Logomania: Owning the World at Half Price (2019-ongoing)
In his series ‘Logomania’ Uzbek photographer Hassan Kurbanbaev observes with amazement how his fellow countrymen have rampantly incorporated symbols of Western riches into their daily lives. Bootlegging and plagiarism, a parody of a life in luxury that defines Uzbekistan’s modern culture, have led to a strange reality balancing between Chanel and Gucci logos on every plastic bag or cushion versus a long history of censorship. Is it in the very nature of Uzbekistan, trapped between the West and China, to always create an idol for itself? Kurbanbaev questions what the identity of his country really is and what influence it has on his own identity.
In his work, Kurbanbaev endeavours to show the potential of the current cultural landscape of Central Asia and he explores his country Uzbekistan, a nation in an identity crisis, in times of globalisation, Instagram fever and internal changes. In the former Soviet state, history was told for generations through communist propaganda posters and slogans. A country with a great past and a great future is what every child learned at school. Accordingly, the inhabitants gradually learned to forget to take a critical look at themselves. After gaining independence in 1991, the country replaced one obsession with another: sacred communist ideology gave way to the uncritical embrace of Western culture.
