Said Atabekov

Said Atabekov is a Kazakhstani artist in the fields of installation, performance and video art, and photography.

Life Atabekov was born in 1965 in Bes Terek in the Tashkent Province of Uzbekistan. After his studies at the Shymkent Art College, he continued with the education of upcoming artists and the organization of exhibits of their work.

He began his career when the introduction of perestroika in the Soviet Union which enabled him to make use of the enlarged possibilities of artistic freedom. In this time he founded the collective Kyzyl Traktor (Red Tractor) and experimented with international modernism.

In course of history, his region had been under influence of four strong and often conflicting ideologies: nomadic pantheism, islam, Russian influences and western capitalism. The deeper paradoxes of them can repeatedly be seen in his work, such as from the time of Genghis Khan, during communism and in the time following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In 2011 Atabekov was honored with a Prince Claus Award.

Work (selection) 2004: Ifa gallery, Berlin, Vom roten Stern zur blauen Kuppel 2005: Ifa galerie, Stuttgart, Vom roten Stern zur blauen Kuppel 2005: 51st Venice Biennale, The Experience of Art 2007: Kiasma Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki, Time of the Storytellers 2007: Biennale de Montréal 2008: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Tracing Roads Through Central Asia 2008: Winkleman Gallery, New York I Dream of the Stans: New Central Asian Video 2008: ArteEast, Bishkek, Boom Boom - 4th Bishkek International Exhibition of Contemporary Art 2009: Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Changing Climate 2009: Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, Photoquai 2011: Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp, Collection XXVII - East from 4°24' MuHKA 2011: 54th Venice Biennale, Central Asian Pavilion 2011: New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Ostalgia 2011: 42nd Photo Festival Mannheim-Ludwigshafen-Heidelberg The eye is a lonely hunter: images of humankind 2011: Calvert22, London, Between Heaven and Earth: Contemporary Art from the Centre of Asia 2011:Between Heaven and Earth - Contemporary Art from the Centre of Asia - Calvert22 Foundation, London, England 2011:4 st Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen_HeidelbergTHE EYE IS A LONELY HUNTER, Germany 2011:Biennale di Venezia - 54th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 2011:Ostalgia - New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, NY 2011:Moving Image" An Art Fair of Contemporary Video Art New York, NY 2012:Migrasophia - Maraya Art Centre - Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah 2012:The Eye is a Lonely Hunter – Images of Human Kind - Grimmuseum, Berlin 2012: Centro Videoinsight - Torino,Italy 2013:No-mad-nes In No Man's Land - Eslite Gallery, Taipei 2103:5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art - Bolshe Sveta / More Light - Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow 2013:Primera Bienal del Sur en Panamá 2013: Emplazando Mundos - Bienal del Sur en Panamá, Panama City 2013:At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art from the Caucasus and Central Asia - Sotheby´s - London, New Bond Street, London, England 2013:The Eye is a Lonely Hunter - Images of Humankind - Fotogalleriet, Oslo 2013:ONE STEP/PE FORWARD Contemporary art exhibition of Kazakhstan's artists in Venice,Italy 2014:Il Piedistallo vuoto. Fantasmi dall’Est Europa - Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna, Bologna 2014:ArtDubai,UAE