The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

SECTION:

Central Asia and the Modern World: confrontation, dialogue or interactivity?

Leeza Ahmady (Art Curator, Educator and Arts & Cultural Manager)

1. Is Contemporary Culture thriving in Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan - that is, in Central Asia? New Media? Performance Art? Have we OVERLOOKED the beginnings of a vital, untapped link between East & West - in our obsession with Terrorism?

2. Let us find out by creating a Contemporary Central Asian Museum of Arts & Performance.

3. The contemporary art explosion has occurred over the last three decades because regional art communities all over the world have reached out through the Web and media of all kinds to contact, collaborate, and exhibit with each other, establishing a variety of arenas that are at once local and global, based in existing cultures but expanding to create new forms, everywhere. The computer is at the heart of this event, changing minds in ways rarely discussed in media obsessed with chatlines and sensuality.

4. The mission of the Contemporary Central Asian (Virtual & Real) Museum is to close the critical gap that exits in the International arts community, by bringing scattered, unidentified Contemporary Central Asian art practitioners and intellectuals together in an interactive arena for expression.

5. WE CALL UPON YOU TO HELP, ADVISE, CONTRIBUTE, SPEAK! We call most of all to fine artists, (installation, sculpture, painting, video, film, sound, performance and digital art) art critics, curators, writers and other art and cultural activists, galleries, institutions and organizations throughout Central Asia and beyond... to submit your individual and/or collaborative proposals, projects, ideas, art work, etc.

6. CAMCAP will give you an interactive forum, widely attended by artists and intellectuals in America and Europe, to show us what you are doing and how we can work together in visionary formats that contribute, critique and analyze contemporary culture in all societies. Though this first invitation is directed at artists practicing in Central Asia or those with Central Asian origins living in the West or other parts of the World... it is also open to Non Central Asians who have special interests and background in the region or collaborate with artists or organizations that operate in Central Asia or act in relation to the region.

7. WE ASK AMERICANS, EUROPEANS, OTHERS INTERESTED IN THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF CONTEMPORARNEITY - OF THE RECOGNITION THAT THE WORLD HAS CHANGED, REQUIRING NEW IDEAS, ATTITUDES, BEHAVIOR - TO CONTACT US, TOO. WE NEED YOUR HELP, WE NEED YOUR IDEAS, YOUR ADVICE.

8. FINALLY WE INTEND TO DIRECTLY VISIT, LECTURE, PERFORM, AND EXHIBIT IN CENTRAL ASIA AND INVITE YOU TO COME TO US. YES, THIS WILL TAKE TIME, FUNDING PLANNING. WE WILL NEED THE HELP AND SPONSORSHIP OF UNIVERSTIES, MUSEUMS, ENLIGHTENED POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS. WE HOPE TO BEGIN VISITS AND WORKING THE WINTER OF 2004, ENDING WITH A SERIES OF SEMINARS,LECTURES, PERFORMANCES AND VIRTUAL-REAL COLLABORATIONS/EXHIBITIONS IN 2005. IF WE DON'T SET SPECIFIC DATES AND GOALS... THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL NEVER BECOME PROBABLE. YES, IT CAN BE DONE.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES