Photo: raem.kz
Cultural accelerator TESSERA has opened its own exhibition space at Abu Dhabi Plaza in Astana. Its inaugural exhibition, “Who Remembers?”, brings together 17 women artists from Kazakhstan, Iran, Belarus and the UK. Their works explore women’s memories preserved in family stories, objects and everyday habits.
What happened
An invitation-only opening took place on 31 October. The exhibition opened to the public on 1 November; no closing date has been announced. The space is located at Abu Dhabi Plaza on Syganak Street. We covered TESSERA’s plans in our earlier announcement.
The artists were selected through an open call, and most live and work in Kazakhstan. The exhibition features painting, photography, ceramics, felt, textiles and jewellery.
Photo: raem.kz
What it means
The exhibition invites visitors to look for family memories in familiar objects: embroidery, clothing, jewellery and things kept in a chest. It focuses on gestures, craft skills and rituals that women pass down to the next generation. The title brings together two questions: what does a woman remember, and who remembers her?
Zhanna Asanova created a necklace from embroidery by a grandmother, mother and daughter from one family in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan. The arrangement echoes a shezhire — a family tree, traced here through the female line. Ghazal Abbasi from Shiraz photographs herself in a dress belonging to her grandmother, who stopped wearing colour after her husband died.
Shakir Sheker reconstructs a chapan from the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography: the cut and ornament stay the same, but the fabric is replaced with clear oilcloth and coloured plastic bags. The work is dedicated to the artist’s great-grandmother, the finest maker of dowry items in western Kazakhstan; not a single one of her pieces has survived in the family.
Evgeniya Kazakova combines an archival photograph of a syrmak — a felt carpet that women made together while singing — with an image of the steppe around Karaganda, transformed by industry.
“Almost every woman has a grandmother who left behind three stories and one photograph. This exhibition is about how women leave behind so much more; we’re just not used to noticing it,” says artist and TESSERA co-founder Anastasia Zharko.
“A tessera is a piece of a mosaic. Each work here tells the story of one family, but together they form a shared picture. The artists came from different cities and countries, yet women’s memory works in a similar way for all of them — from Shiraz to Karaganda,” says multidisciplinary designer and TESSERA co-founder Dina Akhilbekova.
Photo: raem.kz
How TESSERA began
The accelerator was founded by Anastasia Zharko and multidisciplinary designer Dina Akhilbekova. It brings together art, education, research and international collaboration to help Central Asian artists develop projects and find partners.
TESSERA’s first public project was an art pavilion at AQBOZAT OPEN AIR FEST in June 2026. It hosted an exhibition of Central Asian artists and workshops open to the public. “Who Remembers?” is the first exhibition in the accelerator’s own space.
Photo: raem.kz
Photo: raem.kz
Photo: raem.kz
