Artist and filmmaker Saodat Ismailova works at the intersection of narrative cinema and installation. For her exhibition at Portikus, she draws on her longstanding engagement with the complex history and culture of Central Asia, the political and social upheavals following the end of the Soviet Union, and the ecological challenges of the present.

Saodat Ismailova's artistic practice, spanning more than two decades, encompasses film, sculpture, and installation. After graduating from the Tashkent State Art Institute, she was a fellow at the Italian research and communication center Fabrica in Treviso. This was followed by a DAAD scholarship in Berlin in 2005 and a residency at the OCA – Office for Contemporary Art in Norway in 2017. In 2018, she completed her studies at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains in France. In 2021, Ismailova founded the research collective DAVRA in Tashkent, which is dedicated to researching, documenting, and communicating Central Asian culture and forms of knowledge.

Currently, Saodat Ismailova's work can be seen in a solo exhibition at the Swiss Institute, New York. Her most recent solo exhibitions include the Museu Amparo in Puebla, the Kunsthalle Lisbon, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, and the STUK Art Center in Leuven (all 2025), the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan (2024), the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, and Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing (both 2023).

Her work has been presented at the Biennale di Venezia (2013, 2022), documenta fifteen (2022), and numerous international film festivals, among others. Works by Saodat Ismailova are included in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; TBA21, Madrid; the Tate Modern, London; the FRAC Corse; and the Almaty Museum of Arts, Kazakhstan.

She lives and works in Paris and Tashkent.

When the Water Turns to Wind is made possible by major support from Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Kunst und Kultur, and the Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung, as well as the kind support of the Office of visual arts of the French Institute Germany and the French Ministry of Culture. The exhibition is also supported by Städelschule Portikus e.V.