Themes at the centre of Meggy Rustamova’s artistic process are immigration, human behaviour and universal truths that she addresses through film, audio, text and performance.
Meggy Rustamova is born in 1985 in Tbilisi, Georgia, from an Assyrian mother and a Georgian father. She lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.
She obtained her MA at KASK, School of Arts in Ghent (2006-2011, BE), studied at the UdK in Berlin (2010, DE) and completed the post-academic residency at HISK in Ghent (2012-2013, BE).
Recent shows: de Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (2017), International Film Festival Rotterdam (2016, 2017), Riga Photography Biennial (2016), S.M.A.K. (2016), Kunsthalle Wien (2015), Beursschouwburg, Brussels (2015), 6th Moscow Biennale, Moscow (2015), Bureau des Réalités, Brussels (2015), Belluard Bollwerk International Festival, Fribourg (2014), Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2014), 55th October Salon, Belgrade (2014), Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2014), Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (2013). She has been an artist-in-residence at KultuurKontakt Austria, Vienna (2016) and Residency Unlimited, New York (2018). Her works are included in the public collections of Belfius Art Collection, Argos Centre for Art and Media, Flemish Government and S.M.A.K.
Being a former refugee and simultaneously part Assyrian, Georgian, Belgian and European globalised citizen has made Meggy Rustamova particularly attuned to questions of identity and belonging. As the observer, she listens, watches and brings together stories, rooted in historical, cultural and geopolitical structures, which are simultaneously personal and universal. She contemplates on the interconnections between exile, nomadism and the concept of home. The notion of dislocation and transformation of language form key aspects in her research.
Light Displacement
HD Video / 04:23 min / 2018
The starting point for this film were the many attempts to photograph a tree in Hiroshima, Japan. Aspects of war, escapism and fear are expressed in this audio-visual trip.
Invitation to the Voyage
HD Video / 12:50 min / 2014
The video ‘L’invitation au Voyage / Invitation to the Voyage’, which derives its title from a poem by Baudelaire, is a suggestive examination of the potential of photography to tell stories (or history) and to let fact and fiction move closer together until the fuzziness of the pixels has taken hold of the narrative.
M.A.M. (My Assyrian Mother)
HD Video / 03:38 min / 2009-10
‘M.A.M. (My Assyrian Mother)’ is a double portrait, starting as a silent portrayal of two similarly dressed woman, obviously related, and differenced in age. Suddenly a discussion develops about the framing and their position within the image.