AES+F: Russia’s premier surreal-medieval-cyber art collective
Aida Sulova: Bishkek’s pioneering art impresario
Alisa Ganieva: meet the visionary author pulling back the curtain on Dagestan and beyond
Alternative summer festivals — New East 100
Asiya Bareeva: the Russian designer changing how we perceive Islamic fashion
Aza Shadenova: the Kazakh artist whose canvases capture Central Asia’s cultural crossroads
Beat Films: the upstart Russian heirs of documentary cinema
Boutique bookshops: slices of literary paradise across the New East
Concept stores — New East 100
Delada: a London-based Russian label inspired by personal memories and collective history
Glintshake: avant-garde Muscovite post-pop for the masses
Hassan Kurbanbaev — New East 100
Ivan Mitin: the man rethinking leisure, from pay-per-minute cafes to cottages in the woods
Ivan Zoloto: Russia’s DIY music legend bringing strange new sounds to the airwaves
J. Kim: the fashion designer channeling cultures from Korea to Uzbekistan
Jahnkoy: the New York-based Russian fashion label celebrating a new multiculturalism
Kasia Syramalot: meet the journalist-photographer pulling back the curtain on contemporary Minsk