“Mama’s shawl” international art project kicks off in Nur-Sultan

A symbol of purity and kindness - an international art project ‘MAMA’S SHAWL’ by the famous Kazakh artist Leyla Mahat is gaining momentum. It’s already united women from different countries. They create a single installation in the form of a canvas of shawls. Each of them has its own special story.

“In order to make a very personal and sacred contribution to this project, girls bring their own scarves. Someone brings their mothers’ shawls. There is a very touching story when one of our girls brought her grandmother’s scarf specially from Almaty. She wanted the shawl to fly around the world for her grandmother, because she didn’t have such an opportunity to see the world when she was alive. Someone puts little symbols on their scarves. Girls sew on labels with names and countries,” said Leyla Mahat, Project Author and Chairwoman of the Curatorial Board of Contemporary Art Center “Kulanshi.”

To date, representatives of seven countries have joined the project. The mobile installation is expected to visit 20 countries. The art project authors are confident that even more women around the world will join the campaign.

“We are working on logistics at the moment. We plan to add our close neighbors. Then we want to send the shawl to the Caucasus. From there to Russia. We really want the shawl to cover more women, as many people as possiblem,” added Mahat.

You can follow the installation’s journey online on social media.

 

Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova