The first solo exhibition of an Almaty-based artist Marat Dilman in Switzerland marks an important milestone in the artistic journey of a promising Central Asian artist whose primary medium is photography. His research centers around ideology and political narratives of nation-building that appropriate, redesign and employ various ancient and seemingly ancient iconographies. Despite vivid and unnaturally looking imagery developed by Dilman most of the photographs are documenting real places, situations and colors with minimal involvement of the digital tools.

The clash of timelines so visible through the newly independent countries ideologically juxtaposes the desire for the search of mythologized past and construction of identity while also projecting a seemingly unreachable future leaving the present in the vacuum. It could be that the speculation around these ideas of a distant past and an uncertain future mirrors the current global tension between opposing political extremes, perhaps causing the center—or the present—to feel somewhat overlooked and less prominent in the political landscape, argues the artist.

Dilman’s selected exhibitions include The Eurasian Utopia: Post Scriptum curated by Yuliya Sorokina in Suwon IPark Museum of Art, South Korea (2018), New
Visions Triennale for Photography and New Media at The Henie Onstad curated by Inga Laće, Reem Shadid, and Susanne Østby Sæther in Norway (2023) as well as Clouds, Power and Ornament – Roving Central Asia at Center for Heritage Arts and Textile curated by Alexandra Tsai, Wang Weiwei, You Mi, Slavs and Tatars in Hong Kong (2023).