VENICE.- The mountain landscapes of Kyrgyzstan, its glaciers, rivers and monumental Brutalist dams and hydro-engineering structures form the point of departure for BELEK, a large-scale immersive installation by Alexey Morosov, presented by the Pavilion of the Kyrgyz Republic at the 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.

Bringing together the imagery of monumental hydro-engineering structures that reshaped Kyrgyzstan's geophysical landscape in the second half of the twentieth century with the cultural memory of a nomadic civilisation and the ancient equestrian game Kok-Boru, the pavilion unfolds as a multilayered artistic environment combining video, sculpture, painting and sound. Working at the intersection of contemporary art, philosophy, anthropology and technology, Morosov engages with water as one of the key resources shaping the future and to the memory of the mountain landscape that has shaped life in Central Asia for centuries. In dialogue with the theme of Biennale Arte 2026, In Minor Keys, the project develops as a restrained and almost noir reflection on water, landscape memory and the cultural energy of a people.

The title BELEK translates from Kyrgyz as "gift". In this sense, water appears as a primordial gift of nature, the source of life and the foundation of existence in a mountainous region. At the same time, the intangible heritage of the Kyrgyz people, cultural memory, traditions and shared forms of collective experience can also be understood as a gift transmitted across generations.

One of the central images of the project is the ancient equestrian game Kok-Börü. In Morosov's work, it functions not only as a traditional cultural practice but also as an anthropological symbol, an expression of the spirit of a people and the energy of collective action. In the dynamics of the game, a particular unity between human and horse emerges, reflecting the rhythm of movement and the breathing of the mountain landscape.

The exhibition will take place at Convitto Foscarini in the Cannaregio district within the historic building of the former church of Santa Caterina, founded in the fourteenth century and renovated several times over the centuries. The exhibition occupies approximately 600 square metres of historic space and unfolds as an immersive artistic environment. At its center is a monumental video-fresco interacting with sculpture, painting and sound elements, forming a spatial composition in which the architecture of the building becomes an integral part of the artistic statement.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

"For me, Belek is not a return to the past, but a movement through it. I was born and raised in Kyrgyzstan, a country shaped by nomadic culture, and I myself remain a nomad. This experience does not belong to memory; it operates as an inner geometry- the flow of water and the inheritance of ancestors living in our present time. In this project, my entire artistic trajectory is compressed into a single point of tension, where the gift loses its personal inflection and becomes a form of responsibility that can neither be transferred nor cancelled."

Alexey Morosov is an artist working at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, media art and painting. A key method of his artistic practice is the creation of site-specific projects developed in dialogue with the genius loci, the historical and cultural memory of a particular place. Morosov was born in Kyrgyzstan and spent the first seventeen years of his life there before beginning a long creative nomadic journey across the world. Living between different cultures and landscapes has become an essential part of his artistic method and has deeply informed his interest in the memory of place, cultural identity and the relationship between human beings and space. In BELEK, this approach becomes especially evident as the mountain landscape of Kyrgyzstan with its glaciers, rivers and dams enters into dialogue with the historical architecture of Venice.