In addition to the three core Biennial exhibition spaces, Sonic Acts is proud to collaborate with Framer Framed for Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities, curated by writer and researcher Fabienne Rachmadiev .

The exhibition traces the intertwined histories of nuclear infrastructures, colonialism, and resistance, beginning in the Northern Kazakh steppe around Semey, which the Soviet Union used for their nuclear programme between 1948-1991, causing long-lasting effects of pollution and radiation of water, land, humans, and non-human animals. Kazakhstan’s nuclear legacy remains largely invisible, as both the ecology of the steppe and the colonial logic of the Soviet and Russian empires have been eclipsed by the dominant Cold War narrative.

Further, the secrecy surrounding nuclear programmes, citing strategic safety concerns, results in the withholding of data and archives that are important for justice. Behind these geopolitical, financial, and militarised structures of the atom lie the lifeworlds of those directly affected by the cycle of mining uranium to detonating and testing nuclear weapons, turning bodies and lands into storage sites of nuclear waste. Compounded by radiation’s invisibility, the carefully constructed invisibility of nuclear infrastructures serves as a double erasure, complicating solidarity and cooperation between affected people and territories.

The Nevada-Semey anti-nuclear movement sought to undo precisely this obscuring by uniting affected communities from Kazakhstan and the US, successfully ending Soviet nuclear testing in 1989. In a particularly moving gesture, the Nevada-Semey movement saw hundreds of people walking together between two pillars of fire, an ancient purification ritual, harnessed to undo the steppe of radiation. The exhibition Between Fires seeks to renew this intention of Nevada-Semey by connecting irradiated lifeworlds through new and existing poetic, visual and sonic contributions, featuring works by artists including buulbuul, Demian DinéYazhi', Inas Halabi, Äsel Kadyrkhanova, Dilyara Kaipova, Almagul Menlibayeva, Kamila Narysheva & Vicky Clarke, Emilija Škarnulyte and Roger Peet, as well as research presentations by Kamila Smagulova and the International Institute of Social History (IISG) – testifying to the temporalities and spatialities of nuclear colonialism across various geographies.

The exhibition features two new works by buulbuul and Äsel Kadyrkhanova, co-commissioned by Framer Framed and Sonic Acts. buulbuul’s project The Burial of a Brown Goose is both an installation and performance, tracing lifelines from regions in Kazakhstan scarred by nuclear testing and radiation, focusing on human and more-than-human interaction in the midst of genocide and colonial violence. Äsel Kadyrkhanova’s Nükte consists of a video-animation and large-scale drawing installation that reflects on the incognisability of landscape, specifically the landscape marked by the presence of radiation.

Framer Framed is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 12:00–20:00, and additionally, on Monday, 2 March, 12:00–17:00. Entry is free (or pay what you can).

On the exhibition’s opening night, Friday 13 February, Framer Framed will extend its hours. For more details, visit Openings and Tours. Additionally, Artist Talks, Concerts & Performances, and more will be taking place at the gallery throughout the Biennial.

The exhibition at Framer Framed will run until 17 May 2026.