Her Gaze: moving image from Central Asia
Her Gaze: moving image from Central Asia (https://vleeshal.nl/archive/her-gaze-moving-image-from-central-asia-en) is the first opening event of the entire Nomadic Program Repetition is a Form of Changing (https://vleeshal.nl/archive/series/repetition-is-a-form-of-changing-series) by League of Tenders as well as the First Season of this program, Her Right (https://vleeshal.nl/archive/her-right-en), devoted to decolonial approaches to feminism and questioning it from non-Western perspectives. In Her Right League of Tenders revisits the immersive exhibition International Feminist Art that was on display in Vleeshal in 1980 and which, despite proclaiming to present artists who ‘emerged in many places around the world’, focused on the western art scene.
For the first event, League of Tenders invited curator Dilda Ramazan and DAVRA Collective to curate a screening program with films by Central Asian women artists.
The program Her Gaze: moving image from Central Asia brings together works made by Central Asian women artists of different generations. Realized roughly within the period of the last four years, these videos span a variety of subjects all while focusing on female experiences emanating from this particular region of the world. This is women showing women, this is them making women seen, either when they are involved in the domestic day-to-day life (Aïda Adilbek, Madina Joldybek, Nazira Karimi); or when they are being deprived of agency and instrumentalized by the top-down political agendas (Saodat Ismailova, Zumrad Mirzalieva, Medina Bazargali); or when they simply go through odds of this life reflecting on it from their own bodily and mental perspectives (Daria Kim).
The use of archival materials and found footage in the works of Saodat Ismailova and Nazira Karimi allows these artists to formulate alternative narratives, challenging the historically dominating Western-centric patriarchal ones. Aïda Adilbek addresses a women’s household viewpoint focusing on qurt, or a Kazakh traditional dry fermented product, which preparation in the film becomes a sort of a recipe of kinship coming to activate female family lineage. Women’s reproductive rights and a broader lack of visibility around the issue of maternity (both chosen and imposed) are central in the videos by Madina Joldybek and Zumrad Mirzalieva. The Uzbekistani Daria Kim unveils some personal struggles through own sensory perspective which constitutes the key frame in her abstract piece. Concluding the program, Medina Bazargali’s film highlights the Kazakh traditional oral art form known as aitys. The artist reappropriates it in an attempt to decolonize this improvisation-based practice, restoring its subversive political potential.
Altogether, the selection aims to shed light on the rich and multifaceted Central Asian film production presenting female authors much in accordance with the role that they perform today: the key actors of the region’s dynamic artistic scene.
The in-person screenings were held at Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art in Middleburg, the Netherlands), in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, organised by Maqaal And Qizlar collectives, at bULt in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in Yerevan, organised by Typography Collective and in Dushanbe, Tadjikistan, organised by Monee Gallery and Ruyò Journal.
Dilda Ramazan is a Kazakhstan-born art worker specializing in Central Asian contemporary art. She curates exhibitions and publications, writes on art and is currently pursuing her PhD at Sorbonne Université. In 2020, together with her colleagues, she co-founded MATA, an all-female art collective based in Kazakhstan. Ramazan is also part of Beyond the post-soviet, a collective which produces and dissiminates knowledge on regions previously referred to as ‘post-socialist’ countries.
DAVRA is a Central Asian research group initiated in 2021 by Saodat Ismailova. Its mission is to connect and develop the Central Asian art scene by fostering dynamic exchange of experiences within the region as a priority.
Online screening of Her Gaze: moving image from Central Asia is a collaboration between the Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art (Middleburg, the Netherlands) and Ruyò Journal.
Saodat Ismailova
Her right, 2020
Duration: 14,42 min
Her Right, whose title is inspired by the eponymous silent drama produced by Uzbekkino (1931, dir. G. Cherniak), is a film recalling the political campaign titled Hujum (attack) undertaken by the Communist Party to emancipate and unveil women in Uzbekistan. The opening text of the film, written in old Uzbek using Arabic alphabet, translates as follows:
“The Hujum movement was a Soviet political campaign started in 1924. It aimed to liberate local women. The campaign had dramatic consequences for Uzbek women, who were caught between traditional society and foreign state ideas. The film is dedicated to the memory of the women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Uzbek women today.”
Saodat Ismailova is a filmmaker and artist who graduated from Tashkent State Art Institute, Uzbekistan and Le Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts, France. Drawing on the cultural identities and vernacular histories of Central Asia, Saodat Ismailova’s films meditate on memory, spirituality, immortality, and extinction. Frequently based around oral stories in which women are the lead protagonists, and exploring systems of knowledge suppressed by globalized modernity, these consciousness expanding works hover between visible and invisible worlds. She initiated Davra research collective in Central Asia, 2021. In 2022 she participated in 59th Biennale of Venice and presented new work at documenta fifteen. In 2022, she received The Eye Art & Film Prize, Amsterdam. Her new film “Melted into the Sun” is presented at Nebula exhibition, commissioned by Fondazione in between Art and Film, Venice Biennale of Arts, 2024. Her works are in the collection of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Centre of Pompidou, Paris and others.
Aïda Adilbek
Alaqan, 2022
Duration: 28,09 min
Created on the basis of Joldybek’s personal archival materials, White Noise provides the spectators with the opportunity to plunge into the everyday life of a mother. An honest, head-on documentation of such an experience gives an eloquent idea of how difficult it is to raise a child.
Madina Joldybek is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, illustrator born in 1991 in Zhezkazgan (Kazakhstan), currently based in London. Her practice revolves around themes of women's bodily integrity, multi-dimensional motherhood, kelinism, identity and authoritarian regimes.
Daria Kim
CH, 2023
Duration: 4,32 min
Realized within the framework of DAVRA research group’s public programme at documenta fifteen in 2022, Alaqan follows Aïda Adilbek’s mother and grandmother in their daily house chores. The film explores female domestic labor as a form of sacred, healing ritual that is performed on a daily basis by women of the household.
Aïda Adilbek is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based between Akjar and Duman (Almaty, Kazakhstan). In 2020 she graduated her MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London and co-founded Almaty-based artist collective MATA. Her main mediums are text, performance, photography and film.#
Nazira Karimi
Hazm kardan dushvor ast, 2021
Duration: 5,33 min
Hazm kardan dushvor ast (Hard to digest) is a short film that weaves together the video archives of women in Nazira Karimi’s family with the archival footage authored by European women from the collection of Vienna’s Filmmuseum. Atop, as a separate layer, comes the filmmaker’s voiceover where she shares a recipe for Central Asian cultural food in her broken German language. Through the lens of food and language, addressing white European feminist perspective, the film delves into the intersection of personal history and cultural identity.
Nazira Karimi is a multidisciplinary artist, born in 1996 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. She is involved in multiple female artist collectives and platforms. Currently based between Almaty, Kazakhstan and Vienna, Austria. Her main interest is the intersectional feminist theory, decolonial theory and collectivity, all within female communities.
Madina Joldybek
White noise, 2021
Duration: 4,53 min
CH is a collaborative video project crafted in 2023 by Daria Kim in tandem with Uzbekistani musician Josef Tumari. The visual piece captures anxiety, portraying the physical manifestations of this feeling through plasticine shape-shifting bodies that seamlessly transform into landscapes. Dry Central Asian terrains linger in anticipatory tension, awaiting seismic shifts. The poem, situated at the culmination point of the video work, also emerges from anxiety. It has been translated and voiced by the DeepL, for whom, due to its inanimate origin, this feeling remains unknown.
Daria Kim is a visual artist born in 1998 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Now she is a student at Berlin University of the Arts. Daria primarily paints in oil and acrylic, while undergoing a process of developing her own artistic position, she is currently working with all sorts of techniques.
Medina Bazargali
Aitys, 2023–2024
Duration: 21 min
The work refers to aitys, a song competition between two poets known as akyns. It has a long tradition in Qazaq and Kyrgyz histories. The spoken word is crucial for both steppe cultures, which mainly produce and distribute knowledge orally, often without creating written archives. Akyns also used the spoken word to fight tyranny, to speak directly to their administrative hierarchy, i.e. khans, terens, bis, and beks. No issue was ignored by the aityskers, or debaters. The situation drastically changed in Soviet times when Qazaq steppe nomads were forced to adopt a settled way of life — hence, to change their traditions. In the 21st century, aitys remains depoliticized and is used by political monopolists as a propagandist trope to solidify an illusion of free speech.
In their video, Medina tries to restore political meaning to aitys. Experts in improvisation combine poetic flow with dombra sounds to create an aitys battle about different ways to achieve Qazaqstan’s decolonization. The first akyn is fighting the colonial regime to create his own hierarchy and to reproduce patriarchal power, control, and oppression. The second one reflects a feminist point of view, freestyling about mutual aid, sustainable communities, and solidarity networks. For this akyn and the artist, decolonization means freedom from any colonial, patriarchal, or capitalist regime.
Zumrad Mirzalieva
Autonomy, 2022
Duration: 7,13 min
Autonomy is a visual exploration of a complex and nuanced issue of women’s agency in Uzbekistan. It is a unique glimpse into a larger analysis of agency manifestation outside of liberal traditions. Here, it is observed through a prism of reproductive capacities that often form the cornerstone of women’s identity and role.
Zumrad Mirzalieva is a photographer and filmmaker from Uzbekistan. She is a member of the Davra research group and a recent resident at Fabrica Research Centre. Holding a master's degree in Social Innovation from the London School of Economics and Political Science, she has focused on exploring the transformative potential of art in driving positive social change. Zumrad's artistic practice revolves around the exploration of interconnected themes, including decolonization, exploitation, ecology, agency and rethinking historical narratives through intersectional feminist perspective.
The screening is co-curated by Dilda Ramazan, DAVRA Collective, and League of Tenders, as a part of Vleeshal's Nomadic Program 2024–2025, entitled 'Repetition is a Form of Changing'. Vleeshal is a centre for contemporary art in Middelburg, the Netherlands, recognized for versatile, vibrant and vital projects presented both within the walls of its unique Gothic exhibition space and beyond.
Partners of the screenings:
Maqaal is a feminist research collective based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which aims to produce more knowledge on Central Asia in Central Asian languages by Central Asian women* collectively.
https://www.instagram.com/maqaal.collective/
Qizlar Collective is a grassroots feminist collective and community of young contemporary artists and creators from Uzbekistan. The mission of the collective is to create projects from women perspective and aimed at increasing visibility of women in creative fields in Uzbekistan and Central Asia, developing their skills, potentials and awareness. They develop public events, festivals, art projects, podcasts and many others events in various formats. In 2024, Qizlar co-created an exhibition for the Uzbekistan Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale 2024 supported by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation and curated by the Center for Contemporary Art in Tashkent.
https://www.instagram.com/qizlarqizlarqizlar/
bULt is a cd community-driven experimental rave space, research and arts environment aiming to be safe for all forms of life. Located in Almaty, Kazakhstan, bULt team supports the local and Central Asian representatives of the queer community, creates networks of solidarity and cooperation within the region. bULt activities focus on decoding behavioural patterns, developing awareness and celebrating life.
Typography Collective is a group of artists and curators who previously organized the Typography Center for Contemporary Art in Krasnodar, russia. After the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by russia, Typography Center stopped its public activities and completely closed its space in Krasnodar after being declared a “foreign agent” by the russian government for their public anti-war stance. Now, Typography Collective works remotely in various places organising a residence program for artists and cultural workers in Yerevan, Armenia, and online projects fostering education, collaboration and solidarity.
https://typography-worldwide.org/en/
Monee Art Gallery is a gallery of contemporary art, located in a unique space in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Monee’s exhibitions are a journey into the world of beauty and creativity.
Ruyò Journal is a female-artist-run platform dedicated to fostering critical thinking and promoting innovative approaches to knowledge production and publishing in Central Asia. Founded by Nazira Karimi and Sabina Khorramdel, artists from Tajikistan and advocates of Central Asian arts, Ruyò Journal aims to deepen the understanding of Central Asian heritage in a global context. Through the publication of essays, interviews, and artworks, Ruyò seeks to bring Central Asian cultural narratives to the forefront of global discourse. By embracing both Tajik and English languages, the journal ensures accessibility to a wider audience.
EastEast is an online and print publication on culture, art, philosophy, and everyday life. Our aim is to readjust global cultural production and offer a multiplicity of vantage points and perspectives from West Asia, North Africa, Eastern Europe, the North and South Caucasus, Central Asia, East and Southeast Asia, and beyond.
