b. 1969, Almaty

She lives and works in Berlin and Almaty. “My education comes from the Soviet school of Futurism, which I combine in my practice with a nomadic aesthetic. In my works, I use specific expressive methods borrowed from the aesthetics of modernist and contemporary art as a means of exploring my personal archaic atavism, understood as a kind of mystical anthropomorphism. In other words, I examine the nature of the Egregor — the shared spiritual experience of the peoples living in the dry and dusty steppes between the Caspian Sea, Baikonur, and the Altai. In Russian, the expression ‘archaic atavism’ can evoke the image of an autonomous entity, which adds new layers of meaning to it. We are speaking not merely of an idea or an element of archaism in the collective subconscious, but of the embodiment of our archaic atavism, which becomes an active subject. Our archaic atavism exists not within us, but outside. It is as if this being were awakened by the post-Soviet experience — rediscovering itself after 80 years of Soviet rule and cultural genocide — and has begun to take interest in its own cultivation through a dialogue with the transnational circulation of ideas in contemporary art. For this dialogue, I chose video and photography as mediators, combining collected data with both documentary and staged footage. I, in a sense, become its voice, asking: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Where am I going?’ This unusual experience defines my artistic language.” Recent exhibitions include solo exhibitions at Museum Arnhem, Arnhem (2019), and the Grand Palais, Paris (2016); and group exhibitions such as As Though We Hid the Sun in a Sea of Stories, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2023); the Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai (2023); the 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023); the 7th Guangzhou Triennial (2023); the 2nd Lahore Biennale (2020); Elective Affinities, NCCA, Moscow (2015); The Union of Fire and Water, 56th Venice Biennale (2015); the 8th Sydney Biennale (2012); and the 1st Kyiv Biennale (2012).