Established 2012, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

School of Theory and Activism, Bishkek (STAB) is an artistic, research and activist platform co-directed by Oksana Shatalova and Georgy Mamedov. Their work is informed by principles of Soviet avant-garde art and activism, and places emphasis on creating a timely response to issues at hand. STAB has been running a series of animation workshops addressing critical topics in Kyrgyz Republic, including the dominance of the Russian language in Central Asia, urban development, or the passing of a recent bill banning 'homosexual propaganda'. Completed within a few days, their short videos use simple animation techniques — from paper-cuts to drawings — to convey snappy and engaging accounts of complex issues. STAB also presents a historical intervention with the archive of the Kollontai commune, a queer communist collective associated with the architecture school in Frunze (now Bishkek) in the 1970s. The archive exhumes the often overlooked feminist and queer politics of the Soviet era. It also reflects on the contemporary relevance of the relationship between avant-garde art and architecture, cosmology and science in the early twentieth century.