PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS

2024
‘The Dark Garden’, The Garden Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia

EXHIBITIONS & RESIDENCES

2026
‘The Absurdity of Being an Artist’, The Artists at Play, Bobbina, Sofia, Bulgaria

2025
‘Against Oblivion: The Rituals of Living Monuments’, Chto Delat, Sofia, Bulgaria

‘Dialogues for the Vagina’, Svezhen, Bulgaria, feminist residence

‘Define not confine’, Pafos Underground Gallery, Pafos, Cyprus

2024
‘Not the last word’, International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, curator
A. Petrukhanova, Salzburg, Austria

‘The tale of lost things’, The Garden Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia

2023
‘Metamorphosis’, Art Weekend, Social Cultural Space Pomorandža, Podgorica, Montenegro

‘Rubezh: liberty’, III Momentary exhibition of emigrant art, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

‘Once upon a time, sometime later’, CCI ‘Fabrika’, Moscow, Russia

‘The Healing Garden’, The Garden Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia

2022
‘Escape from Freedom’, curators K. Finkelshtein, E. Sterliagova, S. Aleksandrova, online-residence

‘Art-boost’, curators I. Razumovskaia, S. Shapkina, online-residence

‘Tsy-tramon’, Creative Cluster, Sochi, Russia

‘Territory of Sleep’, Winter International Festival of Arts, curator Antonio Geusa, Sochi, Russia

2021
‘Evolution of Loneliness’, Winter International Festival of Arts, curator Antonio Geusa, Sochi, Russia

2020
‘Medea’s media forms’, White Room Foundation, curator Mila Buzova, Moscow, Russia

‘Video Salon is closing soon’, Winter International Festival of Arts, curator Antonio Geusa, Sochi, Russia

ARTIST STATEMENT

I work with the theme of tolerance to dissonance in self-identity.

Xenophobia, mixed ethnic identity, intersectionality – these are the issues that interest me in terms of ability to tolerate for belonging to an inappropriate/uncomfortable/unpleasant social group. My artistic practice is closely linked to an exploration of my Russian-Kurdish background and migration experiences – of mine and previous generations of my family.

The ‘Crossword’ video questions the meaning of the word ‘homeland’ in terms of slogans and subjective experience. In my case this word means a country I have never been to, although I was born on the territory of Azerbaijan. My parents fled the country because of the Karabakh war before the USSR collapse.

In the series ‘Popcorn’, there are three geographical locations: the Old Believer cemetery in the centre of the Olympic Park in Sochi, the Ukrainian town Schastya (the name means Happiness) under fire, and Anna Politkovskaya street in Tbilisi with an anti-Russian graffiti. These locations themselves have a dissonant meaning, and I added myself chewing popcorn against the background of them as an unpleasant but honest reminder that I, as an artist, am not ‘above the fray’ but am part of the community that created these places.

Currently I am working on the ‘Grandmotherland’ project. It is based on the story of my Kurdish great-great-grandmother, who left her child within another family during the migration. I am interested in the dissonance of cultural transfer and ethnic identity, the issue of appropriation and assimilation.

In the video ‘Popcorn’, there is a geographical locations: the Old Believer cemetery in the centre of the Olympic Park in Sochi. This locations have a dissonant meaning, and I added myself chewing popcorn against the background of it as an unpleasant but honest reminder that I, as an artist, am not ‘above the fray’ but am part of the community that created this place.

Currently I am working on the ‘Grandmotherland’ project. It is based on the story of my Kurdish great-great-grandmother, who left her child within another family during the migration. I am interested in the dissonance of cultural transfer and ethnic identity, the issue of appropriation and assimilation.