Abilsait Anarbayevich Atabekov (Abilsaid, Said) is a contemporary Kazakhstani artist and a member of the Kyzyl Traktor art group. His works include photography, performance art, video art, and installations. Key methods cover irony, play, semiotics, poeticism, and hyperbole. Key themes are memory, trauma, the search for cultural identity, globalization, translocality, shamanism, and nomadism.
A. Atabekov studied at the A. Kasteev College of Arts and Design (Shymkent, 1988–1992). In 1993, he joined the first avant-garde art group in South Kazakhstan, Kyzyl Traktor (until 1995 – “SaA Group,” “Shymkent – Transavantgarde,” “Structural School Si”). Alongside collective projects, Said created independent works. In 2011, he received the Prince Claus Award.
In his work, A. Atabekov filters images of the past through the lens of irony and places them in a contemporary context. His photographs create a space of ambiguity: through saddles (“Coca-Cola,” 2016) and horseshoes (“Shield,” 2017), the artist explores the problem of power. Through elements of the traditional game kokpar (“Steppe Wolves,” 2012) and shamanism (“Son of the East,” 1995; “Neon Paradise,” 2004), he ridicules the cult of consumption and the exoticization of the region. Traditional felt (“Farewell of the Slavic Woman,” 2011) and everyday objects in the form of children's cradles (“Sniper-02,” 2009) and korpes (“Korpe Flags,” 2010) touch on the themes of post-trauma and globalization.
Atabekov's artworks have been exhibited in Kazakhstan and abroad: “Off the Silk Road: No Mad's Land: Contemporary Art from Central Asia” (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2002), “Time of the Storytellers” (Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, 2007), “Ostalgia” (the New Museum, New York, 2011), “At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art from the Caucasus and Central Asia” (Sotheby’s, London, 2013), “The Other & Me” (the Sharjah Art Museum, UAE, 2014), “Too Early, Too Late: Middle East and Modernity” (the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy, 2015), “Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan” (Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, 2017), and “Stories of the Great Steppe” (the Museum of Fine Arts, Astana, 2019). In addition, Said has actively participated in the Venice Biennale (2005, 2007, 2011), the Istanbul Biennale (2005), the Montreal Biennale (2007), the Moscow Biennale (2013), and art fairs (Asia Now, 2023; Art Dubai, 2024).
As a member of the Kyzyl Traktor group, A. Atabekov participated in the “Sound OFF” exhibition held as part of the Korkut Sonic Arts Triennale (the Ykhlas Museum of Folk Musical Instruments, 2022).
A. Atabekov 's works and the information about him is stored in the Documentation project collection: the Şağylys collection, developed by the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture and M HKA (“Neon Paradise,” 2004) and the archive of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art — Almaty (SCCA).
Photograph provided by Said Atabekov