American University of Central Asia - AUCA

Alternative Guide to Urban Places and Faces in Bishkek

For the past year, almost every Saturday, the team of urban anthropologists would get together at the coffee shop in the center of Bishkek, get a doze of caffeine, and then wander off to some derelict corner of the city to walk around, take photographs and talk to locals. We did not plan out trips, we just followed the wind and our intuition like typical urban flaneurs and we would seek areas that normally would be left behind the scenes: residual spaces, deserted places, forsaken objects, and other places that reflect the real life of the city. The purpose of this project is to create an alternative guide to the city that portrays Bishkek as it is in all of its multifacedness and not as picture-perfect postcard for tourists.