Aida Sulova: Contemporary artist, curator, creative director, and social activist

Artist: “If there’s no government support for arts and no

Aida Sulova was born and raised in Kyrgyzstan. culture of philanthropy in society, I think it’s great
She moved to New York and studied Digital that the initiative is coming from entrepreneurs…
Asanbay can be a role model for the harmonious
Communications and Media at New York
coexistence of different components: commercial,
University. While at NYU, she received
educational, artistic.”
scholarships from Soros Foundation for her Aida Sulova
passion for human rights and social justice as
well as from New York University Scholarship
Program. After she graduated, Sulova aided
artists in executing the Public Art Program for
the American University of Central Asia. This
program was created to promote opportunities
for local artists and art organizations to
showcase their work and host workshops and to
encourage community engagement with the
arts.Sulova also founded the “Kachan" Art
Foundation. This foundation works to connect
Central Asia with the rest of the world through
the exchange of culture as well as promoting
engagement with the arts in educational
institutions. In 2017, Sulova jumpstarted the
Asanbay Art Center project in Kyrgyzstan to
engage with the community of Kyrgyzstan
through the arts, education, and entertainment
programs that were held within this venue. Her
goal was to reach out to her community
through this center and to encourage them to “Sulova has used knowledge from her New York arts
enrich their cultural knowledge and their lives. degree and the kudos she earned as a trendsetter in
Much of Aida Sulova’s work both in her art and Bishkek to make Asanbay one of the most popular
in her community focuses on current social cultural spots in Bishkek today.”
Bermet Talant (March 2018)
issues. She communicates her passion for the https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/9732/art-
arts and her community and truly believes that attraction-three-kyrgyz-women-bringing-audiences-
art can be transformative and that art has galleries
power to affect change.
Aida Sulova (2020); https://www.aidasulova.com/about “Young, fearless and dedicated to enriching public
life through art, Aida Sulova is on a mission to shake
“Ideas that inspire for action. My personal projects up the Kyrgyz capital”
Dasha Shkurpela (October 2017)
are focused on raising awareness, building a
https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/9153/new
dialogue, and bringing changes.”
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Aida Sulova
Aida Sulova: Contemporary artist, curator, creative director, and social activist

Artwork: This overconsumption of plastic isn’t just

Aida Sulova’s work is defined by the way in
which it functions as a call for community
engagement and social change. Her art
initiative, Once Upon a Plastic Bag, focuses on
garbage, specifically plastic consumption in
Kyrgyzstan and in the world. She explores ideas
of plastic waste in an attempt to persuade
people to live cleaner, less wasteful lives. Her
series of jarring images are quite unforgettable
as she captures the gruesome, overflowing
landfills of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
These landscape photographs depict piles and
piles of garbage, bushes filled with plastic, even
happening in Kyrgyzstan, where Sulova is
focusing on, it's happening world-wide. The
issue that Sulova is addressing is people’s
disregard for the environment and the lack of
community involvement. Her work serves as a
response to her frustration and tries to bring
people together with art in order to affect a
change in this issue.
“I wanted to encourage people to seek a clean and
comfortable country for their children. I wanted to raise
awareness about the rampant garbage problem in
Kyrgyzstan”
Aida Sulova

wild donkeys eating plastic. These images show

the devastating impact of plastic in kyrgyzstan
but also all over the world. The other series that
also contributes to the Once Upon a Plastic Bag
campaign, is what she identifies as her “garbage
bin street art”. These artworks are created
through a series of largely printed images that
she then pasted onto dumpsters all around
Kyrgyzstan. These images consist of widely open
mouths facing up towards the opening of the
garbage can, some with plastic bottles and South Shore of Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan, 2012.
other garbage leading into the mouths. She
created these works of art to encourage her
community to be more aware of how plastic
waste impacts, not only the environment, but
also people’s health.
“I found that the ugly trash cans in the city can actually
serve as a nice canvas to express my concern… So they
would remind people that what they throw into the world,
eventually ends up inside us.”
AIda Sulova

Audience and the World:

Aida Sulova’s work both in her art and in her life
Once Upon a Plastic Bag, 2012
in general focuses on social issues. Currently in
the world, there is a massive plastic waste issue.
Aida Sulova: Contemporary artist, curator, creative director, and social activist

Sulova utilizes her art to give awareness to how Postmodern Frame:

massive of an issue plastic waste is and to call ● How does Aida Sulova’s work challenge how
people to act on these issues in order to affect the world is operating right now?
change. Her work is a call to action to her ● Do you feel called to action by Aida’s work?
● How does the way she is creating art and
community and to the world.
encouraging people
Subjective Frame:
● How do you think including herself in
her work persuades or changes the
audience's view?
● How does including herself as well as
nature, for example the donkeys,
compliment the point she is trying to
make through her work?

Structural Frame:
● How does the fact that these are
photographs influence the work?
Balyckchy, Issyk Kul Lake, Kyrgyzstan, 2012.
● How would the importance of these
photos change if they were staged
Compare and Contrast:
rather than just observed?
● How does Aida Sulova’s work compare to
Vocabulary: other environmentally-driven work you
have seen?
Sustainability: avoidance of the depletion of
● In what ways is Sulova approaching
natural resources in order to maintain an ecological
environmental issues differently?
balance”
● How might Kyrgyzstan’s plastic issue be
Social Justice: justice in terms of the distribution of
similar to the plastic issue that the U.S., or
wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society
even Illinois, is facing?
Community: the people of a district or country
considered collectively, especially in the context of
Suggestions for Artmaking and Research:
social values and responsibilities; society
● Is there a way to make art using these items
Environmental: relating to the natural world and
that Aida Sulova photographs?
the impact of human activity on its condition.
● Research ways that you can create art using
Cultural Frame: discarded items such as plastic bags or
● Even though Sulova focuses her work on plastic bottles.
Kyrgyzstan, how do you think it relates to ● Research artists who also focus on the
other communities in the world? environment.
● How might Aida’s work relate to Springfield, ● Watch Aida Sulova’s video on her social
IL? project Once Upon a Plastic Bag;
● Do you think Aida Sulova’s work is https://vimeo.com/47751497
successful in calling her community into ● Explore other ways that you can
action? incorporate sustainable practices in your
own art.