The only museum of robots in Kazakhstan

Kazakh batyrs will occupy an honorable place among the Transformers Universe. Kuanysh Mukhamedzhanov, a resident of Almaty region, plans to create a warrior of the Great Steppe. He makes all his works from scrap metal and vacuum cleaners. The sculptor started doing what he now loves due to his interest in comic book and movie characters. Mukhamedzhanov is now working on the art piece of the immortal leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime. But it all started with the Bumblebee figurine.

“For example, my first robots were made of scrap metal. I collected it at the car repair shops, and then also at home I somehow had a lot of plastic. As you know, plastic can take up to a thousand years to decompose, and I was sorry to throw away plastic like vacuum cleaners and TVs. So I decided to try to make some kind of an art piece, a robot out of these old vacuum cleaners. People began showing their interest after I managed to make my first robot,” the artist said.

It takes at least a month to assemble one robot, because it is just impossible to obtain all the necessary parts at once. According to the sculptor, it takes even longer to find, sort and prepare all materials than to assemble them. For example, one Autobot may need up to 15 old vacuum cleaners.

“The fastest work for me was when I assembled a robot in a week. All came together, I had the material, and one day I decided that I was going to make this robot. It took a week to assemble it. Also, my heaviest robot, the Dinobot, that is, the dinosaur robot, was assembled in about two months. It turned out to be so heavy. It was made of scrap metal and it weighs over a tonne. But I liked this work, so I decided on assembling one more dinosaur robot,” Mukhamedzhanov shared.

In total, the sculptor has about 30 sculptures in his collection. There are also terminators, cosplay costumes and many other things. Most of them are showcased in a museum that was opened by Mukhamedzhanov himself. According to him, a museum of this kind is the only one in Kazakhstan so far. The artist admits that his dream is to expand the museum and open two classes within it, on robotics and on creating art pieces.

 

Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova