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| Experimental film | dv | color and b&w | 12'12'' | Kazakhstan | 2007 |
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There is a belief in Central Asia that if you eat the organs of your totemic animal, you reinforce your own power: the heart gives you courage, the eyes improve sight, the tongue makes for eloquence. Some young Kazakhstan women are eating sheep's head in a restaurant in Almaty. This meal brings about their transformations and they become Peri of the Steppes, fairylike creatures.
Born November 29th in 1969 in Kazakhstan, Almagul Menlibayeva obtained a degree from the University of Art and Theatre in Almaty, her native town, in 1992. Three years later, she received her first two prizes, the Grand Prix of the Second Central Asia Biennale and Asia art. Since then Almagul Menlibayeva has exhibited in the four corners of the world: at the Soros Foundation of Almaty, at the Museum of Art inn Saint-Petersburg, at the Maison des Artistes in Moscow, as well as in Berlin and The Netherlands. She has also participated in some of the great international events. In 2005, she showed her video "On the Road" at the Venice Biennale. In 2006, she was at the Sydney Biennale with a video/performance installation, "Caravan Seray. Graphics, painting, video, installation and performance- the work of Almagul Menlibayeva is prolific. Her work initiates a thought provoking look at femininity, the body, society and Islam.
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