A unique art exhibition by Ambassador of Austria to Kazakhstan Willy Kempel unveiled in Astana. The head of the Austrian diplomatic mission pays special attention to the development of cultural and spiritual ties with the country. The exhibition reveals the diplomat’s life in Kazakhstan and other states where he worked, as well as the peculiarities of perception of the nations’ traditions through the prism of art. It features a total of 120 works created over the past 15 years, most of them were painted in Kazakhstan. Other works were created in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Switzerland, Belgium, Qatar and Israel. As noted by Kempel, wood carving remains his favorite type of arts and crafts. He finds poetry inspiring as well.
“I made this wooden panel behind me in collaboration with a Tunisian artist in Qatar. It was impossible to exhibit it earlier because of the pandemic, and now we are presenting the work here in Astana. The SIM cards here are carved out of wood. I tried to depict that the world has been infested by different kinds of mobile communication, which has both positive and negative effects. Communication not only brings people closer together but also makes them immersed in the World Wide Web, the world of the Internet. My vision is that this is indeed a current challenge facing humanity. The main message of the exhibition is to find your golden key to life,” the ambassador shared.
