Overview participating exhibitions
Metropolis
2011
Metropolis
Ikuru Kuwajima
ASTANA’S WINTER URBANSCAPE (Kazakhstan, 2011)
Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, is the second coldest capital city in the world. But thanks to income from oil and gas, the city has been transformed from a barren Siberian outpost to a metropolis with a bubbling night life and futuristic buildings. There are tropical swimming paradises, and its oceanarium has the distinction of being the most distant from an ocean, of any in the world. Yet the city has been unable to significantly increase its population – the cold frightens people off. In a series of diptychs Ikuru Kuwajima displays the ironic beauty of Astana.
Biography
Ikuru Kuwajima (Japan, 1984) took a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and worked as a freelance photographer for Japanese, Russian and European media. In 2010 he won the Fujifilm Distinction Award. He lives and works in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan.