ARTIST TALK: SAODAT ISMAILOVA

Programme ICI and Galerie de l’UQAM are pleased to welcome Saodat Ismailova for a lecture titled From Personal Narratives to Collective Histories.

On the occasion of her first visit to Canada, the Uzbek artist and filmmaker—who is currently gaining significant recognition on the international scene—will present the main themes of her artistic practice. In her practice, she interweaves myths, rituals, and dreams, moving from intimate narratives to collective history. She forges connections between buried memories, post-Soviet legacies, and cosmologies specific to Central Asian cultures, bringing to light modes of transmission that blur temporal boundaries.

The lecture will address, in particular, the relationship between cinema and the visual arts, the use of archival and filmed images, as well as the sound work characteristic of her installations. By revisiting certain works from the exhibition Chemins de lumière at the Galerie de l’UQAM and presenting her current projects, the artist will reveal the historical depth that runs through her work, perceptible in installations where images and sounds resonate in the present.

Saodat Ismailova is an Uzbek filmmaker and artist who lives and works between Paris and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She is a graduate of the Tashkent State Academy of Fine Arts and Le Fresnoy—National Studio of Contemporary Art in Tourcoing, France. In 2021, she founded Davra, a research collective dedicated to the development of the Central Asian art scene. In recent years, she has participated in the 59th Venice Biennale (2022) and Documenta 15 (2022), and received the Eye Art & Film Award from the Eye Museum in Amsterdam, which was accompanied by a major solo exhibition (2023) and a first major publication entitled 18,000 Worlds. Several solo exhibitions have followed at Le Fresnoy—National Studio of Contemporary Art (2023), Hangar Biccoca in Milan (2024), Stuk Art Center in Leuven (2025), and Kunsthalle Lisbon (2025). In addition to the exhibition at Galerie de l’UQAM, other exhibitions are planned for 2026: As we fade, which continues at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead (United Kingdom), and Amanat, at the Swiss Institute in New York. He has recently been awarded several prizes: the Pernod Ricard Foundation’s New Program, the Art Basel Golden Award, and the Han Nefkens Prize for a new commission produced in collaboration with the Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Singapore Art Museum.

1430 Saint-Denis Street
Room D-R200
Athanase-David Building, UQAM
In French
Free admission