Juan Saliquet, a visual artist from Madrid, did not know anything about Kazakhstan before getting to know his now-wife, Tolkyn Sakbayeva from Almaty, seven years ago. His observation of architectural developments in the city for several months inspired him to create a series of 55 images called POSTКАРД depicting typical textures, forms and shapes, buildings, and natural and manmade artifacts of Almaty.
On June 17, 2022, he organized an art intervention inside the Green Bazar by installing a stand with his postcards in between the fruit aisles. Soon, the small, unassuming display that is reminiscent of an ordinary souvenir stand for tourists found an audience at the Esentai Gallery.
“The first time I visited Almaty was 7 years ago. I perceived it as wild. Eclectic. Pure. Full of controversies, imbued with the spirit of the steppe people, accustomed to freedom and space with an endless horizon, but living in a modern city. I have watched the city’s rapid change in terms of its architecture, new rules and structures being implemented in accordance with global influence as well as typical standards. However, the city resists. Tries to maintain its unique identity. Anarchic idiosyncrasy.”
The Green Bazar was chosen as the ideal location, symbolic of the ancient Silk Road crossroads, thanks to which people of diverse ethnic backgrounds conducted trade and the exchange of knowledge, religion and culture.
Saliquet used postcards as his medium to make his art accessible while capturing the identity and uniqueness of the city in single snapshots. According to the artist, wall paintings do not carry a specific function anymore, whereas postcards have a practical value: they can be saved or sent to loved ones.
His sentiment perhaps reflects a larger trend happening in the art world, in which new emerging art influencers are seeking new ways to dismantle the antiquated principles of art elitism. Daily objects that are reimagined into affordable pieces of art are what drive this so-called "tiny revolution".