A contemporary Kazakhstani artist, director, screenwriter, and director at Anykey Studio. His works include posters, graffiti, and installations. Key methods in M. Zenger's work cover intervention, analysis, irony, and laughter. Key ideas are communication, stereotypes, globalisation, and cultural identity.

He received his education at KIMEP University (Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration) and the New York Film Academy (Master’s degree in Film Production, 2010–2012). M. Zenger won the Critics’ Choice Award 2017 in the Best Short Film category for his film “Knock Louder” (2016), and Best Music Video Director at the Cannes World Film Festival (2023) for the music video for Galymzhan Moldanazar’s song “Kögershin” (“Pigeon”).

His artistic practice revolves around the criticism of mass culture. He reinterprets the work of Kazakh realist artist Moldakhmet Kenbayev (“Catching a Horse,” 1957) and, instead of a scene of catching a horse, ironically proposes a chase after the fictional, stereotypical figure of the Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev (title and year of creation unknown; exhibition “Seismograms,” Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty, 2006). His images interact with the works of other artists (Said Atabekov’s “Zhaynamaz”), confronting militarism with religion, placing graffiti in a classical exhibition space, interpreting a Hollywood plot in a local context, and working at the intersection of political reflection and visual provocation (“Saving Private Ryan,” 2008).

M. Zenger’s short films are devoted to the theme of love between a man and a woman (“Knock Louder,” 2016) and to the world of children’s fantasies and adult support (“The Club of Unique and Lonely Minds,” 2015), while his music videos explore the ideas of hope and faith (Orynkhan, “Darumen,” 2022) and peace and harmony (Moldanazar, “Kögershin,” 2023).

M. Zenger’s works have been exhibited in Kazakhstan and abroad: “Visit of Kazakhstani Artists to the 10th Istanbul Biennial” (Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty, Istanbul, 2007), “Seismograms” (Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty, 2006), “We Are the People of Kazakhstan” (Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty, 2006), “House of Tolerance” (Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty, 2008), the BAIQONYR Film Festival (Almaty, 2016), and the Cannes Film Festival (Cannes, 2023).

Information about M. Zenger is stored in the collection of the Documentation project – the archive of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty (SCCA).

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Photograph provided by Malik Zenger.