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Preview

Saodat Ismailova

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In the IBB Video Space

Film still: View of a barren landscape against a mid-blue sky. In the foreground is a white flag on a wooden flagpole, in the background a kind of triangular wooden scaffolding, the lower part of which is covered with white fabric.

Saodat Ismailova, The Haunted, 2017, film still

© Saodat Ismailova

Saodat Ismailova is a member of the first generation of Central Asian artists to come of age in the post-Soviet era. In her works, she explores the complex cultures of this region, often interweaving myths, rituals, and dreams with everyday life and addressing social and ecological issues. The identity and emancipation of women is a recurring theme in her oeuvre – due in part to their important role in the preservation of cultural and spiritual heritage, passing down stories and customs from generation to generation.

Two works by the artist will be shown at the Berlinische Galerie: "The Haunted" (2017, 23 min.) and "Bibi Seshanbe" (2022, 52 min.). "The Haunted" is an imaginary encounter with the extinct Caspian tiger, which fell victim to the colonisation of Central Asia. Today, the tiger lives on as a sacred archetype in the collective memory and dreams of local people.
Bibi Seshanbe Ona (literally: ‘The Lady of Tuesday’) is a widespread blessing ritual in Central Asia. It is performed in a small circle of women and involves cooking special traditional dishes, lighting candles, fortune-telling with flour, and telling a story with parallels to Cinderella. It is an example of the traditional rituals that accompany women’s lives from birth to death. In her film, Ismailova combines three elements: a fairy-tale narrative, the ritual as a contemporary ethnographic document, and the story of the modern-day ‘fairy godmother’ Bibi Sora Oripova who fights for the lives and rights of women who have experienced domestic violence in present day Uzbekistan.

The artist

Saodat Ismailova was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1981. She studied film and video direction at the State Institute of Arts in Tashkent. In recent years, she has exhibited at Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023), the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), documenta fifteen (2022), and in solo exhibitions at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan (2024 /25), Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam (2023), and Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing (2023). Her works can be found in the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the FRAC in France, the Almaty Museum of Arts, and Tselinny Temporary in Almaty.

IBB Video Space

Since 2011 the IBB Video Space has been screening artists who work with time-based media. The programme features not only established names in contemporary video art but also up-and-coming artists rarely seen in museums to date. For these, the Berlinische Galerie seeks to facilitate an institutional début. Each screening brings a new encounter with work that raises questions about the medium and about social or political issues. Importance is attached to including marginalised perspectives and to shedding light on the impact of power structures.