Aziza Kadyri

Aziza Kadyri (b.1994) is a London-based Uzbek interdisciplinary artist focusing on textiles, experimental costumes, performance practices, and immersive technology. Kadyri's approach is grounded in a fusion of collaboration and interdisciplinary methodologies that drive the creation of physical and digital immersive experiences. She is also interested in participatory practices with local communities. Her projects explore the themes of migration, displacement, social (in)visibility, identity, decolonisation, feminism, and loss of language. Kadyri co-founded Qizlar, a grassroots feminist collective based in Tashkent.

Kadyri represented Uzbekistan at the 60th Venice Biennale Arte with the project Don't Miss the Cue in the Arsenale. Her work has been shown at eastcontemporary, Milan, Italy (2024); Artissima, Turin, Italy (2024); Zilberman, Berlin, Germany (2024); KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2024); Pushkin House, London, UK (2024); Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2024); nGbK/Kunstraum Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2023); Schloss Biesdorf, Berlin, Germany (2023), Prague Quadrennial of Performance (2023), and Athens Digital Arts Festival (2021, 2022) among others. Kadyri holds a BA in Fashion from Tsinghua University, and MA in Performance Design & Practice from Central Saint Martins.


Don't Miss The Cue ，Silk, cotton, viscose，  Piece 1: 4 x 3.85 m; Piece 2: 4 x 3.85 m; Piece 3: 2.5 x 3.85 m; Piece 4: 2.5 x 2.6 m; Overall installation: Variable, about 10 x 5 m,2024
This work is a part of a larger installation 'Don't Miss The Cue', commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation for the Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.
The installation culminated by challenging viewers to occupy a space where their presence fluctuates, mirroring aspects of the experiences of those in the state of migration. Encountering the potential discomfort of simultaneously embodying both the observed and the observer, viewers engage with the elements, switching positions on the ‘stage’ and shifting between various states of exposure – changes perceptible only to the observers beyond this space of accidental performance.
Blue patchwork 'curtains' depict a faint rendering of the artist's old family home, hazy, as if a neural network were retrieving information from the collective knowledge pool to fill memory gaps amidst the noise, in an attempt to gradually enhance clarity. Through the seemingly abstract patterns, a room setting emerges. On the left curtain, a Soviet-era tri-fold mirror features a woman’s silhouette embroidered as a reflection – the artist's self-portrait processed with AI. Behind it stands a column, an architectural element. Beside it is a traditional chest with a stack of kurpacha, mirroring the very first installation the viewer encounters upon entering the pavilion. On the right curtain, a Persian carpet hangs on the wall, accompanied by a simplified version of Kadyri's great-grandmother's dowry, a piece of Jizzakh suzani explored in the artist's previous work, '9 Moons' (2023). In the front, the piece laid on the floor displays women’s silhouettes, and the hanging piece resembles a typical duvet cover found in many Uzbek homes. The embroideries scattered across the pieces are patterns sourced from Fergana domestic suzanis that Kadyri found at vintage stalls and flea markets in Uzbekistan.
Image from the artist and Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art
Image from the artist and Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art
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