M HKA Ensembles

Installation, 24 x (15 x 100 x 67 cm), 40 x 60 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK007726).

The work Bazaar depicts how the collapse of the Soviet system and new sovereignty destroyed existent social relations followed by a privatization of enterprises and the free market. People had to do something to survive and soon the streets of Almaty became a big trading ground, a ‘bazar’, a still-life of a changing epoch. Vorobyev and Vorobyeva chose these markets as the site of their project: ‘We took photos of these objects [sold at the bazar] and made a purchase as a sign of gratitude. Little by little, we accumulated a rather sizeable collection of objects. By placing these objects in the exhibition space, we would like to show interrelated realities – the reality of an exhibited object that can be touched, the documented reality of the place where this object was sold, the reality of the existence of each person (the objects’ owners), the reality of time (history), and finally, the reality of direct personal contact.’ - Yelena Vorobyeva