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GULNUR MUKAZHANOVA
(b. 1984 in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Lves and works in Berlin, Germany.)
Gulnur Mukazhanova graduated from the Kazakh National Academy of Arts in Almaty (2006), and the Weissensee Art Academy in Berlin, Germany (2013). Her interdisciplinary practice focuses on textile art, but also encompasses photography, video, installation, and sculpture. Mukazhanova’s art is a confrontation of two different cultures but also a dialogue between them. From her Central Asian roots she keeps a strong physical relation to traditional materials that are not only used for their aesthetics but have a symbolic and historic meaning. Mukazhanova’s work is influenced by Kazakh textile traditions, with felt and lurex fabrics as her most important materials. She addresses identity problems and the transformations of traditional values of her culture in the age of globalisation. Mukazhanova’s works are her reflection upon current kazakh society. They aim to critically illuminate the tensions between the individual, the post nomadic developed identity, and the alienation wrought by global information and media culture.
Mukazhanova has participated in international biennales such as: A Time for Dreams, IV Moscow International Biennale of Young Art, Moscow, (2014); and the Krasnoyarsk Biennale, Russia (2015). In 2018 she participated with Iron Woman in the groundbreaking exhibition Bread & Roses: Four Generations of Kazakh Women Artists, at MOMENTUM, Berlin. In 2022, Mukazhanova participated in the prestigious Artist Residency program at CHAT – Centre for Heritage Arts & Textile, in Hong Kong. Selected recent exhibitions include: Mimosa Haus, London, UK (2022); Davra Art Collective, Dokumenta XV, Kassel, Germany (2022); Kulturforum Ansbach, Germany (2021); Asia Now, Paris, France (2022, 2021, 2019); MOMENTUM, Berlin, Germany (2022, 2021,2018); Aspan Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan (2018); Wapping Power Station, London, UK (2018); National Museum, Astana, Kazakhstan; (2017); Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, South Korea (2017); Artwin Gallery, Moscow, Russia (2016); HWK Leipzig, Germany (2013); Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany (2013); Tengri-Umai Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan (2010), amongst many others. Her work is held in international collections, including: MOMENTUM, Fondazione 107, Turin, Italy; Krasnoyarsk Museum, Russia; La Metive, Moutier-d’Àhun, France.
IRON WOMAN (2010)
Installation: nails, screws, metal wire, chain, 40 x 30 x 5 cm
The sculptural installation Iron Woman, was one of the first works Gulnur Mukazhanova created after moving to Berlin from her native Kazakhstan. In this work, the artist undertakes a personal research of female identity in her Central Asian culture. The sculptural object made of metal nails and chains takes the form of an intimate undergarment, which was worn by the artist in a related series of photographs. With Iron Woman, Mukazhanova explores a woman’s body in the conflict zones of sensuality and ideology – at the intersections of personal and social environment, of ethnic vs. global culture, of modernity vs. tradition. Significations of sexuality move between the prohibited and the accessible, the exotic and the familiar, the fetishized and the mundane, the carnal and the sacred. Within this evocative object exists the duality of a very personal point of female resistance, alongside a loudly feminist cry against female oppression in its multitude of forms.