Taus Makhacheva

After graduating from London's Royal College of Art in 2013, Taus Makhacheva now divides her time between her hometown of Makhachkala in Dagestan and Moscow. Makhacheva's work spans photography, video, installation and performance and shows a fascination with social and cultural codes. Works such as the video Gamsutl (2012) point to the inspiration that the artist unlocks in her Caucasian roots. In the video, a young man moves among the ruins of an ancient Avarian settlement carved out of the mountains in Dagestan, re-enacting poses both from paintings by Franz Roubaud that depict the Caucasian War of 1817-1864 along with steps from a 1930s dance for collective farm brigade leaders in the region.