ARTIST TALK: UMIDA AKHMEDOVA, OLEG KARPOV, MIKHAIL GULIN
Ambasada Kultury and Pickle Bar bring together three artists whose practices span documentary film, photography, conceptual art, performance and installation. Through presentations of work of Ambasada Kultury’s residents Umida Akhmedova and an open conversation with Berlin-based Belarusian artist Michail Gulin, they will reflect on the questions that shape their artistic practice today, as well as on the role of art in responding to the social, political and cultural realities of our time.
For more than two decades, Umida Akhmedova and Oleg Karpov have worked together. Their collaborative practice, across documentary film, photography and visual anthropology, explores memory, tradition, gender roles, everyday life and social transformation in post-Soviet Uzbekistan.
Umida Akhmedova is a photographer and documentary filmmaker from Uzbekistan whose work is closely connected to social activism and the examination of societal issues. Through her photography and films, she has highlighted topics such as gender inequality, human rights, and traditional ways of life in Uzbekistan. Her critical portrayal of these subjects has sparked public debate and led to conflicts with government authorities. Akhmedova’s artistic and activist efforts have contributed significantly to raising awareness of human rights concerns and the importance of freedom of expression in the region. Her selected films include Bukhara From Inside, Men and Women in Rituals and Customs, Sunnatoi, Hostages of Eternity, Eternal Return, The Burden of Virginity, In recognition of her work, she received the 2016 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.
Oleg Karpov is a filmmaker, critic, curator, director and collector from Uzbekistan. His practice connects documentary cinema, curatorial work, archives and visual culture. He worked at Uzkinochronika, Uzbekfilm and Tashkent Television. Karpov has organised and curated the CDO video library, the Cinema Museum in Tashkent, the videoART.uz festival and the Turkestan Archive. Together with Umida Akhmedova, he has authored and directed more than 100 films, including Bukhara From Inside, The Burden of Virginity, To Live and Die in Samarkand, Hostages of Eternity and Eternal Return.
Mikhail Gulin is a Belarusian conceptual artist based in Germany. Working across painting, performance, video, installation and curatorial practice. He explores ideology, propaganda, the construction of meaning, post-truth, memory, power and the social role of art. In recent years, his practice has increasingly engaged with political repression, forced migration, visibility and cultural translation within post-Soviet and European contexts. His recent projects address the condition of post-truth and the shifting boundaries between reality and its representations.
Ambasada Kultury is an initiative of Belarusian culture workers and activists. Originally from Minsk, Belarus, it is currently based in Berlin, Germany.
Free admission.
Language: the talk will be held in Russian with English interpretation.
Duration: 90 min.