Saodat Ismailova

Biography

Saodat Ismailova is a filmmaker and artist whose upbringing in post-Soviet Uzbekistan and engagement with the region continue to drive her practice. Ismailova’s filmography addresses themes of national memory, women’s sovereignty, ritualism and mortality. Drawing from ancestral knowledge, folklore, animism and traditional spiritual practices of the region, her films have a mysterious, hypnotic quality, emphasising long takes reminiscent of the slow cinema aesthetic. In 2021 she founded Davra, a research group devoted to the study, documentation and dissemination of Central Asian culture.
Ismailova’s work has been featured in several solo exhibitions, including Double Horizon, Le Fresnoy in collaboration with Centre Pompidou, Lille, France (2023), 18000 Worlds, Eye Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023), Menim ismim kim edi?, Aspan Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan (2021); Q’orgo’n Chiroq, Center for Contemporary Arts, Tashkent (2019); Syncretic Verses, Ilkhom Theatre, Tashkent (2018); and The Haunted, Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromso, Norway (2017). She has participated in group exhibitions such as the Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale (2022); documenta fifteen, Kassel, (2022) Planted in the Body, Meet Factory, Prague (2021); Central Russian Zen, Momentum, Berlin (2019); An Opera for Animals, Para Site, Hong Kong and Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2019); Phantom Stories: Leitmotifs of Post-Soviet Asia, Lunds konsthall (2018); the 2nd Yinchuan Biennale, MOCA (2018), Central Asian Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale (2013) and many others.
Her works are in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Centre Pompidou, Paris and Almaty Museum of Arts.

She has received numerous awards including from Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam (2022); Documenta Madrid (2018),Golden Alhambra Award, Granada Cines del Sur Film Festival (2014), 6th Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Tashkent (2014) and Turin International Film Festival, Turin (2004) for Best Documentary.

She graduated Le Fresnoy, National Center for Contemporary Art, France (2017) and holds a MA (2007) and a BA (2002) from the Faculty of Film Directing and Television at the Uzbekistan State Institute of Arts and Culture, Tashkent.

Born in 1981 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she lives and works between Paris and Tashkent.
SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023)