Taus Makhacheva is an artist with Russian citizenship. She was educated in London and Dagestani in the North Caucasus. Her work questions how certain discourses are created by those in power, neglecting a mass of individuals.
By questioning traditional forms of history-making, the work of Taus Makhacheva may be read in terms of historical critique. In this sense, Makhacheva’s artworks oppose the official ideological claim of cultural authenticity.
Fairy Tales was a video art festival at the Plaza of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan.
Artists: Lida Abdul, Said Atabekov, Mohamed Bourouissa, Chen Chieh-Jen, Cao Fei, Yang Fudong, Cyprien Gaillard, Dejan Kaludjerović, Mari Kim, Kamin Lertchaiprasert, Taus Makhacheva, Almagul Menlibayeva, Mariko Mori, Ahmet Ögüt, Adrian Paci, Public Delivery, Wang Qingsong, Walid Raad, Cheng Ran, China & Item Idem, Taps & Moses, Guido van der Werve, Erwin Wurm, Miao Xiaochun
Exhibited: Endeavour, 2010
She focuses on capturing the processes of mixing, borrowing and assimilation, and interaction between the familiar and the alien, rather than nostalgia.
She uses the unstable boundary between similarity and difference, questioning what’s remaining from the past and in what form it has been re-introduced into the everyday lives of her contemporaries to consolidate post-Soviet society in Dagestan central Asia.