Whose Voice is This?

Shifting perspectives from the visual to the aural, this film is a result of research into the Central Asian holdings of Arsenal’s archive. It explores the evolution of sound, speech, and music in local cinema from the 1960s to the 1990s. By listening to characters’ concerns through dubbed voices in addition to soundscapes and soundtracks, we can trace the impact of Soviet ideology, its gradual weakening, and the rise of Perestroika’s freedom. Although the archive, with 45 films from Central Asia, cannot represent all of the region’s political and social shifts, it does offer a valuable basis for analyzing how evolving sound reflects broader transformations over three decades.

Dana Iskakova is an artist and cultural practitioner born in 1997 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She studied finance at the International IT University and liberal arts at Smolny College. As part of the project initiated by Saodat Ismailova, she took part in the public program and contributed to the publication of the DAVRA research group at documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany (2022). In 2023, Iskakova presented the printed magazine on fictional contemporary art called “If” and its first issue, created in collaboration with the MATA collective. Her practice mainly focuses on participatory ‘imaginary’ art and explores human perception and imagination. 

Saodat Ismailova is an Uzbek filmmaker and artist who graduated from Tashkent State Art Institute and Le Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts. Her research encompasses Central Asia’s ancestral knowledge and traditional spiritual practices as well as the modern history of Uzbekistan, manifested in her interlacing of archival footage from the country’s film history. She initiated DAVRA research group in Central Asia in 2021. In 2022, she participated in the 59th Venice Biennale and presented a work at documenta 15. Her new film Melted Into the Sun was presented in the group exhibition Nebula and was commissioned by Fondazione In Between Art Film for the 2024 Venice Biennale. Her works are in the collections of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Centre Pompidou, Paris and others.