Screening at MoMA | An Evening with Saodat Ismailova

On the occasion of Saodat Ismailova's solo exhibition at SI, Amanat, MoMA will screen a selection of the artist's films as part of their Modern Mondays series. Ismailova’s practice draws on personal memory, archival footage, and historical events to uncover diminishing systems of ritual and knowledge in the region. Often relying on oral histories, her films center matrilineal practices and the everyday experiences of women as keepers of this knowledge, challenging the legitimacy of state archives and official histories.

The screening will be the U.S. premier of Ismailova's film, Melted into the Sun (2024), which is inspired by the legacy of the eighth-century figure Al-Muqanna, who preached spiritual awakening and political revolution against authoritarian power, and whose ideas were later co-opted as part of Soviet ideology. The film reimagines these teachings, tracing the veiled figure’s path across key historic and religious sites in Central Asia and modern Soviet infrastructure projects, such as the solar furnace of Uzbekistan. Featuring the local landscapes and sites that bore witness to the figure’s journey and ultimate demise, Ismailova implicates technology and our environment in the creation and perpetuation of narratives of power.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with Ismailova moderated by Ana Janevski, curator in MoMA's Department of Media and Performance.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2