HER JOURNEYS, HER LIVES

In her first solo exhibition in Belgium, internationally renowned artist and filmmaker Saodat Ismailova invites you to join her on a trip through female lived experiences across Central-Asian time and space. A careful selection of videoworks from the past 12 years gives an insight into the practice of this extraordinary artist, in which elements of circularity, repetition, rhythm, ritual and trance reign high.

A towering triple-screen work takes center stage in STUK’s exhibition space. Chillahona’s three narrative channels mirror the stacked domes of the underground cells the title refers to. Often built next to the tombs of local saints in Central Asia, Chilla (forty), hona (room) were used for practicing isolation and meditation. A ‘room of forty days’, these spaces served as retreats for healing personal trauma, fertility blessings or introspection tied to the region's mystical heritage, and were actively visited during the years of Perestroika. Ismailova’s film is set in the chillahona of the saint Sheich Zeinuddin Bobo located within Tashkent’s oldest cemetery and represents the only active existing example. It is built beneath the earth recalling a grave or a womb. The film unveils the story of a young woman in self-isolation, navigating her traumatic memories from her coming-of-age during the turbulent years of political transformation, whilst devotees carry out their rituals and prayers, and people visit the chillahona. Gradually, the place offers her stability by reconnecting her with her maternal ancestors.

Adjacent to the film, a traditional Tashkent embroidery - a Falak - represents female cosmology, evoking protection, healing, and fertility. The embroidery is encoded with key elements of the film such as the moon cycle, hair, snake, bird or womb, and is illuminated with a color projection.

A bit further into the exhibition space, one is invited to lie down on kurpachas - traditional quilted mattresses common in Uzbek culture - to gaze at the canopy of a 300-year-old holly plane tree gently waving in the winds in the village of Handoni Eshoni Chanor in Varzob Valley, Tajikistan. Since ancient times, the worship of elm, hazel and plane trees was practiced by women in Central Asia, associated with a Turkic and Siberian belief in the Tree of Life, and a cult of the female goddess of fertility. In Celestial Circle, the supposedly intoxicating qualities of the Tree of the Laughing Saint are at once mirrored and heightened through the circular movement of the camera and the murmuring voices of pilgrims tuning in from different generations.

A metallic ‘tree of life’ is the destination of a contemporary pilgrimage in Chillpiq. Following 40 young women on their journey to the ancient Zoroastrian burial site with the same name, this place once hosted the flagpole of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan during the Soviet era. After the USSR’s collapse, these metallic structures became symbols of fertility, resembling the archetypical Tree of Life in ancient Turkic and Siberian culture. Whilst many pre-Islamic sites of veneration in Central Asia face widespread destruction today, Chillpiq captures these women’s interaction with this newly sacred object, highlighting modern syncretism at the intersection of Zoroastrianism, Shamanism, Islam, and the Soviet Union.

In the more intimate exhibition spaces in the back, Ismailova’s first video installation is presented. Zukhra portrays a young woman on a bed, sleeping, dreaming restlessly, her head and bare feet supported by cushions. Spectres glide in and out of focus, revealing memories that grow from the personal and intimate to the collective and historical. Sound is the driving force in this mesmerizing work, unveiling histories of last century-Uzbekistan, the stripping of national borders in Central Asia and emancipation of women, in juxtaposition to the sounds of sacred female spiritual rituals, rooted in animalism. Zukhra embodies the fates of Uzbek women waiting for awakening.

Zooming in on one particular moment in history, Her Right, takes us to 1927 when the hujum started; a Soviet political campaign that forced women to remove their veils. The women’s emancipation remained a major subject for Uzbek Soviet cinema. Her Right was named after 1931 Georgy Chernyak’s eponymous propaganda film produced by Uzbek State Cinema, and consists of film footage from Uzbek fiction and documentary films from 1925 to 1985, some of which shot by Ismailova’s father, who worked as a director of photography. In the hands of Ismailova, Her Right becomes a collective portrait of the Uzbek woman over the course of the 20th century - then filmed by men, now re-appropriated - and reacts to the phenomenon of large-scale re-veiling taking place in the country today.

In Her Journeys, Her Lives, we travel through Central Asia’s mental and physical landscapes; through its intimate, personally lived experiences, its political history and its rich mystical, philosophical and cultural narratives. Ismailova’s multi-layered cinematographic gems are pregnant with meaning - most of which one can feel without fully grasping, especially for western audiences. But as Clarice Lispector stated ‘I know about a lot of things I haven't seen. And so do you.’, These works tap into precisely that, revealing a broader understanding of what it is to be human.

Curator: Karen Verschooren

Works in the exhibition:

Saodat Ismailova - Chillahona
2022, three channel video, 37 min.

Embroidery 4X3 meters, light projection, 37 mins, sound 5.1
Directing and editing: Saodat Ismailova / Acting: Feruza Ruzieva / Camera: Carlos Casas / Music: Tomoko Sauvage / Sound: Marc Parazon / Color Correction: Yannig Willmann / Special effects: Philipp Cuxac / Line producer: Aziza Pulatova / Camera assistant: Andrej Morozov / Lider animation: Stefano Zeni / Text translation: Ibrat Safo / Embroidery execution: Madina Kasimbaeva
Film made with the support of Tselinny Center for Contemporary Culture, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Special thanks to: Alima Kairat, Jamilya Nurkalieva, Meruyert Kalieva, Cecilia Alemani, Marta Papini
Thanks to: Anvar Safaev, Olimjon Kukcha, Aspan Gallery
Chillahona was realized for the “Milk of Dreams” the 59th international exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, 2022.

Saodat Ismailova - Celestial Circle
2013, single channel, full HD, 16:9 color, stereo, 10 min.
Filming: Carlos Casas / Editing and sound: Saodat Ismailova

Saodat Ismailova - Zukhra
2013, 1 channel video installation, full HD Video, 16:9, color, stereo. 29 min.
Directed, image and sound edited by Saodat Ismailova / Filmed by Carlos Casas / Acted by Dildora Pirmapasova / ©MAP Productions

Saodat Ismailova - Her Right
2020, B&W, stereo, 13 min.
Editing: Saodat Ismailova / Music composition: Seaming To / Commissioned by Video Jam, UK

All works: Courtesy of the artist