lack of information, manipulated, destroyed or transformed information. Thus, the artist invents a new, original version of the BBC: BBC Central Asia that the models can switch on and discover whilst being photographed. The “C” becomes oriental. The crescent moon of Islam, an ornamental element peculiar to Kazakhstan, enters into further spheres and into the world of information, evoking the displacement of communication.

Extract from e.city Almaty/Kazakhstan by Barbara Hyvert (Stimultania)