The National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan opened the doors to an exhibition dedicated to the international art project World Painting on November 4, QazMonitor reports.
The World Painting was launched on October 28 of 2021 during the EXPO 2020 world exhibition in Dubai. After a few months of display at the Kazakhstan Pavilion, the painting became a Guinness Book of Records holder for the largest number of people using and passing a paintbrush.
Speaking on the painting’s inception, the author of the World Painting Daut Shaikhislam pointed out that it was a continuation, or spiritual successor, to another initiative. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was among the creators of ‘One World: Home Together”, where artists from Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tatarstan sang in a music video meant to comfort and inspire people in difficult times.
The canvas is for unity and peace. [At some point] basketball players from America came to contribute to the painting, followed by a group of tourists from Iran. And they [the US and Iran] have some tensions going on, so to speak. Of course, I would like the whole world to live in peace and harmony, and the painting is there so that Thais, Taiwanese, Ukrainians, or Russians could leave their mark.
Famous people in culture, art, sports, business, and politics have left their touch on the canvas. World champion in light-weight boxing Serik Sapiyev, who attended the opening ceremony, recalled his addition to the painting: “When I visited the exhibition in 2021, I wrote ‘team KZ’. It's at the very top – the rest was painted over but ‘KZ’ remained."
Among other attendants was the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium Henri Vantieghem who found the painting to be the “beast” of art for how it has brought all the different countries together. This concept has even found its way into the painting’s design parameters, which are 4 meters long and 1.27 wide, representing a scaled-down version of the Earth.