What we do

Various outcomes of our project, including publications, media appearances and audiovisual documents and performances.

 

  • Geopoetics

    Mukaddas Mijit

    Geopoetics by Mukaddas Mijit is a part of the program Safe and Sound, curated by the duo League of Tenders as part of the Nomadic Program 2024–2025 of Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art (Middelburg, the Netherlands), and first published by Nero.

    Geopoetics is a collaborative audiovisual experiment led by Mukaddas Mijit, featuring six Uyghur diaspora artists. Rooted in themes of displacement and the fragmented relationship to place, the project deconstructs conventional notions of geography and belonging. Through loosely defined instructions (score), the artists responded with a mosaic of soundscapes and visual narratives, exploring the emotional and physical landscapes of their current surroundings.

    More info

  • I AM HERE / مەن بار

    Documentary film

    Sonya Imin

    Film

    I AM HERE / مەن بار is a documentary film following relational dynamics on one of the first Uyghur films to be produced outside the homeland. In the summer of 2021, a French film crew has just arrived in Central Asia to begin shooting Nikah. Guzel, the lead actress and a trained circus performer, arrives from Sweden and begins rehearsals under the guidance of the director, Mukaddas. Following Guzel and Mukaddas from rehearsals, to shooting on set, to where they've ended up three years later, this documentary examines the complexities of identity, loss, and what it means to be Uyghur.

  • The 30 Boys

    Ethnographic film

    Mukaddas Mijit

    Film

    Uyghur communities in Kazakhstan occupy an uneasy space, one eye towards the growing ethnic nationalism of their host country, one eye towards China’s ongoing policies of securitisation, incarceration and cultural erasure in their homeland. This film documents the attempts made by Uyghurs in Kazakhstan to revive traditional meshrep gatherings as a way to sustain Uyghur language and culture, and to strengthen their communities. Meshrep are hot, convivial events involving eating, joking, music and dancing, which forge lasting bonds among groups of men called the Thirty Boys. The film shows the potential for grassroots mobilisation of heritage to provide a forum for negotiating tensions around identity and religion, and a space for collective action.

    Part of the Uyghur Meshrep Project (SOAS - Turan Universities).

    More info

  • Nikah

    55’ fiction film

    Mukaddas Mijit & Bastien Ehouzan

    Produced by l’Endroit and les Films du Bal.

    Short synopsis: 2017, Uyghur Region. 27-year-old Dilber, a young unmarried woman, has to endure the pressure of her family who want her to get married. Her friend Gulnur, who lives in Paris and whom she calls to share her daily life, will suggest her a solution.

    Programmed at BSFF on 1 May 2023
    Programmed to be broadcasted by ARTE May 20th.
    The filmmaking process was documented and observed by our team members.

    More info

  • Everybody Is Gone

    Immersive performance

    Mukaddas Mijit and al.

    Everybody Is Gone is an in-person, interactive experience of immersive journalism. Drawing from the traditions of live theater, museum galleries, and research and reporting, Everybody Is Gone offers audiences insight into the day-to-day repression experienced by Uyghurs and others in the Uyghur Homeland.

    Its World premiere in Berlin Alte Münze was documented and observed by the team members.

    Featured Press about the project :

    More info