4th National Museum Festival Concludes in Talas, Highlighting Women’s Stories and Cultural Heritage

The 4th National Museum Festival of Kyrgyzstan concluded at the Manas Ordo complex after four days of exhibitions, discussions and cultural activities. Held from 1 to 4 October, the festival brought together museum professionals, researchers and representatives of cultural organisations to exchange experiences and explore new approaches to preserving the country’s cultural heritage.

This year, the festival spanned four locations: the Manas Ordo complex, the city of Talas, the village of Sheker, where participants visited the new Aitmatov Aalamy complex, and the Kopuro-Bazar birch grove, known as the longest birch grove in Kyrgyzstan. These locations offered different perspectives on cultural heritage, historical memory and the role of local communities in preserving them.

Bringing women’s stories to the forefront

A highlight of the festival was the opening of the international exhibition “Memories Woven into the Soil: Women and the Movement of Tobacco Leaves,” dedicated to the experiences and memories of women from the Talas region.

The exhibition emerged from a two-week art residency that brought together accomplished artists from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Germany and France. Living together in a village house, the artists explored the history of women’s labour in tobacco farming through conversations with former tobacco workers, visits to local landscapes, archival research and an exploration of the plants and agricultural infrastructure that shaped labour and migration.

The residency is the second chapter of a three-part artistic and research project examining women’s labour in Kyrgyzstan’s agricultural history. The first residency took place in Karakol, Issyk-Kul region, in 2025 and explored opium cultivation during the Soviet period. The project will continue in Osh in 2027, focusing on cotton cultivation and the women whose labour sustained it.

Together, the three chapters explore the connections between plants, labour, landscapes, memory and migration, bringing greater attention to women’s experiences that have often been overlooked in historical accounts.

The exhibition opening was attended by Nurzat Ybykeeva, Head of the Department for the Management, Preservation and Development of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture, Information and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic; Nicolas Fay, Ambassador of France to the Kyrgyz Republic; Noni Lickleder, Director of the Goethe-Institut in Kyrgyzstan; and Étienne Lancelot, Cultural Attaché at the French Embassy.

The National Museum Festival is organised by UCA in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Information and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic, MAJIC, French Institute on Central Asian Studies  (IFEAC), the Goethe-Institut, the French Institute with financial support from the Government of Switzerland.