How art brings people together.  In the expedition of the 7 Summits Club to Aconcagua, there was an exchange of paintings

On February 6 of this year, at 14.30 local time, as part of the 7 Summits Club group, Indira Weaver and Jamila Bashirova ascended the highest point of South America, Mount Aconcagua. Cousins, Kazakh by nationality, they come from the small village of Sosnovka, in the Semipalatinsk region, East Kazakhstan. The Semipalatinsk test site was located 200 km from Sosnovka, more than 400 nuclear tests took place there from 1949 to 1989.

  The famous Kazakh artist Karipbek Kuyukov was born 100km from the landfill, and was born without hands due to radiation from nuclear tests. As a child, he fell in love with art, and learned to draw by holding a brush in his mouth and toes. At the moment, Karipbek is an activist of the anti-nuclear movement, a speaker, an artist, and was even nominated for the Nobel Prize as an activist for peace.

 Tells Indira Weaver: Last year, during our first attempt to climb Aconcagua, we met Miguel Doura, an Argentine artist who lives and paints in the base camp. He showed great interest in the culture and traditions of the Kazakh people, and in Kazakhstan in general. Not many representatives of the Kazakh people have visited Aconcagua, and according to our data (from the Internet), only one Kazakh girl, Saphira Kanaeva from Russia, ascended on the summit in 2014.

 So the idea arose to connect two countries and two cultures through art and Aconcagua.

 After the Canaleta, where everyone left backpacks, Jamila and I took turns carrying my backpack, so there was a picture there. At Karipbek's request, after our successful ascent, the painting was donated to Miguel's private collection.   Miguel was pleasantly touched by such a gift from distant Kazakhstan, and in turn decided to draw a picture especially for Karipbek. Fortunately, Valery Myasoedov still returned to the mountain with the final group of the 7 Summits Club and was able to pick up the painting from Miguel. At the moment, the painting is with him in St. Petersburg, and soon Valera will send it directly to Karipbek in the city of Karaganda.