ABOUT THE WORK
Nomads are driven by destination and through constant movement they gain their wisdom. The contemporary nomads travel the globe and gather experience; learning more about the world and themselves in the process.
Assel Nussipkozhanova and Kairat Temirgali’s collaboration draws on their own experience from pasture to city and wanderer to dweller. Their contemporary heroine moves from a village (aul) to the city. She wears a quilted gown made from denim, inspired by the traditional robe (shapan). In the city the girl has new experiences, her personality takes shape, she becomes part of new stories, impressions, images, and these new patterns are embroidered on her shapan as souvenirs of her journeys.
assel and kairat
Assel Nusipkozhanova was born in 1991 in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan.
In 2011, she graduated from the Almaty Tansykpayev College of Arts and Crafts with a specialisation in fashion design and then went on to enrol in the fashion design department at Instituto Marangoni, Milano.
During the graduation showcase in 2014, Assel was awarded for having the best work among 150 students. While studying in Milan, Assel had internships at fashion brands, including Salta (Almaty), Vika Gazinskaya (Moscow) and dsquared2 (Milan).
In January 2015, with the support of Etage design bureau, she presented her debut brand ASSEL at Multimedia Open Space Almaty which was organised as a multimedia show. The fashion show was accompanied by a video created and adjusted for the space by Maxim Malov. In February 2016, Assel took part in the International Fashion Showcase supported by the British Council. Today, Assel designs her brand ASSEL and participates in exhibitions and collaborations.
Kairat Temirgali was born in 1987 in Karatau, Kazakhstan. In 2010, he graduated from the Zhurgenev Kazakh National Academy of Arts with a specialisation in film photography.
Kairat worked as a cameraman at Kazakhfilm studio and took part in Harmony Lessons in 2013 (which won a Silver Bear for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution) and The Wounded Angel in 2016 (which received a Special Jury Prize at the 17th Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea).
Kairat also took part in shooting short films for Berlinale Talents and the video-installation of the 1937: Zhoktau – the Territory of Memory project dedicated to victims of repressions in Kazakhstan.
Right across the diverse forms of nomadism, we are in a time when all human beings are becoming nomads.
MURAT AUEZOV, KAZAKH PUBLIC FIGURE, CULTURE EXPERT
