Kazakhstan: Treasures of the Great Steppe at Musée National des Arts Asiatiques — Guimet

Kazakhstan

Treasures of the Great Steppe

November 6, 2024 — March 24, 2025

A deep dive into mythical and mysterious landscapes to explore five masterpieces and a five-millenium history.

Land of the Golden Man and the great kurgans, Kazakhstan is a country of legends on the edge of the steppes of Central Asia. Its vast landscape, across which a web of silk routes once stretched, is steeped in rich cultural and human history. With Kazakhstan, Treasures of the Great Steppe, Guimet sheds light on moments that have marked this civilisation through five unique cultural stories, dating from third century BCE to the 18th century. Thanks to exceptional loans from prominent Kazakh museums, these treasures — including the original headdress from the emblematic Golden Man — are presented in a poetic and innovative exhibition which plunges the objects and visitors into the extraordinary landscapes of Kazakhstan.

The sensorial and immersive world designed by scenographer Sylvain Roca transports visitors to the land where these masterpieces were created: successive projections and sound creations will animate the objects and poetically place them in their original context, offering them a suspended moment in time in another culture and land.

Kazakhstan: a country at the crossroads of European and Asian culture

Kazakhstan, one of the five countries that makes up Central Asia, lies at the crossroads of Asia and Europe and is a diverse land known for its unique history and culture.

Nomadic groups have been living on these lands since Antiquity, quickly domesticating this steppe region where they later built large urban dwellings. The abundance of natural resources, helped the development of international trade routes and economic ties, strengthening the region’s cultural identity. The Huns, the Scythians and the Turkic tribes played a key role in the formation of culture, identity and political alliances in Kazakhstan. After the decline of the Golden Horde, the Kazakh Khanate took over as the successor to the Genghis Khan empire, laying the foundations of traditional Kazakh civilisation.

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