GATES OF TURAN — FFF STUDIO

gates of turan kyrgyz pavilion 59th biennale di venezia

Through 2021-2022 FarmanFarmaian was invited to Kyrgyzstan to be nominated cultural Ambassador by the Kyrgyz Ministry of Culture and be commissioned to develop and produce the country’s Pavilion in view of their first Venice Biennale participation - unveiling his first inception of Gates of Turan on 22-04-2022.

The ensuing sourcing journeys took the artist up in the Tien Shan Range to research and state the condition of current day crafts practices. These deep immersions within the tribal and nomadic cultural fabrics resulted in a collaborative exchange with a groupment of independent craftswomen structured around an NGO : The Altyn Kol Women's Cooperative of Koshkor

Effectively empowering and highlighting a heritage endangered by both the forces of globalization and radicalization through the creation of a textile based installation, FarmanFarmaian layered a multiplicity of locally sourced elements including felt, silk, raw yak wool, and yurt structures. The archiving of the process in the form of music, film and poetry resulted in the creation of the SHIMMER filmpoem - embedded into the final installation as an immersive soundscape/videoscape.

‘The first Big Surprise of the 59th Biennale di Venezia is the Gates of Turan exhibition, a textile, pictorial, architectural and multi-sensory installation by Firouz FarmanFarmaian’

Kosme de Barañano, Descubrir El Arte , May 3, 2022

GOT INSTALLation

Envisioned as an immersive Polymedia object - the textile installation was draped and enfolded in a black robes in order to be strategically lit with directional Leds effectively enveloping the 400m2 plateau of the Giudecca art district’s Hydro space, Venice.

Furthermore FORRM’s SHIMMER soundscape-videoscape was designed to accompany viewers through the experience infusing a disembodied sense of timeless tribal poetic immateriality.

GOT SHIMMER

SHIMMER pre-premiered at the Kyrgyz Pavilion on the occasion of the 59th Biennale Di Venezia as part of the GATES OF TURAN exhibition in a 1:21’ version ( Gates of Turan edit ) as the central videoscape + soundscape of FarmanFarmaian’s immersive textile installation.

The SHIMMER Soundtrack was composed by FORRM and recorded in February 2022 at the Punta Paloma Studios, Tarifa, Spain. Sound as the foundational base of the work - which was filmed in Kyrgyzstan’s Yssik Kol Lake.

‘A sonic, filmic, poetic chant unveiling the core attributes of spiritual romanticism, a transformative multidimensional experience’

Firouz FarmanFarmaian

GOT STUDY ZERO ONE

100x70cm on 180gm Acrylic Marker, Crayon on Canson Paper
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
Skteched on Raisin Format Canson paper in the winter of 2021, the study encapsulates the installation to come in fine detail.

TUNDUK

400x400cm Birch Wood, Yak Wool
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal
banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.
The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem.

KAYAKALAK panels ( 59th VENICE BIENNALE COLLECTION ), 2022

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of
archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.
In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.

The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem.

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.
In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.

The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem.

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.

In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.

The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.

In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.

The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of
archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.

In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.

The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.

In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.

The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem.

170x140cm Handfelted, Hand embroidered Felt, Silk, Yak Wool.
Enq : salut@werthenomads.com
FarmanFarmaian’s KAYAKALAK Felt series investigate the immaterial substance of memory through the sourcing of archaic cosmogonies across sacred material, derived semiology and spiritual realms.

In the ten piece KAYAKALAK panel installation, nomadic tapestries are placed to hang as imaginary tribal banners - nomadic traditional felt making techniques are here reinvented to serve the idea of a lost mythical Unitarian mandala, traveling through hand sewn designs of the ‘Oïmo’, a mythical visual vocabulary revisited by the artist and produced in collaboration with the Kyrgyz craftswomen. These myths are closely connected to the Manas, and as such the banners symbolize the allied tribes of the warrior-hero Manas as he fought for freedom and independence.

The KAYAKALAK banners are placed as a deconstructed corridor around the TUNDUK centrepiece, highlighting the importance of the crossed shaft that figures as Kyrgyzstan’s national emblem

ALTYN KOL NGO & BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2022

Through 2021 and 2022 FarmanFarmaian Ventured into the remote highland regions of YSSIK KOL
and NARYN, his immersions within the tribal and nomadic cultures resulted in a collaboration with the local craftswomen of the women Led Altyn Kol Association of Koskhor NGO and the creation of the GATES OF TURAN installation.