Monday, September 24, 2018

Dinara Satbayeva | Brinning Optimism and Activism into research on Soviet Socialist Modernist Architecture in Kazakhstan



This first blog about the thesis that is only evolving in my head could be the hardest thing to write. However, I will. I suggest you fasten your seat-belts, dear colleagues and I will fasten mine, because this will be a serpentine road and even I do not know what to expect. After all, academy is a journey of its own kind.

Motivations
Street advertisements, Karaganda, Kazakhstan

So I feel it to be important to start from the moment I was choosing a topic for my research, with only one thing in mind – my thesis must be about something that I will feel a personal connection to. With a ten-years background in fine arts, I felt that I had some kind of initial direction. My Bachelors degree in the Political Science and International Relations also gave me some motivation to explore the realm of cultural heritage in Kazakhstan. It was also the moment, when the urban landscape of the places dear to my heart was swiftly changing. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, urban planning was troubled in many places around the country. It is still troubled today. One of the consequences is that the soviet period architecture, which sculptures the outlook of many cities is in a decay. Instead, the cities are clogged with poorly designed malls, irritating advertisement banners and ridiculous statues. 

   
Palace of Lenin, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Soviet Socialist Modernist Architecture 

With my own aesthetic preferences at heart I've chosen Soviet Socialist Modernist architecture as a focus of my research. This architectural style belongs to the period of 1955-1991 and is often associated with the style of Brutalism. Another reason for focusing on this group of architectural heritage sites was its evident underrepresentation in the scholarly research. One of the illustrative examples of this style was the current Palace of the Republic (former Palace of Lenin) in Almaty - a former capital of Kazakhstan. The palace that was a centerpiece of soviet modernism, today is almost nonexistent, or at least nonexistent in its architectural value.

Attempting at filling this gap, I'm particularly grateful for an opportunity to do this at Central European University in Budapest - a place with its own post-soviet context that could provide me with necessary critical environment and experience in the research and management in similar fields.

Structuring investigation

So first, I've started to explore how legal frameworks and (lack of) social activism in Kazakhstan lead to many tangible objects of the Soviet period being damaged, deprived of their value (in the process of restoration) and being completely destroyed by the public authorities themselves or with authorities' passive consent. What was expected, yet sad to find was the lack of documentation and open access data for the soviet heritage of Kazakhstan. From a preliminary analysis, I drew a hypothesis that official authorities are inclined towards a nation-building process, which strives to retrieve what has been “underestimated” during the Soviet times. Hence, it frequently prioritizes pre-Soviet and pre-colonial Kazakh culture over the Soviet one.

Indeed, I find it problematic that there is little chance for a fluid and complex interpretation of Kazakhstani historical past and national identity. This is a particularly sensitive issue within the context of multiethnic population, comprising more than 120 nationalities and ethnic groups within one state. As a result, one of most aesthetically valuable groups of endangered objects is Soviet Modernist architecture that is usually associated with a totalitarian past, and not with something that can be “Kazakh”.

Opposite to this interpretation, In my research I would argue that Soviet Modernism is a unique eclectic blend between originally western style, ambitious artistic and social agenda of Soviet architects with an authentically local touch. It has an enormous value and could serve as a tourist attraction and thus a field of economic advantage and business development, like in the case of contemporary Moscow and other post-soviet destinations.

Urban Activism

While planning on how to approach my thesis, I believe that despite a seemingly little activism, there are certain groups that are formed on the cause of architectural sites protection. Currently, there are grass-rout communities and expertise groups, such as  Арх Надзор and UrbanForum - Almaty, which act to attract public attention and preserve heritage sites. However, these are centered in a couple of regions only and do not have a centralized platform for dialog and decision-making.  

What is more, there is little capacity for this groups to engage in dialog with the public authorities. Decisions to be taken about a certain site are rarely announced publicly and by the time people gather to object, it is too late. The whacking ball is set in motion.



What to do next? 

Some initial practical steps to further my research would be: 
  1. Establishing a connection with the existing Kazakhstani organizations to acquire their perspective on the issue. 
  2. Providing a close up analysis of the existing laws on the Cultural Heritage Preservation and Urban Planning.
  3. Establishing a set of similar case studies and participatory management projects on cultural heritage in other post-soviet states and the world. 
  4. Looking at how soviet heritage issues are addressed in Hungary, as another comparative case study. 
  5. Exploring the work of the Bureau for Art and Urban Research (BACU), which is aiming at preserving the Eastern bloc architecture of Europe.
As I proceed with my research, I need to find the right angle. By this I mean that I should explore what kind of participatory management schemes can be applied to empower grass-root organization to take a part in the urban planning and cultural heritage preservation in the cities of Kazakhstan. I believe that involvement of public would be a good way of accounting for a complex narrative of heritage in Kazakhstan. After all it is not only a question of preservation of a particular group of objects, but also the intangible, aesthetic, historical value, artistic idea and effort behind it. This problem crosses the borders of Kazakhstan and has its own angle in other Post-Soviet and newly independent states. However, it is important to bear in mind that this may only be possible after addressing legal boundaries that discourage activism in the first place.
Karaganda, Kazakhstan

Next post would hopefully bring some results of this quest. Now, I can only hope for my persistent optimism and activism that I can encourage in myself and others.

 


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