March 8th. 1954/2025
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February 21 — April 21 ZAMAN MUSEUM

Artists: Milyausha Abaydullina, Valeriya Bogdan, Yulia Galiakberova, Alsu Divaeva, Lidia Kirillova, Ksenia Nesterenko, Dinara Ryskildina, Gulnara Samoylova, Tamara Sitnikova, Alia Hansen, Anna Chechkina.

The exhibition March 8th. 1954/2025 revisits the 1954 Ufa exhibition that featured exclusively women artists and, as the title suggests, was dedicated to International Women’s Day. This project originates from scarce archival materials discovered by Gulnaz Galeeva during preparations for the exhibition WITHSTANDING held at ZAMAN MUSEUM in 2023. However, our knowledge of the 1954 exhibition is quite limited: 10 names of Soviet artists, modest biographical data, comments from the exhibition’s guestbook, titles of the artworks, and a few images. It might have been the first documented all-women exhibition in Bashkortostan.

What could a “women’s exhibition” have looked like in 1954? What were the artists concerned with, what narratives might or should they have shared in their works? How were they integrated into the local art scene, and what were these women artists like, finally? And crucially, how can we answer these questions today, in 2025?

ZAMAN MUSEUM invited ten contemporary women artists from different generations and varied artistic backgrounds to explore these questions. Moving between two historical contexts—the Soviet and contemporary Bashkortostan—they seek to bridge the gaps in knowledge. Utilizing the limited materials found, they look through the blurred fragments of the past in an attempt to not only see the present but also to envision the future. By creating a dialogue with Soviet artists, they make meaning of the established artistic-temporal space and the aesthetic, semantic, and ideological breaks/connections within it that became part of this space. By establishing a connection spanning 71 years, each artist speaks across two temporal dimensions.

We asked the participants of the exhibition March 8th. 1954/2025 to choose one of the female artists from the 1954 exhibition as their “conversation partner.” In creating their works, they were inspired by the titles of the pieces from the exhibition in question, by the genre characteristics of the visual art today and in the Soviet era, the understanding of “what it means to be a woman artist,” the biographies of Soviet female artists, and even their familial connections. We specifically invited artists working in various techniques: on one hand, this is an experiment, and on the other, it aligns with the logic of the 1954 exhibition, which featured works in different techniques and brought together different generations of women artists (for example, Maria Yelgashtina was 80 years old at the time of the exhibition, while Tamara Nechaeva was 31).

We also conducted a writing laboratory as part of the 1954 exhibition research. Texts created by participants will be published in a zine, available in March at ZAMAN MUSEUM.
The exhibition and laboratory are part of the Nafisa project, which explores women’s visual arts in the Republic of Bashkortostan from the early 20th century to this day. Currently, Nafisa includes an online lecture course, an archive, exhibition projects, and laboratory work. You can learn more about the project at nafisa.site.

Project team:

Curator: Shamil Shaaev
Yuldash: Maria Sarycheva
Archive work: Gulnaz Galeeva
Manager: Diana Sharipova
Exhibition setup: Dinara Ryskildina
Design: Rail Aminov
Editor: Andrey Korolev
Bashkir Translation: Tansulpan Burakayeva
English Translation: Maria Muzdybaeva
Clear text: Lada Talyzina
Installation: Azat Miftakhov
Mediators: Anna Kondrashova, Alyona Melnikova, Nurzilya Mulyukova, Diana Sharipova Legal advisor: Marina Slabodenyuk
Promotion: Alisa Krasnoyarskaya
Social media: Anita Gizzatullina, Alina Shiryaeva
Producer: Aliya Akhmadullina

Laboratory participants and zine authors: Albina Gizitdinova, Anastasia Gumarova, Anzhelika Vigulyar, Valeriya Bogdan, Valeriya Naymushina, Diana Gabitova, Zhanar Tuyakpaeva, Ivan Sapogov, Pavel Golovkó, Elina Gubaydullina, Yaroslava Lezina.

Special thanks for assisting in organizing the exhibition to Marat Akhmetshin, Raisa Kuzyakova, Mikhail Nesterov Bashkir State Art Museum, National Archive of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Mazhit Gafuri Bashkir Drama Theater, and Ufa Art College.