“The entire panel needs to be renovated,” said Aiya Duiseyeva, pointing to a “sgraffito,” a Soviet-era mural created from layers of colored plaster. Titled Hunting and Fishing, it sits above a climbing gym in downtown Almaty, Kazakhstan. The 25-year-old architect discovered the fresco a few months ago. While the shapes of the hunters and fishers carved into the plaster remain visible, certain parts have eroded and the colors have faded.
Together with her two architect friends from the Qalaba collective, Tomiris Ramazanova and Aqzharkyn Tleuberdy, Duiseyeva launched a campaign in July to raise seven million tenges (over €11,000) to restore this Soviet-era fresco, whose creator and date of origin remain unknown.
“Most people in the neighborhood say they don’t really see the point in repairing it,” Duiseyeva said. That indifference is sometimes tinged with hostility, given that this Soviet legacy symbolizes colonization in Central Asia. “In Kazakhstan, many of our infrastructures were built during the Soviet era. But it’s our heritage now, and we want to preserve and accept it for what it is,” said Tleuberdy.
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