Andakulova Gallery, in collaboration with Legend Art Club, hosts Genius Loci – Central Asia, a solo exhibition by multimedia artist Almagul Menlibayeva, on view from 3 August to 3 September 2025 at the DIFC Satellite Gallery.
The exhibition draws on the Roman notion of genius loci – the protective spirit of a place – traditionally tied to sacred sites and historic landscapes, and now expanded in contemporary thought to include imagined and speculative terrains. For Menlibayeva, this becomes a framework to navigate both real and mythological geographies across the Central Asian steppe. Her works traverse routes of the Silk Road and its caravanserai, abandoned vessels on the Aral Sea, and poetic remnants of ancient trade, weaving together histories, mythologies, and post-Soviet realities.
Highlights include ULUGH BEG: Intrinsic Futuristic Machine, a multimedia reimagining of the 15th-century astronomer and ruler of Samarkand, merging celestial mapping with utopian and dystopian architecture. The Window offers a split-screen meditation between Dubai’s DIFC skyline and Almaty, drawing out the interplay of two distinct cultural and economic centres.
Presented within the DIFC Satellite Gallery – a space dedicated to showcasing both emerging and established talent – Genius Loci – Central Asia invites viewers to consider how the spirit of a place endures, transforms, and migrates across time, memory, and imagination.
About Almagul Menlibayeva
Born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Menlibayeva’s practice spans video, photography, painting, mixed media, AI, and cyber textiles. Her work engages with environmental degradation, nomadic cosmologies, indigenous myth, and the Soviet legacy through a decolonial lens. She has been recognised with numerous awards, including the Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, and has exhibited internationally at institutions such as LACMA, the Sydney Biennale, and the Sharjah Biennial.