Saodat Ismailova. A Seed Under Our Tongue
Films, sculptures and installations explore Central Asia and its traditions
ReadSaodat Ismailova (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Saodat Ismailova (b. 1981, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; lives and works in Paris and Tashkent) is a filmmaker and artist.
In her works Ismailova combines new video footage with archival material into installations where she often adds other materials, such as fabrics and embroideries, made by artisans.
The Haunted (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
In her practice Saodat Ismailova addresses themes related to the impact of human activities on the environment and on the cultural heritage, to the relationship between the physical and spiritual world, and to knowledge and its transmission.
"A Seed Under Our Tongue" (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
She explores stories of colonialism and its repercussions on society, by reconstructing the collective memory.
The artist also investigates the system of ancestral knowledge and practices shared by the regions of Central Asia that is now disappearing.
"A Seed Under Our Tongue" (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
“A Seed Under Our Tongue” is an anthological exhibition exploring Ismailova’s practice through films, sculptures, and installations. The show centers on the concept of transmission—whether of knowledge, stories, memories, or landscapes.
The Seed Under Our Tongue (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
The title is inspired by a popular Central Asian story about a man, Arslanbob, who carried a date seed under his tongue and, after a long journey, gave it to another person, Akhmad Yasawi, who planted it, giving rise to the Arslanbob walnut forest in Kyrgyzstan.
Stains of Oxus (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Stains of Oxus recounts the dreams of villagers along the course of the Amu Darya, where water diversion during Soviet times caused the land to dry up. The video highlights the consequences of the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources.
The Haunted (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
The Haunted tells the story of the extinction of the Turan tiger. The film serves as a metaphor for the impact of colonial rule on the region’s ecosystem.
18,000 Worlds (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
18,000 Worlds highlights the theory according to which the world we live in is only one of the 18,000 worlds that make up the universe. The film also addresses the danger of losing forms of knowledge.
Two Horizons (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Two Horizons is set in Baikonur Cosmodrome space station and weaves together two stories that explore the human dream of immortality: the myth of Qorqut who is said to levitate and the history of Yuri Gagarin’s spacecraft launch.
Chillahona (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Chillahona explores the sense of emptiness and disorder that characterized the Central Asian countries following perestroika, the period of political and economic reforms implemented by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Chillahona (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
The installation is made of a video, set in one of the oldest cemeteries in Tashkent inside a cell known as a chillahona - an ancient underground room used for 40-day periods of self-isolation
and a modern reinterpretation of traditional Tashkent falak made by women depicting the celestial sphere.
Arslanbob (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Arslanbob, filmed in the Arslanbob forest in southern Kyrgyzstan and on the nearby Sulaiman-Too Mountain, one of the oldest sacred sites in Central Asia, explores the fragility of the environment and the ancestral memories.
The Mountain Our Bodies Emptied (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
The cast made of resin The Mountain Our Bodies Emptied from the Tamchi Tomar cave of the Sulaiman-Too Mountain dialogues with the installation As We Fade, where the rock and the natural landscape is also viewed in the film through the Lidar scans projected on 24 silk panels.
As We Fade (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Ismailova advocates for a renewed relationship between humans and the geological environment, emphasizing its potential to heal both personal and collective wounds. As images gradually dissolve, they symbolically represent the fading of memory and what is lost.
Stains of Oxus (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Saodat Ismailova has exhibited at numerous major institutions including JOAN, Los Angeles (2024); Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains in collaboration with Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023);
Center for Contemporary Arts, Tashkent (2019); Ilkhom Theatre, Tashkent (2018); Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø, Norway (2017).
"A Seed Under Our Tongue" (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Her films and video installations have also been presented in international group exhibitions such as Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Fondazione in Between Art and Film, Venice (2024), Shanghai Biennale of Art, Sharjah Biennial (2023);
Venice Biennale, documenta 15, Kassel (2022); Meet Factory, Prague (2021); Para Site, Hong Kong, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2019); Lunds konsthall (2018); Yinchuan Biennale (2018).
Arslanbob (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
In 2013 Ismailova was one of the artists representing Central Asia at the Venice Biennale, while in 2018 her live musical performance Qyrq Qyz premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York.
Arslanbob (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
Her work is also widely recognized in the film industry and has been featured in festivals such as the Berlinale International Film Festival (2014) and Rotterdam International Film Festival (2005), among others.
Stains of Oxus (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
She has received numerous awards, including Eye Art & Film Prize, Amsterdam (2022); Documenta Madrid (2018), Golden Alhambra Award, Granada Cines del Sur Film Festival (2014), Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art (2014), and Turin International Film Festival for Best Documentary (2004).
18,000 Worlds (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
In 2021, she founded the research group DAVRA, dedicated to the study, documentation and dissemination of Central Asian culture and knowledge.
"A Seed Under Our Tongue" (2024) by Saodat IsmailovaPirelli HangarBicocca
