Home    Number 5, 2022

Heritage and the Frontier: Representation of Space in Museums of Kazakhstan

[Nasledie i frontir: reprezentatsiia kosmosa v muzeiakh Kazakhstana]

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869541522050037

EDN: HZQHDS

Type of publication: Research Article

Submitted: 30.07.2022

Accepted: 13.09.2022

About author(s)

Kulshat Medeuova | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8860-9678 | mkulshat@gmail.com | L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (2 Satpayev Str., 010008, Nur-Sultan,
Republic of Kazakhstan)

Ulbolsyn Sandybayeva | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7075-405X | ulbolsyn.enu@gmail.com | L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (2 Satpayev Str., 010008, Nur-Sultan,
Republic of Kazakhstan)

Keywords

Kazakhstan, Baikonur, space, museums, frontier, Soviet legacy, cosmonauts, space debris

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the ways in which space is perceived in museum expositions in Kazakhstan, old and new frames coexist in museums, and visual patterns representing space changed after the country gained independence. The topic of space gives rise to ambivalent discourses. Since the Baikonur Cosmodrome is located in Kazakhstan, there is space infrastructure and domestic cosmonauts; at the same time, space is present in the everyday life of people living in the areas where astronauts land and “space debris” fall. The article uses ethnographic descriptions from museums located in different regions and settlements of the country, including cities that position themselves as “space havens”. The representation of space in museums demonstrates, on the one hand, the connection of collective memory with the Soviet legacy, the heroism of the ideological format, and the nostalgia for an imaginary space future; on the other hand, the gradual displacement/oblivion of this gift of modernity and the transfer of space into the aspect of frontier presence.

Funding Information

This research has been funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan [grant no. AP08856485]

Citation

Medeuova, K., and U. Sandybayeva. 2022 Nasledie i frontir: reprezentatsiia kosmosa v muzeiakh Kazakhstana [Heritage and the Frontier: Representation of Space in Museums of Kazakhstan]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 5: 41–56. https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869541522050037 EDN: HZQHDS

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