Said Atabekov


Said Atabekov is an Uzbekistani 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 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)