The fifth season of the programme for collective reflection on
Split Together, Merged Apart. Mediation in the Extended Field
- Date:
- 18 Jul–
24 Sep 2025
- Age restrictions
- 12+
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Split Together, Merged Apart is an exhibition that explores the heritage of the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition (1937–1991). It brings together artefacts, excavation diagrams, and the research results of hundreds of authors, as well as modernist art and works by contemporary artists. Their complex interconnection leads us to question how the mechanisms of history and memory operate.
Participants for all events gather opposite the right-hand information desk on the 1 Floor.
Illustration: Anya Todich, Ekaterina Migal
In this programme, we propose to focus on selected themes of the exhibition, moving from the particular to the general and identifying directions whose intersections form a single narrative. We will discuss the history of ancient Khorezm from the perspectives of archaeology, anthropology, and restoration; the personal experiences of those involved in the expedition; recent artistic research in the region; and the reflection of phenomena connected with Central Asia in applied science, literature, and popular culture.
Through tours, discussions, film viewing groups, and games with mediators, artists, and researchers, we invite you to find answers to the questions raised by the project: What significance do archaeological artefacts acquire when displayed in a cultural institution, removed from their original location and historical context? How do the personal stories of expedition participants shape our perception of these artefacts? And how do we see them in the context of large-scale cultural phenomena and political projects?
Work group
Nastya Bylinkina, Karina Chernyshova, Vasya Elenkin, Taya Frolova, Yulia Karpenkova, Sergei Kochkurov, Maria Kolpakova, Danya Korshikov, Sonya Mezhericher, Alina Miroshnik, Anastasia Streblanskaya, Viktor Tsiryanidi, Maria Zakurazhnova
Coordinator
Sonya Mezhericher
Programme
Pachiz: Playing Backgammon the Khorezmian Way
When: 18 Jul, 18:00–20:00; 7 Aug, 18:00–20:00; 22 Aug, 18:00–20:00; 19 Sep, 18:00—20:00
Where: Classes
Pachiz is a simple game similar to backgammon, played by 2 to 4 participants. It originated in India many centuries ago, and traces of it have also been found in Khorezm. According to archaeological and ethnographic research, Pachiz has not been found anywhere else in Central Asia. This puzzle was examined in a 1962 article by anthropologist Gleb Snesarev, a member of the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition.
During the session, we will read this article and discuss the social context in which Pachiz was played—the men’s communities of Khorezm. After learning the rules, we will play a round and consider what board games can reveal about people of the past.
Mediators
Yulia Karpenkova and Vasya Elenkin are mediators at
On Restoration (We Copy Losses)
When: 19 Jul, 16:00–17:30; 25 Jul, 18:30–20:00; 2 Aug, 16:00—17:30
Where: Square
One of the most important elements of Split Together, Merged Apart is the display of several cultural monuments from ancient Khorezm. In the gallery spaces of
This reunion of artefacts—wall paintings, relief fragments—is possible largely thanks to the work of restorers. In a series of meetings with one restorer, we invite you to reflect on how restoration helps us to understand ancient culture, while at the same time intentionally leaving gaps that our imagination fills in. Together, we will also address the following questions: Can we recognise not only the historical but also the artistic value of Khorezm’s heritage? Why do restorers often say that the later a monument of antiquity is discovered, the luckier it is? Why do traces of loss remain visible even after restoration?
Mediators
Alexandra Antonova is an artist and restorer in the Department of Scientific Restoration and Archaeological Documentation at the State Museum of Oriental Art. Since 2021, she has been systematically restoring and archiving works of art from ancient Khorezm. She is the author of several papers and publications on the museification and restoration of archaeological finds from the Khorezm Expedition, a participant in the exhibition and one of the contributors to the volume Split Together, Merged Apart. Marginalia Among the Layers.
Viktor Tsiryanidi, Maria Kolpakova, and Vasya Elenkin are mediators at
Mediation with Mayana Nasybullova
When: 26 Jul, 16:00–17:30; 27 Jul, 18:00—19:30
Where: Square
Artists always played an important role in the Khorezm Expedition. For instance, photographs were used to document the appearance of architecture and the process of extracting finds from the excavation, while vivid watercolours of original objects became virtually the most important evidence for later research. On the other hand, if we look at images of the fortress of Koi Krylgan Kala created by one of the most renowned participants of the expedition, the artist, ethnographer, and restorer Igor Savitsky (1915–1984), we find a truly authorial perspective, one that not so much recorded reality as sought to probe what was hidden it.
In preparing this exhibition, contemporary women artists together with the project’s curators undertook several joint expeditions to the sites of former excavations. Their focus was not on the monuments as such, but on the complex relationships between the region’s history and the present day, on the logic of extraction—from archaeological relics to the water resources of the Aral Sea—and on the ways of containing the traumas connected with an environmental disaster.
We will meet with a participant of one of these expeditions, Mayana Nasybullova, to discuss her experience of studying the region and her work from the exhibition.
Mediators
Mayana Nasybullova is an artist working in the genres of sculpture and installation. Participant of the exhibition Split Together, Merged Apart.
Sergei Kochkurov is a curator of mediation programmes at
Unearthing Secrets. Urban and Expeditionary Archaeology
When: 30 Jul, 19:00–21:00; 23 Aug, 16:00—18:00
Where: Square
Do
During a tour of the exhibition with archaeologist Nikita Zubarev, using archaeological data on
Mediators
Nikita Zubarev is an archaeologist. He began his research career in 1990 with the Moscow expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1993, he has been a senior archaeologist at the Moscow Centre for Archaeological Research. From 2000 to 2005, he served as deputy head of the Desna archaeological expedition of the Department Rescue Research at the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2006, he has been head of the PRIAM Archaeological Project Workshop. From 2016 to the present, he has worked as a specialist at the Moscow Archaeological Bureau. He has led excavations in Moscow, Smolensk, Königsberg, and in many regions of Central Russia. His research interests include the ethnogenesis of the Slavs of Eastern Europe, and the archaeology of the medieval city.
Vasya Elenkin is a mediator at
On the Archaeology of Ancient Khorezm
When: 3 Aug, 16:00–18:00; 14 Aug, 19:00—21:00
Where: Square
At the heart of the exhibition Split Together, Merged Apart is ancient Khorezm, viewed through the lens of the large-scale archaeological and ethnographic expedition that took place between 1937 and 1991. Excavations during this period greatly expanded both the quantity and quality of knowledge about the region’s history: many previously unknown monuments of architecture, as well as objects of monumental and decorative art, were uncovered. Yet the study of ancient Khorezm did not end with the Academy of Sciences expedition—new discoveries continue to this day.
During the mediated tour with archaeologist and art historian Anna Daumann, we will not only discuss the artefacts on display, but also trace the history of research on ancient Khorezm up to the present and consider the gaps that remain, along with the prospects for further archival and fieldwork.
Mediators
Anna Daumann is an art historian and archaeologist. She graduated from the Department of Art History at Moscow State University (2012) and completed the master’s programme in Ancient and Eastern Archaeology at the Higher School of Economics (2021). She works in the museum department of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and is a participant in the South Aral Karakalpak—Russian Archaeological Expedition at the site of the Qirqqiz Fortress.
Vasya Elenkin is a mediator at
On Unwritten Examples: Texts Presented as Display Objects
When: 16, 29 Aug, 6 Sep, 18:00—20:00
Where: Square
Among the objects featured in the Split Together, Merged Apart exhibition are texts thematically connected with the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition. Descriptions of distant lands and eras, the recording of new words, or imaginative reconstructions of life in ancient civilisations can serve as ways of engaging with experiences distinct from those of traditional writing.
During the tour, participants will examine the texts presented in the exhibition—diary entries, works of fiction, a dictionary, wordless poetry, and subtitles. We will discuss how different forms of verbal recording help us grasp unfamiliar cultural phenomena, record what we observe, and give form to lived experience.
Mediators
Karina Chernyshova is a senior mediator at
Taya Frolova is a mediator at
On Amateur Cinema in Central Asia and the USSR
When: 13 Sep, 16:00–18:00; 17 Sep, 22 Sep 19:00–21:00
Where: Square
Screen of Modernism is one of the research projects presented in the exhibition. It features a curated selection of amateur films from the 1970s and 1980s, created by creative associations, clubs, and amateur film studios of Uzbekistan.
The project’s title works on two levels: it refers literally to the screen used for displaying videos, while also invoking the metaphor of cinema as a mirror that reflects both reality and the era in which it was created.
Together with an invited documentary filmmaker, we will view this curated selection alongside the documentary films and video works included in the exhibition. Our discussion will explore the phenomenon of amateur filmmaking in late Soviet culture, its technological and ideological characteristics, and the emergence of “parallel cinema” during perestroika, representing a tension between what the anthropologist Alexei Yurchak calls “Elsewhere” and the ideological control of official cinema. We will also consider how these recovered materials now function as documents and testimonies of their historical period.
Mediators
Anna Artemieva is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and curator of the New Doc programme at the Moscow Film School.
Danya Korshikova is a mediator at
Sergei Kochkurov is a curator of mediation programmes at
Mediation with Alexandra Sukhareva
When: 11 and 13 Sep, 18:00—20:00
Where: Square
Can the experience of a researcher who uncovered an artifact in the sands be recreated today? Drawing on the archaeological finds of the Khorezm Expedition, we will explore how a seemingly lifeless desert landscape became a site where ancient civilization was discovered, leaving both historical treasures and empty excavation sites behind.
We will begin by discussing the desert as a place of historical encounter, where researchers experienced cycles of hope and disappointment. Then we will examine real historical projects aimed at transforming Central Asian deserts into flourishing regions, before broadening our conversation to consider the concept of emptiness itself and human attempts to transform it.
Through works by contemporary artists and creators of the past, we will investigate the desert as a symbol—asking whether it represents escapism, playfulness, or dreams. The session concludes with artist Alexandra Sukhareva, who will discuss the significance of the desert and why its symbolic presence remains relevant today.
Mediators
Alexandra Sukhareva is an artist and participant of the exhibition Split Together, Merged Apart.
Karina Chernyshova is a senior mediator at
Ruins and Their Stories
When: 18 and 25 Sep, 19:00—21:00
Где: Square
The tour begins with the Khorezmian Expedition. Together, we will explore how ruins generate new meanings within museum and exhibition contexts.
Ruins are not only material remnants, but also fragments that bear witness to past ways of life, shape new interpretations, reflect social values, and reproduce hierarchies of both the past and the present. To carry meaning, ruins must be incorporated into systems of expert knowledge—such as archaeology and museology—that classify and interpret them, producing narratives that are both durable and inherently contradictory.
What is a ruin, and who has the authority to ascribe social value to it? What alternative histories might ruins tell? Can we imagine the stories that future archaeologists will construct about our own material culture? We invite you to reflect on these questions together.
The tour will be conducted in English without translation.
Suggested reading
Hamilakis, Y. (2007). The nation and its ruins: antiquity, archaeology, and national imagination in Greece. Oxford University Press.
Pearce, S. M. (Ed.). (1994). Interpreting objects and collections. Psychology Press.
Facilitators
Panos Kompatsiaris is an Associate Professor in Media and Culture at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh (2015) and has lectured at IULM University (Milan), Franklin University (Switzerland), and the Athens School of Fine Arts. His latest monograph is Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism (Routledge, 2024).
Sonya Mezhericher is a mediation programmes coordinator at