Silkroad Inspiration

Ab­du­ka­rim Issa was born in 1949. He li­ves and works in Alm­aty (Ka­zakhs­tan). He com­ple­ted his studies at The Alm­aty Art School and gra­dua­ted at The Alm­aty Uni­ver­si­ty of Art and  The­atre. Issa has par­ti­ci­pa­ted in nu­me­rous ex­hi­bi­ti­ons, for examp­le in Fran­ce (Pa­ris and Cannes), Ita­ly, Tur­key (Is­tan­bul), Bul­ga­ria (So­phia), Rus­sia (Mo­scow and St. Pe­ters­burg), Uz­be­kis­tan (Tash­kent), and Azer­bai­jan (Baku). His works are mentioned  in in­ter­na­ti­o­nal ca­ta­logs. Ab­du­ka­rim Issa was awar­ded with the gold me­dal in Cannes at the art ex­hi­bi­ti­on ‘Le Mon­de de la Cul­tu­re & des Arts’."He has re­vi­ved the an­ci­ent prin­ci­ple of Art Cal­li­gra­phy. Yes, cal­li­gra­phy and not han­di­craft or any other crafts­mans­hip. The mo­ve­ment of the arm, heart­be­at and he Uni­ver­se: The art of the ti­ger cal­li­gra­phy is a philosophy and embodies a whole my­tho­lo­gy. On his work, Abdukarim Issa´s revives the ancient universal  principle and  Religion taken from the myth of Shambala and that has been preserved by the Orient (Xingjian, China. Japan, Arabs). Cal­li­gra­phy is a word that represents the ab­so­lu­te in mankind." (En­gel Isk­ha­kov, ar­tist and cul­tu­ral ex­pert)

The artist born in Dresden 1948 and based in Munich, has been chosen as the coor­di­na­tor for the Silkroad In­spi­ra­ti­on plat­form. Sin­ce 1989, Ek­ke­land Goet­ze has been working on ‘A Pic­tu­re of the EARTH'. Under this label, he reunites a group of well defined art projects. He, first, collects soil from especial places around the world. This pure non ­ma­ni­pu­la­ted earth is then prin­ted by Ekkeland eit­her on pa­per or on a fre­sco on fresh lime mort­ar or any other sur­fa­ces where the Terragraphy -a standardized procedure that he invented- is used. A ho­mo­ge­nous work is thus es­tab­lis­hed and con­ti­nu­es to grow in ex­tent and com­ple­xi­ty into  ‘A Pic­tu­re of the EARTH'. For his new pro­ject, Ekkeland Götze will col­lect soil along the Silkroad trip -from Hamburg to Shang­hai. The se­lec­ted ex­ca­va­ti­on si­tes will be sig­ni­fi­cant to the par­ti­cu­lar re­gi­ons and cul­tu­res, re­pre­sen­ting the di­a­logue bet­we­en those ones. The re­sul­ting se­ries of earth images will be true visual symbols  of the link between people and their culture.

www.ekkeland.de

Lekim Ibragim’s poetic pictures, which are inspired in the Turk people’s old myths, are the reason for his reputation as an outstanding artist of Central Asian painting. His international critics say that the artist, who was born in 1945 in Kazakhstan, lives up to the rich heritage of his culture. He is one of the few people who managed to capture the laconic wisdom of the East in pictures. Lekim Ibragim’s works have been exhibi­ted in Paris, Munich, Moscow, Vienna, Japan and the USA. His illustrated book of poems is on the permanent book collection of the Louvre, Paris.

Ar­tist, col­lec­tor and of­fi­ci­al of the Ita­li­an Mi­ni­stry of Foreign Af­fairs sin­ce 1979, is a mul­ti­fa­ce­ted cha­rac­ter who sur­pri­ses eve­ry­o­ne he meets. He li­ves mostly ab­road and is cur­rently li­ving in Ma­na­gua (Ni­ca­ra­gua), whe­re he is working as Ac­ting Con­sul. Mar­co be­gan pain­ting in the ear­ly 1980s, un­der the in­flu­ence of Eu­ge­nio Bar­ra. Bet­we­en 1980 and 1999, Mar­co mo­ved to different coun­tries including Bel­gi­um, Ethi­o­pia, Gre­at Bri­tain and Co­lom­bia. In 1999, he sett­led in Be­jing (Chi­na), this was a pro­sperous move. Mar­co has be­co­me Chi­na’s most fa­mous foreign ar­tist, a true icon of con­tem­por­a­ry art. In 2004, Mar­co won the 'Gol­den Pri­ze' at the Se­venth Bei­jing In­ter­na­ti­o­nal Art Ex­hi­bi­ti­on. In 2005, he achie­ved further suc­cess with his par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on at the Se­cond Bei­jing In­ter­na­ti­o­nal Art Bi­en­na­le. Sab­ri­na Fal­zo­ne, famous art critic, descri­bes Mar­co Mal­la­maci as “The precursor of a Neo-Exis­ten­ti­a­list sym­bo­lism of the 21st cen­tu­ry”.

Her pa­ter­nal grand­pa­rents Vla­di­mir and Vi­o­let Pol­unin were re­now­ned ar­tists of the 20th cen­tu­ry. Pi­cas­so, Dia­ghi­lev, Ma­tis­se and Brac­ques be­lon­ged to their cir­cle of col­le­a­gues and fri­ends. But not only the ar­tis­ti­cal ori­gins of Olga Pol­unin are of in­te­rest. Mul­ti­cul­tu­ra­lism co­mes na­tu­ral­ly to the ar­tist, who was born in 1963 in Sing­apo­re and li­ves in Bel­gi­um. She has Rus­si­an-Eng­lish and Hak­ka Chi­ne­se ori­gins.Ol­ga’s pain­tings are in­cli­ned to­wards a po­si­ti­ve in­ter­pre­ta­ti­on of life, highlighting the cre­a­ti­ve and uplif­ting as­pects of hu­ma­ni­ty. She ex­plo­res her Asi­an roots through images of the fe­mi­ni­ne. In her se­ries of nu­des, Chi­ne­se in­flu­en­ces are evi­dent. She paints in both oil and gou­ache. Fol­lo­wing the birth of her child­ren, she ex­pan­ded her studies to in­clu­de the sacred yet playful bond bet­we­en mo­ther and child with the Ma­don­na the­me being a re­cur­rent one in her work. She is com­ple­te­ly self-taught, in­spi­red by the ear­ly re­li­gious works of both Eu­ro­pe and Asia. Her pain­tings have a po­e­tic sim­pli­ci­ty as they deal with per­so­nal yet uni­ver­sal the­mes. The­re is hu­mor and wit, sen­su­a­li­ty and spi­ri­tu­a­li­ty. Olga created Double Madonna - Birth of Dialogue for our project.

Born in1969 in Tehran. She has a BA 1992 from the Plas­tic Art Fa­cul­ty of Pa­ris I, and in 1998 he completed a MA in Spa­ce and Sta­ge De­sign from the Ecole Na­ti­o­nal des Arts De­co­ra­tifs (ENS­AD), Pa­ris. As a mul­ti­me­dia  ar­tist, she works on va­rious fields, in­clu­ding ur­ban per­for­man­ces, pho­to­gra­phy, sta­ge de­sign, dra­wing, vi­deo arts and in­stal­la­ti­ons. Sin­ce 2001, she has par­ti­ci­pa­ted in many na­ti­o­nal and in­ter­na­ti­o­nal con­tem­por­a­ry art ex­hi­bi­ti­ons, in New York, Yo­ko­ha­ma, Athens, Bar­ce­lo­na, Pa­ris, Ber­lin and others. She is also a co-foun­der of the Lee­ve The­atre Group, The Mo­va­zi Pub­lic Per­for­man­ce and  In­stal­la­ti­on Group and the Jal­leh Col­lec­ti­ve Art Stu­dio, in Tehran the city where she lives and works.

The in Saarbrücken living artist Karin Maria Zimmer studied classical singing and audiovisual arts. She performs solo as well as in diverse ensembles and writes compositions. Her vocal improvisation and performances extending over different sound and acoustical installations enchanted the audiences across Germany.

In the vocal composition BOTSCHAFT the artist deals with the sacred musical traditions of Christianity and Islam. The meditative character of the Gregorian chant is opposed by the vivid call to the prayer of the muezzin. This intensely discussed and attention drawing composition symbises an approach rather than a fusion.
This piece of art work is Karin Zimmer's contribution to inter-cultural dialogue in general and the Silkroad Experiences in particular.