The “She Rug” exhibition celebrates centuries of carpet weaving in Kazakhstan

ASTANA—The legacy of a long line of Kazakh carpet weavers is on display at the “She Rug” exhibition, which opened in Astana on October 17 and runs through November 9. The Forte Kulanshi Art Space has temporarily become home to an outstanding collection of traditional Kazakh carpets, spanning ancient times to the 20th century and modern times.

The exhibition presents more than 50 works by eight tapestry masters and a collection of carpets from important collectors. Featured artists include such renowned figures as Alibay Bapanov, Serzhan Bashirov, Malik Mukanov, Botagoz Tolesh, Natalia Bazhenova, among others.

The exhibition presents three types of carpets: lint, lint-free and bizkeste (filigree crochet).

Exhibition curator, founder and creative director of ShyraQ studio, Sandugash Beisenbekova, told The Astana Times that the word Shyraq, also a pun on She Rug, which means “light in the dark”, encapsulates the essence of this exhibition. It seeks to illuminate the untold stories of the Kazakh steppes through contemporary carpets and tapestries.

“These woven masterpieces serve as more than mere artifacts. They are a living narrative that sheds light on the rich cultural heritage of a people who, although they left behind no great cathedrals or fortresses, endowed their carpets with symbols and messages of resistance and courage, freedom and enlightenment. In the intricate patterns of each rug, one can trace the origin of the nomadic spirit – a spirit that valued mobility and intangible but profound markers of identity above monumental architecture,” said Beisenbekova.

“This exhibition is a tribute to all the masters of carpet weaving, who lived, worked and created on Kazakh soil,” she added.

Kazakh tradition of carpentry

Carpet weaving is an old tradition in Kazakhstan, although not widely known around the world.

“Everybody knows about Turkmen carpets, Azeri or Afghan carpets, but no one really knows about Kazakh carpets, although the origins of carpet weaving date back to the Saka period,” said Beisenbekova.

The exhibition features a recreation of one of the oldest Saka carpets found at the Pazyryk burial ground, which is located in the Altai Mountains between Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan. The original Pazyryk burial carpet hangs in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.

“This is the work of Mereke Aidarsha; she wove it based on the motifs of that carpet (Saka). By hanging this rug, we want to say that our rug weaving does not start from the 20th century, but our rug weaving origins come from Saka civilization,” Beisenbekova said, referring to the civilization that dates back to the 8th century BCE and the early centuries of

The nomadic tribes of Kazakhstan have woven carpets by hand, using patterns that have been passed down from mother to daughter for thousands of years. The painstaking process of shearing the sheep, weaving and dyeing the rugs took months.

“The nomadic civilization has a different cultural code. These are not material values; they are spiritual values, and all our information, all our art, and the pinnacle of our heritage are textiles. Unfortunately, we have very few art specialists and anthropologists studying this. All the research work was done in the 1940s and up to the 70s by Soviet researchers,” Beisenbekova said.

“In general, most Kazakhs are more familiar with kiiz (felt carpet) because they are much simpler to make than carpet weaving in terms of the production cycle. Weaving rugs takes some time. For example, when I was a child with my grandmother, I could make eight kiiz in one summer. However, creating a single woven carpet would take a whole year,” added Beisenbekova.

Carpet weaving required a more stable lifestyle, which was not feasible in all parts of Kazakhstan. As a result, this craft was better developed in the northern and western regions of the country.

The carpet as part of the identity

Carpets woven by nomads were placed on the floors and walls of their yurts not only for warmth and decoration, but also as symbols that carried information about family wealth and heritage. Some were specially made as wedding gifts for a bride’s dowry.

“A rug conveys fundamental information about the family it belongs to – who they are and what their values ​​are. For example, if their ancestors were rulers, religious followers or healers, those identities were coded symbolically in the carpet’s intricate ornamentation,” said Beisenbekova.

Natalia Karagoz, a contemporary realist artist from Gagauziya, Moldova, is the only artist in the gallery whose work might initially seem unrelated to carpets, but is deeply connected to them. The Gagauz are a Turkic ethnic group that converted to Orthodox Christianity. Her painting “Carpet Flowers” is part of her Carpet Flowers series. She talked to The Astana Times about the importance of expressing one’s identity through art.

“For an artist, or in fact for any person, it’s important to carry your culture, your identity, your DNA, especially when you live somewhere abroad. I was born in Moldova and lived in Romania for a long time,” said Karagoz, who now lives in Kazakhstan.

“We created a series of carpet flowers. Basically, kilims (carpets), as we call them, are made on a black background. Why did they do this? Because our Gagauz people went through a very difficult stage in history. The Balkans, for a long time, experienced wars, and a kind of strife. The Gagauz people were even forced to change their religion. When my people endured that difficult chapter in history and finally arrived in places like Bulgaria, Serbia or further into Moldova, it seems to me that they sought to bring some light into their lives and decorate their carpets with flowers tomatoes. It was not only about functionality, but also about beauty, an attempt to light up the space they lived in,” explained Karagoz.

As visitors move through the exhibition, from antique carpets to those made during the Soviet era, national identity fades, giving way to more universal symbols such as birds and flowers.

Weaving as a means of economic empowerment of women

In her ShyraQ studio, Beisenbekova is helping to revive Kazakhstan’s rich rug-weaving heritage by empowering the women who make them.

“Our aim is to preserve the original traditional art, namely the horizontal weaving method of carpets. Until the 90s, this art was kept alive in the villages, but with the influx of Turks and Chinese, no one did it anymore. Today, most rugs found on the market are vintage pieces from that era. Our first mission is to preserve the heritage because those women who were weaving then were in their 40s. Now they are in their 60s and 70s, and if they move on without sharing their knowledge, this art form could disappear with them,” said Beisenbekova.

She said she believes it is also an opportunity for rural Kazakh women to break out of financial dependency. For many women in isolated villages, weaving could be a way to earn a living, and ShyraQ is helping women in the Turkistan region to do business.

“The second goal is that, coming from auyl (Kazakh village), I know firsthand the challenges of employment in rural areas. In fact, when we talk about the issue of domestic violence, its roots often come from women’s lack of financial independence. That is why we currently employ around 15 women; some of them are mothers with many children. We provide them with small weaving machines, weave at home, and then we take care of bringing the products to market,” said Beisenbekova.