Şap! Institute
Education-focused international contemporary art institution based in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
info@sapinstitute.org
ABOUT
Şap!’s mission is to produce, spread, and sustain a living intellectual infrastructure, whereby ideas can be tested, knowledge can be produced and shared, relationships can develop over time, and new ideas and creative practices can grow.
A vehicle for experimenting with alternative education models, Şap! supports artists and thinkers at different stages of their practices, creating opportunities for research and facilitating meaningful exchange between local and international communities. The Institute seeks to preserve and activate regional artistic histories while enabling new forms of cultural production to develop.
PROGRAM
Education and Research
Through publishing, archiving, conducting primary research, organizing fellowships, and staging exhibitions as well as other public-serving initiatives, Sap! supports the production and circulation of knowledge originating in Central Asia. Rather than approaching the region as a space to be interpreted from elsewhere, the Institute considers it as a source of new—and urgent—artistic, theoretical, and cultural perspectives.
Şap! develops interdisciplinary programs at the intersection of theory and practice in art, art criticism, and curation. Partnering with like-minded individuals and organizations (e.g., universities, foundations), the Institute creates new pathways for cultural practitioners while contributing to the development of a robust professional ecosystem in the region.
Education and Research
Through publishing, archiving, conducting primary research, organizing fellowships, and staging exhibitions as well as other public-serving initiatives, Sap! supports the production and circulation of knowledge originating in Central Asia. Rather than approaching the region as a space to be interpreted from elsewhere, the Institute considers it as a source of new—and urgent—artistic, theoretical, and cultural perspectives.
Şap! develops interdisciplinary programs at the intersection of theory and practice in art, art criticism, and curation. Partnering with like-minded individuals and organizations (e.g., universities, foundations), the Institute creates new pathways for cultural practitioners while contributing to the development of a robust professional ecosystem in the region.
Residency and Workshops
Šap! plans to have a physical home in Almaty, where artists and thinkers would gather for residencies of varying duration. Residents’ accommodation and living expenses are to be covered, empowering them to commit wholly to their projects.
As part of the residency, all the participants shall have access to dedicated studios where they can work with the likes of textiles, ceramics, metal, and wood, as well as a lab equipped with professional technical resources covering all areas of audiovisual and digital production. These facilities are to be made accessible, so that guests and locals alike can use them while nurturing relations with one another.
Šap! plans to have a physical home in Almaty, where artists and thinkers would gather for residencies of varying duration. Residents’ accommodation and living expenses are to be covered, empowering them to commit wholly to their projects.
As part of the residency, all the participants shall have access to dedicated studios where they can work with the likes of textiles, ceramics, metal, and wood, as well as a lab equipped with professional technical resources covering all areas of audiovisual and digital production. These facilities are to be made accessible, so that guests and locals alike can use them while nurturing relations with one another.
PROJECT MILESTONES
2027
2028-2029
2030
Grant for 2 International Residencies (POUSH, Cite des Arts) through open call
Summer Conference — Academic and Artistic Council program plan
Studio opening: ceramics, textile, metal wood; programming
Residency opening: new media lab, academic year program, summer school
TEAM
MADINA SADYBEKOVA
Korean/Kazakh curator and researcher from Almaty, whose practice primarily focuses on sonic arts that engage with geopolitical and socio-political contexts. Having studied how aesthetics shape experience and collective memory in cases of toppling and removing colonial monuments in contemporary Kazakhstan, she now works with hearing and listening as embodied practices, paying close attention to how sound affects bodies exposed to various coercive conditions: from concrete violence to dispossession, land loss, and forced migration. Reflecting on her own diasporic experience, physically removed from these at times excruciating contexts, Madina uses this distance to explore how sound can also carry resilience and hope. Madina holds an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London and currently works as an independent curator and cultural producer in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
ANUAR DUISENBINOV
For the past 15 years, he has been actively engaged in various projects across Central Asia, collaborating with institutions such as the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, CTM Festival, Literature Without Borders, the Hayward Gallery, and the Venice Biennale, among others. Together with Rustem Myrzakhmetov, Änuar co-founded the spoken word and experimental music collective Балхаш снится. In his works, Änuar often refers to traditional practices and belief systems, emphasising how they have evolved in response to shifting and often deteriorating social and political contexts, both past and present. His poetry and spoken-word interventions are inventive and playful, rooted in layered symbolism, yet they pointedly challenge the ways dominant narratives co-opt and instrumentalise once-sacred practices, transforming what was meant to serve the community into tools of identity politics or nation-building used by elites and those holding onto power. Änuar Düisenbinov is a Kazakhstani poet, multimedia artist, curator, and translator.
ALEXANDRA KIM
Arts and cultural projects professional with 8+ years of experience across contemporary art institutions, international exhibitions, and cultural projects. Served as Director of Aspan Gallery from 2019 to 2025, producing and coordinating 30+ exhibitions of Central Asian contemporary art and overseeing international loans, artwork logistics, exhibition production, and institutional partnerships. Experience includes coordinating the first official Kazakhstan Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, working across artists, curators, and international institutions; coordinating the donation of 22 works by 13 Central Asian artists to the permanent collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; and facilitating institutional collaboration leading to the acquisition of works by Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev by Centre Pompidou, Paris. Experienced in managing complex art projects from planning and production through installation, logistics, and delivery across museums, galleries, and private collections.
ARSENII AKSENOV
Film curator, researcher, and cultural producer from Kazakhstan, based between Almaty and Berlin. From 2023 to 2026, he developed the film program for the opening of Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture in Almaty, working across curation, production, research, and partnerships. In his practice, he focuses on experimental cinema, contemporary auteur theory, and new ways of experiencing cinema—not only as an art form, but as a process. As a selector, producer, and curator, he has collaborated with film festivals and cultural initiatives including MIEFF, Qyzqaras, NOMSIZ, Spot, and Alternativa. In 2024–2025, he served as the commissioning editor of Horizon, an online multilingual anthology initiated by Tselinny.
JAMA NURKALIYEVA
Founder of Şap Institute. From 2018 to 2026, she served as Director of Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, where she led the institution’s development from its founding phase through the transformation of the Tselinny cinema by architect Asif Khan. Under her leadership, Tselinny developed a program spanning contemporary art, education, research, publishing, and public engagement, presenting more than 300 events. She established Tselinny Publishing, the Horizon research platform, a scholar-in-residence programme, and the institution’s library and archive. Previously, as project director, she developed the program of the Astana Contemporary Art Center for EXPO 2017. Her practice focuses on building sustainable cultural infrastructure across Central Asia through residencies, research, commissions, publications, institutional partnerships, and long-term support for artists and independent initiatives, as well as regional knowledge production and exchange.
info@sapinstitute.org