Summer Chilla corresponds to the forty hottest days of the year. Its natural cycle, celebrated throughout the whole Central Asia, rhymed and helped to shape DAVRA’s public programme within the framework of the lumbung artist Saodat Ismailova participation at documenta fifteen. For the members of DAVRA research group this was the first physical meeting in one place, since their prior work and research, all initiated in 2021, was held predominantly online. 

By the design envisioned by Saodat Ismailova and the curator of the Summer Chilla public programme Dilda Ramazan, the space that was hosted by DAVRA in the basement of Kassel’s Fridericianum museum should have created a chillahona, or a place where chilltans would gather. 

Being an extension of Saodat’s space at documenta fifteen and her thematic development of interpretations of chilltans, DAVRA, as the younger generation of Central Asian art practitioners, wanted to implement conceptual principles of chilltans themselves both to the set design and programme. Therefore, we have not only explored who the chilltans of today could possibly be, but also created an interchangeable, flexible and fluid space and programme where each of us and our invitees would be replacing one another through forty hottest days.