Adiya Kakim, Kazakh National University of Arts
Charcoal on paper; 75 x 55 cm.
From the artist: My artwork draws inspiration from a real incident at the Akmola concentration camp for women.
During the Soviet Union, in Kazakhstan, as in other republics, the authorities pursued a policy of persecuting those who were considered “traitors to the motherland.” Most often, such categories of persons included political opponents, intellectuals, and cultural figures. Women who were the wives of “these ‘traitors to the motherland’” were thrown into this Akmola concentration camp.
The women were left to starve, so the locals cleverly fed them by throwing kurt at them. Kurt is salted and dried hard cheese that is small and good for throwing, which was convenient, because the guards confused the kurt with stones and thought the locals were mocking the prisoners.