Meggy Rustamova was initially educated in Theatre and Performance in Antwerp, Brussels, and Berlin. While never referring explicitly to her origins, themes such as language, identity, and displacement are central to Meggy Rustamova’s work. She approaches these subjects sometimes through performances, and at others using photos, sound installations or video. For her videos, Rustamova often starts collecting pictures that she transfers to film and where she builds a story upon. Her videos play down in the twilight of fiction and reality, personal and collective memory. She is perhaps most well-known for her video work. Using photography, which she transfers to film, she translates stories that bring the tensions between reality and fiction, static and moving images, to a boiling point.
Her films have been screened in various festivals such as Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and Kasseler Dokfest. The artworks she creates are mainly shown in an institutional context, in museums, kunsthalles, film festivals, and biennales.
Her work is currently featured in the following exhibitions: Biënnale van de Schilderkunst , Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (BE); Un|settled, KAAP, Raversyde, Oostende (BE): Presenting new work ‘The Yawn’. Recent solo shows include 2017: ‘Light Displacement’, solo exhibition, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam. 2015: Beursschouwburg and Bureau des Réalités (Brussels).
Recent group shows include: 2018, ‘State of Statelessness’, group exhibition, Iselp, Brussels; ‘glorious (?) FAILURE’, group exhibition, Triënnale Duffel; ‘Light Displacement’, Screening, Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Oberhausen; ‘Time can tell’, group exhibition, De Directeurswoning, Roeselare; ‘Never Walk Alone #3 – Japan’, Cc Strombeek-Bever; ‘Light shifts, Lichte verschuiving’, Art’s Birthday, M hka, Antwerp. 2017: ‘Cosmic Words’, group exhibition, Galería Municipal de Lisboa, Boavista, Lisbon; ‘Some Arguments Later’, group exhibition by Messidor, ISELP, Brussels; ‘HISTORICODE: Scarcity and Supply’, Nanjing Art Festival, Nanjing; ‘EUtopia 28’, group exhibition, museumcultuur cc Strombeek/Gent, Strombeek-Bever; ‘Gemini’, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam; ‘Homeless Movies’, Huis van Alijn, Ghent; 6th Moscow Biennale (Moscow, 2015), S.M.A.K. (Ghent, 2016), Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna, 2015), Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg, 2014), Tallinn Art Hall (Tallinn, 2016), Project Arts Centre (Dublin, 2014) and Savvy Contemporary (Berlin, 2013).
Select Permanent Collections: S.M.A.K. (Ghent) Argos Centre for Media and Art (Brussels) Belfius Art Collection (Brussels), University College (Ghent)
Meggy Rustamova’s residency is made possible with support from Flanders State of the Art and the ongoing residency partnership with Residency Unlimited