Between Art, Economy, and Care: A Case Study of Intergenerational Skill-Sharing and Circular Economy
Yelena Pozdnyakova

The proposed presentation examines the case study of Petelka.gift (“With Love in Every Stitch”), a community-based, intergenerational, and socially engaged initiative in Central Asia developed in cooperation with Berlin-based, Kazakhstani-born artist Lena Pozdnyakova. The project operated between 2016 and 2020 and continues today in a reduced, site-specific format. Co-founded by the author in collaboration with cultural workers and activists from Kazakhstan, Petelka.gift emerged at the intersection of socially engaged artistic practice, craft-based production, and social entrepreneurship. Centered on senior artisans as primary knowledge holders, the initiative revitalized traditional craft techniques—such as work with felt, sewing, knitting, and floral handwork—while integrating practices of recycling and upcycling discarded clothing and materials, thereby embedding circular economy principles within localized cultural and social ecosystems. This model enabled the extension of material lifecycles, the redistribution of value within local communities, and the intergenerational transmission of tacit, ancestral knowledge often excluded from formal economies.
Petelka.gift functioned through a hybrid model combining digital platforms, curated material production, workshops, and public-facing events that incorporated artistic and architectural approaches, presenting work within exhibitions, markets, and local cultural events, as well as within market-oriented contexts. By foregrounding senior artisans as active agents rather than beneficiaries, the project decentralized expertise and challenged extractive models of cultural production. The case study argues that creative, artistic, and experimental practices can operate as effective infrastructures for circular economies rooted in care, cultural memory and intergenerational skill-sharing participatory pedagogies. It further demonstrates how ancestral practices, when recontextualized through contemporary cultural and economic strategies, can meaningfully contribute to circular economy models that are socially just, locally grounded, and resilient.
Drawing on first-hand involvement, the presentation identifies key learnings for Station participants relevant to future circular economy initiatives, including the importance of intergenerational skill-sharing, fair compensation frameworks, and the role of socially engaged art in fostering sustainable, community-empowered systems. It concludes by outlining a set of methods and critical reflections that articulate what worked, what required significant change, and what key takeaways emerged from sustained collaboration with senior artisans throughout the project’s development.
Informed by the author’s PhD research on socially engaged and socially oriented artistic practice, the presentation also situates Petelka.gift within broader theoretical discourse on socially engaged art, engaging with Miwon Kwon’s concept of site-specificity and Grant Kester’s dialogical aesthetics.