A contemporary Kazakhstani artist, designer, and stage designer. His works include video, painting, installation, sculpture, and theatre. Key methods in M. Sagit’s practice cover allegory, symbol, critical analysis, and synthesis. Key themes are nomadic culture, myth, memory, the collective unconscious, power, and propaganda.

M. Sagit studied at the T. K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts (Faculty of Applied Arts and Design, 1984–1989). He takes part in the activities of Kokserek Gallery (Almaty, 1998), co-organizes the youth film festival “Look Anew” (Almaty, 1999–2001), and collaborates with the Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty and the Hivos Foundation (since 1998).

In his works, M. Sagit often turns to the themes of memory and power. These ideas are reflected in the image of an immobilized person (“KZvideoart,” 2005) or a petrified mankurt (“The Past and the Present,” 2001), who observes his own image on a television screen. Televisions and phones appear in Sagit’s works as symbols of modernity – they become parts of the human body, of a balbal figure, or entirely replace it (“Three Epochs of Kazakhstan,” 2002). The theme of coexistence between the past and the present, myth and reality, runs like a red thread through the artist’s practice. He erases the boundary between these oppositions by combining the sounds of traditional kyuis and pop music, the image of the steppe and a car (“Akku,” 2000).

M. Sagit also works as a production designer for the Ak-Saray Theatre (2008), the animated series “Qazaq Eli” (2009–2012), and the TV project “Amazons” (Smithsonian Institution, 2016). His artworks have been exhibited in Kazakhstan and abroad: “Underground” (Union of Designers, Almaty, 1989), “Action of Free Creative Youth” (Art Center, Almaty, 1996), “Human Rights: Terra Incognita” (Kazakh Business Club, Almaty, 1998), the film festival “On the Spot” (Center for Contemporary Art, Odesa, 2002), “Trans-forma” (Center for Contemporary Art, Geneva, 2002), Artbat Fest (Almaty, 2013), “Astana Art Fest” (Astana, 2016), and “ZholdaStarS” (Kazarian Art Center, Almaty, 2019).

Information about M. Sagit 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 Marat Sagit