The Kazakhstan Pavilion at Biennale Arte 2026 will present the exhibition Qoñyr: The Archive of Silence, curated by Syrlybek Bekbota. The exhibition will feature works by Ardak Mukanova, Gulmaral Tattibayeva and Natalya Ligay (ADYR-ASPAN), Anar Aubakir, Assel Kadyrkhanova, Smail Bayaliyev, Nurbol Nurakhmet, Mansur Smagambetov, and Oralbek Kaboke.

The Kazakhstan Pavilion is located at Museo Storico Navale, near the entrance to the Arsenale. This marks Kazakhstan’s third participation in the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and represents a new milestone: for the first time, a Central Asian country selected its pavilion curator and artists through an open call.

Directly responding to the overarching theme of Biennale Arte 2026 — In Minor Keys, the Kazakhstan Pavilion proposes Qoñyr as a metaphorical framework: an invitation to listen to quieter voices, accumulated memory, and the profound meaning embedded in subtle, everyday experiences, especially in a time of global instability.

Open call and selection of the concept

A total of 17 applications were submitted, of which 12 were accepted for consideration. Following the first stage of the competition, three finalists were selected:

• Concept: “QONYR: The Archive of Silence”. Curator: Syrlybek Bekbota
• Concept: Qoñyr. Curators: Assel Akhmetzhanova, Assel Mukasheva, and Malika Urazgaliyeva
• Concept: “Songs of Water Bodies”. Curators: Aigerim Kapar and Asyl Ikhashova

Following the final vote, the winning proposal was “ҚОҢЫР: The Archive of Silence”. The project is curated by Syrlybek Bekbota, a Kazakhstani artist and curator based in Astana. His curatorial practice is centered on memory, cultural heritage, and imagery rooted in nomadic mythology, with an emphasis on conceptual structure, spatial narrative, and the relationships between works.

In his practice, Bekbota explores historical memory and the social fractures of the post-Soviet space through a minimalist visual language and fragmented structures. He studied at the Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University (2005–2010) and graduated in Cultural Studies from L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in 2025.

Bekbota has curated significant projects, including QARA JER, a solo exhibition by Oralbek Kaboke dedicated to historical memory and trauma. His artistic practice has been presented internationally in exhibitions including Protagonists: The Invisible Pavilion (Venice), Asia NOW (Paris), and others.

When asked what winning the competition to curate the Kazakhstan Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale means to him, and how he defines the main task of this participation, Syrlybek Bekbota says:

“Winning this competition gave me mixed feelings: on the one hand, joy; on the other, a strong sense of anxiety связанное with the weight of responsibility. The reason is clear — representing the Kazakhstan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is a very important task. I think I will only truly be able to feel this victory once we succeed in presenting the upcoming exhibition with dignity and showing the Kazakhstan Pavilion at the proper level.”

What does Qoñyr mean?

The word Qoñyr is one of the key concepts in Kazakh cosmology. Although its literal meaning is associated with the colour brown, qoñyr carries a much richer metaphorical significance. It can describe a sonic register, the scent of earth, or a form of silence that never speaks aloud yet holds everything within it.

Qoñyr is an attentiveness to minor vibrations — wind, breath, a footstep — through which what is usually displaced by noise becomes audible.

Speaking about the concept of the project “Қоңыр: The Archive of Silence” and its relation to the Biennale’s overall theme, In Minor Keys, the curator notes:

“At the heart of the project ‘Қоңыр: The Archive of Silence’ is an exploration of the concept of qoñyr, which occupies a special place in Kazakh culture. The project draws on several historical and cultural experiences — nomadic worldview, oral culture, as well as the historical memory of the twentieth century. This idea resonates with the theme of the 2026 Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys. In music, minor keys denote not the dominant tone, but a softer, more subdued one. For me, the concept of qoñyr conveys precisely this kind of sound — not loud, yet deep in its impact. That is why the project seeks to focus not on large declarative statements, but on subtler layers of cultural memory.”

Küy, memory, and the movement from major to minor

The Pavilion is inspired by the traditional Kazakh instrumental composition Qoñyr (küy) by the twentieth-century composer Äbiken Khasenov. As Kazakh cultural theorist Zira Nauryzbay notes, Kazakh music before the twentieth century was predominantly composed in major keys, whereas the twentieth century saw a marked shift toward minor tonalities.

This musical transformation closely reflects the turbulent modern history of Kazakhstan. Profound socio-cultural upheavals left a deep imprint on the country’s musical expression, and the movement from major to minor became a sonic expression of historical memory.

In this context, qoñyr functions as a metaphor carried through sound — a cultural optic that allows the listener to come into contact with memory. The exhibition turns to the Archive of Silence, continuing to explore how memory remains active through the body, voice, and landscape.

An immersive journey through six rooms

Occupying six interconnected rooms of Museo Storico Navale, the Kazakhstan Pavilion unfolds as an immersive, sensorial journey. It begins even before the exhibition walls themselves, where the familiar sounds of Venice — water, footsteps, voices — are gradually overlaid with Dübir, an acoustic reconstruction of the Kazakh steppe.

The distant sound of hoofbeats, diffused through the space by a sonic intervention by ADYR-ASPAN, invites visitors to attune themselves to the land’s subtle vibrations. Entering the Pavilion through the courtyard, viewers encounter Steppe Architectonics by Smail Bayaliyev, where monumental horse figures, the sound of hoofbeats, and steppe grass spread across the floor transform the white cube into a tactile landscape.

Inside the Pavilion, the exhibition unfolds as a clearly structured journey through a series of distinct yet interconnected spaces. The first room presents Aitys: The Limits of Translation, a video installation by curator Syrlybek Bekbota that highlights the improvisational nature of aitys — the traditional Kazakh musical-poetic contest — revealing its critical function in Kazakh culture through the intersection of oral tradition and contemporary critical thought.

In the following rooms, works by Mansur Smagambetov, Oralbek Kaboke, Nurbol Nurakhmet, and Assel Kadyrkhanova expand the exhibition’s theme by turning to personal and everyday experience. Moving between sound, object, and installation, these artistic practices trace how memory may be transmitted through daily life.

In the final room, Anar Aubakir’s Matrix of a New Subject uses the restored inner layer of a worn camel-wool quilt as an art object and a silent archive of generational memory. The journey reaches its culmination in Qoñyr Äulie: Immersion into the Quiet Depths, a digital environmental work by Ardak Mukanova, which leads the viewer through a sacred space where light and myth are not narrated, but experienced.

Visitors leave the Pavilion no longer as passive observers, but as bodily engaged participants, carrying with them the Archive of Silence as an inner, sensorial experience shaped by sound, movement, and perception.

The works presented in Qoñyr: The Archive of Silence come together as a pavilion that invites visitors to slow down and listen. Through sound, material, and space, the exhibition offers a meditation on collective memory and history, encouraging a deeper and more attentive experience of both the Pavilion itself and the world beyond it.

Stages of preparation

Speaking about the next stages of preparation for curating the National Pavilion at the Biennale, Syrlybek Bekbota says:

“At present, we are working on the spatial solution, the technical preparation of the works, and their adaptation to the architecture of the Pavilion in Venice. At the same time, production and organisational processes are underway: the creation of the works, logistics, installation, and the resolution of technical issues related to the realisation of the exhibition. Our main goal is to fully and accurately realise the exhibition in the Kazakhstan Pavilion while preserving the conceptual integrity of the project.”

“Alongside the tasks already mentioned, we also face another important goal. It lies in explaining to a broader audience what the Biennale is and why participation in such international exhibitions is significant. In my experience, Kazakh-speaking audiences often remain outside the informational field of such events.

At times, participation in exhibitions of this kind is organised in a rather closed manner and can even take on a monopolised character. In some cases, certain groups seek to define the framework of what art should be, thereby protecting their own interests and reinforcing their influence.

Therefore, one of my tasks is to fill these gaps, to make the process more open, and to communicate information about international art events to a wider audience, especially to the Kazakh-speaking community.”

Biennale Arte 2026 will run from 9 May to 22 November 2026. The Kazakhstan Pavilion will be open at Museo Storico Navale in Venice.

Editor-in-Chief: Madina Kassybayeva