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Makhacheva Taus

The artist was born in Moscow, Russia in 1983. The artist’s work always originates from a story told or an experience shared, and critically examines what happens when different cultures come into contact with one another. She holds a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths (2007) and an MFA from the Royal College of Art (2013), both London. She has been awarded the Moscow Biennale Art Foundation Prize (2015), the Future of Europe Prize (2014) and the Innovation Prize, Moscow (2012).

Cloud Caught on a Mountain

The project consists of stories related to contemporary Dagestan. These stories, picked up during a conversation or overheard, witnessed or furtively observed, invented or brought out from oblivion, are gradually fleshed out with details, characters and connections coming out like clouds that at once assume a distinct object-like form.

By addressing local context, the artist touches upon the themes related to the constructedness of history and cultural legacy, the persistence of ethnic and national clichés in the global world, the reflection on and re-evaluation of the past which clashes with today’s realities. The artist renders these themes as zones of tension between various overlapping and intertwined realities – artistic, cultural, social, practical, and political. Bodily techniques and performances become a device for establishing relations with the world, which can be described in terms of movement as opposed to stasis, as well as proportionality.

The muscular strain required to carry out these movements (real or symbolic) serves as a metaphor for the poignancy of some of the themes and issues raised in artist’s works. In her video works and performances the artist not only suggestively portrays these tension zones but also attempts to find ways of dealing with them. The artist believes that one may bring about changeby trying to discern the heroic in the everyday life of people who resist being chained to feelings of impotence, apathy and indifference.