Opening Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities

You are kindly invited to the festive opening of the exhibition Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities on Friday 13 February. The exhibition is curated by Fabienne Rachmadiev and traces the intertwined histories of nuclear infrastructures, colonialism and resistance. During the opening, the artist duo buulbuul activates their performance installation The Burial of a Brown Goose.

The opening programme foregrounds sonic storytelling, intergenerational memory and the politics of land and harm. It features buulbuul’s The Burial of a Brown Goose – both an installation and performance co-commissioned by Framer Framed and Sonic Act. The performance ties together several lifelines, all stemming from the regions of Kazakhstan deeply affected by nuclear testing and radiation, focusing on human and more-than-human interaction during times of genocide and colonialism.

The project is based on a song made by musician and writer Junisbay (1891–1973) about two geese, and channels grief, rage and generational care that gets passed on amid the denigration of nuclear-affected soil, water and living beings. Through a recreation of a bird burial, buulbuul invites listeners into a state of hypnotic lamentation using human mimicry of bird noises and the distorted soundscape of nuclear-affected spaces.

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Behind the 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 famed invisibility, the carefully constructed invisibility of nuclear infrastructures serves as a double erasure, complicating solidarity and cooperation between affected people and territories.

The historical Nevada-Semey anti-nuclear movement sought to undo precisely this obscuring by uniting affected communities from Kazakhstan and the United States, successfully ending Soviet nuclear testing in 1989. In a particularly moving gesture, this anti-nuclear uprising saw hundreds of people walking together between two pillars of fire, an ancient purification ritual, harnessed to repair radiation’s damage to the steppe.

Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities seeks to renew this transnational intention of anti-nuclear movements, by connecting irradiated lifeworlds through new and existing poetic, visual, and sonic art, featuring works by artists including buulbuul, Demian DinéYazhi’, Inas Halabi, Äsel Kadyrkhanova, Dilyara Kaipova, Almagul Menlibayeva, Kamila Narysheva & Vicky Clarke, Roger Peet, and Emilija Škarnulytė, as well as research presentations by Kamila Smagulova (Leiden University) and the International Institute of Social History (IISG) – testifying to the temporalities and spatialities of nuclear colonialism across various geographies.

This event is in English. Admission is free, pay what you can.

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This event may be photographed and filmed. Kindly let us know in advance if you prefer not to have your picture taken. For seated programmes, places are always made available for wheelchair users. Please speak to the host before the programme begins.

Credits

Between Fires: Irradiated Imaginations and Anti-Nuclear Solidarities is curated by Fabienne Rachmadiev and on show at Framer Framed until 17 May 2026. The exhibition is commissioned and produced by Framer Framed and presented in partnership with Sonic Acts as part of Sonic Acts Biennial 2026.

Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.