Asian artists take center stage

Art of Central Asia, curated by renowned Moscow-based critic Viktor Misiano, gained renown as one of the most interesting events at last year's 51st Venice International Art Biennale. This was the first time that the Venice Biennale hosted art from three former Soviet republics within a joint Central Asia Pavilion.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are some of the last territories to remain absent from the world art scene. Art of these countries, which did not gain political sovereignty until relatively recently, has shown itself to be highly original, both artistically and in terms of its ethnic origins. The search for identity is the fundamental issue that artists of Central Asia now seem to be exploring.

The Center for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw is the first institution to present this extraordinary exhibition after the Venice Biennale. The exhibition brings together the achievements of artists of various generations, who employ mythological and poetic narrative techniques in creating photographic and video works. The tales they tell are of violence, chivalry and survival; of nature, red in tooth and claw; and of people, tough men and children that can dismantle an AK-47 in 60 seconds with their eyes closed.

This will be only the second unveiling of this collection, which will then travel to Shanghai and Moscow.

The exhibition ends April 17. See http://csw.art.pl/  for more details

WI