Taus Makhacheva: Super Taus (Untitled 1)

On view 1 – 28 February 2018

The video, taken randomly (or so it seems) from the car, shows an impressive scene: A road in the mountains of the Caucasus is blocked by a huge boulder. There are a few workers who have apparently tried unsuccessfully to remove the obstacle from the road. The driver gets out - and as he approaches the obstacle, you realize that it is a woman wearing a headscarf in traditional Caucasian clothing – Super Taus! Heartily she rolls up her sleeves and rolls the boulder down the slope while the men stand silently beside it. After the deed is done, Super Taus gets back in her car and continues her journey.

The artist Taus Makhatcheva developed Super Taus based on the model of Super Sohrab, a superhero figure from Iran. The Super Taus video was deliberately published on the net to be discovered randomly by viewers - without being immediately labeled as "art". (IA)

The Adventures of Super Sohrab can be viewed here:
https://vimeo.com/34178536

Taus Makhacheva, *1983 in Moscow, Russia; lives and works in Makhachkala, Russia. In 2016 she received the prestigious Kandinsky Award for Russian Contemporary Art; recipient of the art prize „Europas Zukunft" of the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig 2014; Staatspreis für Innovation in der zeitgenössischen Kunst 2012; BA Visual Art, Goldsmiths College, London 2007; MA Royal College of Art, London 2013. Exhibitions (selection): 2015 „(In)sidenotes", Uppsala Konstmuseum; „Too Early, Too Late. Middle East and Modernity", Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna; 2014 „Untitled ... (Native Foreigners)", Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow; „A Walk, A Dance, A Ritual", Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig; 2013 „What? Whose? Why?", Raf projects, Teheran; „Story Demands to be Continued", Exhbition Hall oft he Artists Association of the Republic of Dagestan, Makhachkala; „Love me, Love me not", 55th Venice Biennale.