Art + Anthropology

Opening the restaurant with artist and chef Jerome Waag and chef Rakhmanberdy Mamatov

"The Borrowed Kazan" project engaged with the residents of Osh, Kyrgyzstan through the medium of food in September 2009. By cooking and serving food in a temporary street cafe in the bazaar, we interacted with bazaar laborers and shoppers from all walks of life. Our project had three objectives: opening a street cafe in the middle of Osh bazaar; creating the cafe as an art installation; interacting with local communities and generating conversation. The project was funded by CEC Artslink

The city of Osh is an oasis at the eastern edge of the Ferghana Valley. It is in the south of Kyrgyzstan and just five kilometers (3 miles) from the border of Uzbekistan. Osh has a large ethnic Uzbek population. The city was the stage of ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks during the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990.* The south of Kyrgyzstan has been more poor than the north where the political and economic elite have been concentrated. Yet, Osh has been known for its abundant agricultural output. The region supplied the rest of the country with cotton, grapes, rice, and melons. Although many Osh residents live on the brink of poverty, the city has a thriving bazaar in the center. The bazaar serves as the source of most affordable produce in the city. Rich or poor, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Russians, and Koreans work and shop at the bazaar.

*These ethnic tensions have been at the heart of yet another tragic crisis that struck the south of Kyrgyzstan in June 2010.

Workers and Customers in the Carrot and Rice Bazaar

Selling lepeshki (Central Asian Flat Bread)

The first leg of the project was to set up a street cafe in the middle of Osh bazaar. Our cafe was hosted by an Uzbek chef Rakhmanberdy Mamatov who ran a small place in the middle of "carrots-and-rice" section of the bazaar. His cafe had been temporarily closed due to the month of Ramadan and his son's wedding. Rakhmanberdy-hadji helped us with advice and set-up of the kitchen. To honor the project title "Borrowed Kazan," we used his kazans, large Central Asian cooking pots. Rather than to import our knowledge, our intention was to collaborate through "borrowing."

Chef Rakhmanberdy Mamatov rolling out dough for dumplings

Cooking food in two Kazans

The cafe consisted of a small kitchen, dishwashing station, and three tables for 25 people. We served a simple lunch, prepared with the ingredients bought at the bazaar. Most of our clients were salespeople and porters working at the bazaar and people who came shopping. We kept our prices accessible and at the same level as other cafes. Besides Rakhmanberdy-hadji, we worked with two Kyrgyz art students from the Osh State university and one Uzbek young woman, who helped us to navigate the bazaar and figure out the logistics. We found all of our cooking utensils and plates within the bazaar. Tablecloths and seat cushions for our benches were made using materials bought in the vicinity as well.

Gulshan and Zhanara working

Our intention was to create the cafe in collaboration with artists from Osh. We wanted to design various components of the restaurant to encourage deliberation about the act of eating food. Art students from Osh State University made a sign for the cafe that said "Kitchen" (Кухня).* The stencil for the sign was created by Nursurat Kambarov, an artist from the Union of Artists. Gulnaz, an art teacher, and her students made aprons that said "To Eat" (Кушать). We commissioned a grill from blacksmiths at the bazaar to read "food" (пища). We also asked bread makers to make flat-bread (лепешки) using the custom-made stamp with the word "food" (пища). A local artist Aida displayed a large painting at the cafe.

*For the signs, we used Russian language to avoid choosing between Kyrgyz or Uzbek languages.

Osh art students making a sign for the cafe

Food (пища) stamped into the bread

A handmade grill that says "To Eat" (Кушать) in Russian

Aprons with rock carving motifs

French filmmaker Aminatou Echard using a Super 8 camera in the cafe

Members of the Osh Union of Artists in the cafe

A local television crew filming our food

The food that we cooked at the restaurant was a combination of California and Ferghana Valley cuisines. For instance, we used local hand-made Laughman noodles with Bolognese sauce. We made a set menu of a salad, entree, and a plate of fruit or desert with hot green or black tea in a pot. Before opening, we handwrote a menu for the day.

Writing the daily menu

Local Ferghana Valley tomato and basil salad

Laughman with meatballs

One of the central aspects of this project was direct and immediate immersion. Such "situatedness" determined the way in which we interacted with the bazaar and its workers. Because the kitchen was in the open air and the cafe was next to a busy thoroughfare, neighboring vendors and passerby checked in regularly. They observed, asked questions, gave advice, and tasted food. One elder Uzbek woman gave us a blessing on the first day the cafe was opened. We were also under a certain amount of scrutiny. For instance, our neighbors routinely examined our food scraps to see if we wasted any food.

the matriarch from jerome waag on Vimeo.

Video by Jerome Waag

A bazaar worker asking questions

One of the biggest challenges was to negotiate the idea of making art in this economically precarious place. The cafe did not have refrigeration, running water, and drainage. Moreover, during this time, the city struggled with supply of electricity and gas. Well into our first week of preparing to open the cafe, the natural gas that powers the stoves in the entire city of Osh was cut off. We asked why this had happened and the answer we got was for the lack of payment to the Uzbek government. Fortunately, we had been able to buy a large canister of gas before the city was cut off. One day, a young man came in to ask us about our gas canister. He was intent on taking it for his use but we told him we needed it. The gentleman seemed irritated. Just as fast as he arrived, he left. At this moment we considered the levity of our project.

Our situation gave us a specific insight into how the bazaar works. We discovered sections of the bazaar that specialized in gold jewelry, traditional baby cradles, scrap metal, house paints, spices, medicine, berries, and numerous other things. We found facilities for praying situated next to billiard halls. One could even take a shower or call their relatives abroad working in Moscow, Dubai, or Beijing.

Rooftops and buildings in the bazaar

The pressure of poverty was apparent in Osh. Working with food to make an art installation at times seemed frivolous. Initially, the surrounding neighbors in the bazaar could not make sense of our project because we were not there to make financial profit. Yet, by working in a cafe and making food, we were able to foster an experimental site for social interactions. Food was something tangible, something that everybody could relate to and interact with. In the process of observing, tasting, eating, talking, and cooking, all of the participants could step outside their daily routines and produce new ways of seeing.

A bazaar worker watching Jerome prepare food

A teacher sharing plum wine and Korean salad. Many Koreans were sent to Central Asia during Stalin's regime

A group photo of the project participants

Burger buns made from tandor ovens

Collaborators: Zhanara Nauruzbayeva, Jerome Waag, and Daniel Gallegos

Our special thanks to Nina Bagdasarova, Almaz Ismanov, Tamara Kadyrbaeva, and Louisa Mamysheva for providing indispensable help and advice in Bishkek and Osh.

Our gratitude to the Saint Petersburg and New York staff of CEC ArtsLink for facilitating creative cultural exchanges. Funding for this project comes from the Christensen Foundation.

Artpologist is

A collective of artists and social scientists that combine art and anthropology to engage in the visual exploration of urban landscapes. As artists, we investigate cities through visual means. As anthropologists, we use ethnographic fieldwork to situate our inquiry in the perspective of different people in changing places.