Taus Makhacheva is a multidisciplinary artist whose work navigates the collisions between tradition, identity, and institutional power through video, performance, and sculpture. Raised between Moscow and Dagestan, and trained in the UK, her practice draws from the friction of cultural inheritance and post-Soviet realities, often laced with irony and self-reflexive critique. Makhacheva’s internationally acclaimed video Tightrope (2015)—shown at the 2017 Venice Biennale—staged a performer balancing 61 museum replicas across a canyon, a striking metaphor for cultural fragility and forgotten histories. Set against the arid landscapes of Dagestan, her works trace the absurdities and tensions of hybridity, legacy, and the politics of visibility.
