Let Me Be Part of a Narrative
2012 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
Taus Makhacheva
For Taus Makhacheva, the wild, untamed side of human nature is often the foundation of many of her formal investigations. A leading voice of the younger generation based in Moscow, Makhacheva works with sculpture and installation while her preferred medium remains video. Her Dagestani (Northern Caucasian) roots draw her to this rugged land as her site of choice for many of her works. She digs into the cultural shifts and changes that overwhelmed this land during a state of post-soviet disorientation. While turning to a lost past, the sense of nostalgia in her work is often overcome by an urgency to invent new traditions and rituals. Tackling head on issues of assimilation, morphing customs and gender politics, her performances and video installations reveal a strong sense of human dignity and pride. A seminal work in her long line of investigations of the Dagestani identity, the three-channel video installation Let me be part of a narrative looks at the all-male dog fighting championship set up alongside a Soviet documentary of Ali Aliev, the five-time world wrestling champion from Dagestan. Seemingly disparate at first, both games expose a need to diffuse aggression, revealing a strict code of play and conduct such as ‘not showing teeth’ or ‘not hiding the tail’. The training of the Caucasian sheep dogs based on raising them to stand up to wolves, a strong force of nature they must face within themselves. For the dog breeders, the fight becomes a form of self-validation and assertion within the group. A girl breeder expands the narrative with her own search for respect, arguing that the winning characteristics are carried through the maternal line.
Taus Makhacheva’s performance and video works critically examine what happens when different cultures, traditions come into contact with one another. If her work cannot be restricted to one medium or conceptual gesture – flowing between media work, sculpture and performance – a playful sense of irony and satire characterise her approach to art making. Having grown up in Moscow with cultural origins in the Caucasus region of Dagestan and having studied in the UK, her artistic practice is informed by these personal connections with the co-existing worlds of pre and post Sovietisation and a consciousness of the specificities of the art world. Tightrope (2015), her internationally praised video presented at the 2017 Venice Biennale, featured a tightrope walker carrying 61 copies of work from the collection of the Dagestan Museum of Fine Art across a precipitous Caucasus ravine, commenting on the dangers of cultural amnesia and the fragile state of local artistic institutions. By setting up her works in the dry landscape of Dagestan and evoking regional tales and traumas, the artist softly touches upon larger issues of power, memory and cultural transitions, continuously questioning through irony her own legitimacy and capacity to address political questions.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » ARTSY
5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This November | Artsy Skip to Main Content Advertisement Art 5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This November Maxwell Rabb Nov 17, 2023 1:00PM Lesia Vasylchenko Tachyoness , 2022 Catinca Tabacaru Gallery Sold María Fragoso Jara Bébete mi amor , 2023 1969 Gallery Sold In this monthly roundup, we shine the spotlight on five stellar exhibitions taking place at small and rising galleries worldwide...
© » KADIST
Bakudapan Food Study Group
2018Mooi indie (which translates to “Beautiful Indies”) is a term used to depict the beauty of nature in the East Indies during the period of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia...
© » CONTEMPORARYAND
Baloji and the Art of Averting the Evil Eye | Contemporary And search for something search C& AMÉRICA LATINA EN FR MEMBERSHIP EN FR Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK Follow About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership Contemporary And (C&) is funded by: Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK GO TO C& AMÉRICA LATINA About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership In Conversation Baloji and the Art of Averting the Evil Eye Musician, filmmaker, and multitalented artist Baloji talks to C& about his first feature film and how the diasporic relationship gives access to an imaginary world that breaks free from shackles...
© » SLASH PARIS
Valérie Jouve — Le monde est un abri — CPIF — Centre photographique d’Ile-de-France — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Valérie Jouve — Le monde est un abri — CPIF — Centre photographique d’Ile-de-France — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Valérie Jouve — Le monde est un abri Exposition Photographie, vidéo À venir Sans titre (Les Façades), 2020-2023 / Sans titre (Les Personnages avec Abu Hassan), 2009, courtesy de l’artiste et de la galerie Xippas (Paris, Genève, Punta del Este) Photomontage Courtesy de Valérie Jouve et de la galerie Xippas (Paris, Genève, Punta del Este) Valérie Jouve Le monde est un abri Dans environ 2 mois : 11 février → 14 avril 2024 Après la parution en novembre 2022 de son dernier livre ( Valérie Jouve , Flammarion/ CNAP ) mettant en récit quinze années de travail, Valérie Jouve formule une nouvelle proposition pour le vaste espace du Centre Photographique d’Île-de-France (Pontault-Combault, Seine-et-Marne)...
© » LONDONIST
Why Is There A Huge Mural Of Rembrandt On Mare Street, Hackney? | Londonist Why Is There A Huge Mural Of Rembrandt On Mare Street, Hackney? By M@ M@ Why Is There A Huge Mural Of Rembrandt On Mare Street, Hackney? Image: Global Street Art If you walk down Mare Street in Hackney, you might get the feeling someone is watching you...
© » SLASH PARIS
Martha Wilson — Invisible, Works on Aging (1972-2022) — Frac Sud, Cité de l’art contemporain — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Martha Wilson — Invisible, Works on Aging (1972-2022) — Frac Sud, Cité de l’art contemporain — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Martha Wilson — Invisible, Works on Aging (1972-2022) Exhibition Photography Martha Wilson, Beastly + Beauty, 1974 et 2009 Photographies noir et blanc, texte, 43,2 × 59,7 cm, édition de 3 © DR Martha Wilson Invisible, Works on Aging (1972-2022) Ends in 7 months: July 1, 2023 → February 4, 2024 The Frac Sud is pleased to present a major solo exhibition in France by Martha Wilson, a pioneering figure and guiding light of feminist engagement through art...
© » KADIST
Arabella Campbell
2011In Gradation (2011), nine raspberries lined up on a lichen-dotted rock progress from left to right, dark to light, plump and juicy to not-yet-ripe...
© » KADIST
Mohamed Bourouissa
2017In his photographic series Périphérique (2005–2008), Mohamed Bourouissa used the composition of classical paintings to stage the portrait of friends and young people in the banlieue s (suburbs)...
© » KADIST
Nguyen Thai Tuan
2008In the “Black Paintings” series, although the human body is only suggested, it plays an important role...