Almagul Menlibayeva

Unruly Images

Addressing the ethical and ecological consequences of technology.

Artist Almagul Menlibayeva works with video, photography, and cyber-textiles shaped with AI. Her practice reinterprets contemporary processes in Central Asia through mythologies and collective memory, centering women’s autonomy via the epistemic heritage of nomadic feminism, especially in Kazakhstani culture. Her work critically reflects on environmental degradation, modernization, and the politics of visibility in global image systems.

Menlibayeva has exhibited internationally at major biennials including, among others, at Venice, Sydney, South Korea, Thailand, and Ulaanbaatar. She held the solo exhibition Transformation at the Grand Palais, Paris (2016). Recent projects include a major multi-channel video installation on the Kazakh Famine at the 2023 Sharjah Biennale, and participation in the 2025 Digital Biennale Hamburg in collaboration with sound artist German Popov (OMFO). From 2025–2026, she is presenting a retrospective solo exhibition, I Understand Everything, curated by Gridthiya Gaweewong, at the Almaty Museum of Arts (AMA), Kazakhstan. She is a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Almagul Menlibayeva, "Transfromation" at the Grand Palais, Paris, 2016. Photo ©Grand Palais
Almagul Menlibayeva, Homeland Guard, The Cybersecurity Queen’s Uniform for Protection from Surveillance and Online Tracking.

As a mentor, Menlibayeva seeks artists who are ready to critically engage with image systems and the politics of memory in the AI era—examining how algorithms, platforms, and global narratives shape the visibility, value, and perceived credibility of images. She is especially interested in artists who approach autonomy not as total control, but as authorship-as-intervention: the capacity to intervene in circulation, framing, and interpretation, while addressing the ethical and ecological consequences of technology.

“This mentorship is a strong fit for artists questioning how images circulate today—how context flattens, memory fractures or multiplies, and trust is reshaped—and who are ready to iterate rigorously through research and practice,” Menlibayeva says.

Artists working in any medium are welcome to apply. Projects that revisit the past as a form of intervention—questioning archives, institutions, platforms, and algorithmic power—are particularly encouraged.

Watch Almagul Menlibayeva’s Open Call statement:

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Mentors Edition 11

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