Participants:

Milyausha Abaydullina is an artist, visual researcher, and weaving master born in the Miyakin area, Bashqortostan, Urals. She graduated from the arts and graphics faculty of Bashkort State Pedagogical University named after Miftahedtdin Aqmulla. Her artistic practice is inspired by Bashqort’s traditional arts and crafts, especially weaving. She has participated in many exhibitions and forums dedicated to carpet weaving in Bashqortostan, Udmurt Republic, and Qazaqstan. Abaydullina actively shares her findings through public channels such as 'Bashqort.photomuseum' and ‘Genghis Khan's tear.’

Darali Leli is a writer, artist, fashion designer, curator, and founder of the Udmurt dress museum. Based in Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic, she comes from a family of Udmurt writers. Leli’s artistic practice centers on traditional crafts, including patchwork, weaving, embroidery, and folk art. She is deeply engaged in researching and engaging with the culture and struggles of Udmurt people, often dedicating her works to themes such as the loss of local identity, the elusive nature of antiquity, and exploration of Udmurt cultural codes.

Aisha Jandosova is a Qazaq-Kyrgyz diasporic human, (re)learner, and educator/designer, living between Almaty, Qazaqstan, and Providence, USA (on Wampanoag, Pokanoket, and Narragansett peoples’ land). Jandosova devotes her time and energy to creating and supporting spaces that allow Qazaq and Central Asian people to reconnect to their ancestors, heal, and reimagine loving futures. Her current practice involves the slow, long-term re-existencia (a term coined by Madina Tlostanova and Albán Achinte) of ancestral craft practices. Together with Aida Issakhanqyzy, Jandosova co-facilitates BABALAR PRESS, an experimental research, writing, and publishing initiative for relearning, reclaiming, and reimagining Qazaq ancestral knowledge.

Aziza Kadyri is a multidisciplinary artist and curator with a focus on live and digital performance, experimental costume, textiles, and immersive technology. Originally from Uzbekistan and now based in London, UK, Kadyri holds a BA in Fashion Design from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and an MA in Performance Design and Practice from Central Saint Martins in London. Her projects explore the themes of migration, displacement, social invisibility, identity, feminism, and the loss of language. Kadyri is the co-founder of Qizlar, a grassroots feminist collective based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She was the lead artist of the Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale of Art (2024).

Milana Khalilova is an artist and designer born in the village of Zalukokoazhe in Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus. She graduated from the College of Design at Kabardino-Balkaria State University, named after Khatuta Berbekov, in 2004. In 2017, she was a resident of the Mikhail Shemyakin Foundation in France, and up until recently, she lived in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria. Khalilova’s work primarily focuses on animation, traditional craft techniques, and book design. Her professional and research interests include the interaction between the archaic forms of folk and collective art, and contemporary art practices, as well as exploring the ‘difficult heritage’ of the North Caucasus. Among her recent projects is a collaborative research project, Ulyap Songs: Beyond Circassian Tradition (2023), published by FLEE.

League of Tenders is an imaginary organization and curatorial duo, established in 2018 by curators, researchers, and friends Elena Ishchenko and Maria Sarycheva. The League focuses on cultivating collectivities and fostering affective dynamics within them. Over time, League of Tenders has focused on themes such as disability representation, overcoming the alienation of everyday labor, practices of care, support, and friendship in the age of disaster. Their projects disrupt traditional forms by placing concepts, people, and artworks in unexpected contexts, inviting them into dialogue. The duo has been appointed as Vleeshal's nomadic curators for Vleeshal's Nomadic Program 2024-2025.

English translation editor: Kitty Brandon-James