
Zeigam Azizov (Зейгам Азизов) is British artist and philosopher. He was born on the 13th of April 1963 in the former USSR, (Azerbaijan SSR) and currently lives and works in London (UK). His work is addressing questions of time, image and technics through the narrative procedures of globalisation in relation to the languages of migration, media and the new mimesis. He uses material that resembles means of writing and media images and transforming them into the conceptual art to comment on the philosophical elaboration of the technologically constructed time.
He was trained in art, philosophy and cultural theory in the UK, France and Austria. He completed his studies in philosophy in England in the early 1990s, what he couldn’t receive in the former Soviet Union for ideological reasons, although initially planned to devote himself to philosophy completely. Later he started his PhD in philosophy first at Goldsmiths University of London (UK) and completed at the Klagenfurt University(Austria) with the thesis on the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler’s work and a philosophical exploration of images.
Since the middle of 1980s actively involved in the art world, exhibiting and publishing his work as well as developing the body of work which brings together his philosophical interests. Taking his artistic studies as a philosophical activity , ‘art as philosophy, philosophy as art’, he has exhibited and written texts about his projects extensively.
He is one of the pioneering artists to study the ‘migration paradigm’ as a novel understanding of the movement of globalization and space-time relationships, what he calls ‘migrasophia’ (migration+philosophy). Since 1993 this project was partly made in the collaboration with the cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who became a close friend and collaborator.
He exhibited his work worldwide, including most recently: the Venice Biennale (Azerbaijan pavilion, 2019, 2011 and the main exhibiton of the Venice Biennale ,2003 (Utopia Station)), Tate Modern, London, UK (2006), House der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2004), Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria (2002), and TN Probe, Tokyo, Japan (2001) among others.
As a part of his practice he has been lecturing and teaching in different universities including Central St.Martin’s College of Art and Design, Goldsmiths University of London, Vienna Academy of Art and the University of Aberdeen, University of Klagenfurt, Westminster University. He also lectured worldwide in galleries and museums.
Zeigam Azizov
13 April 1963-Born in Salyan (Azerbaijan, former USSR). Since 1992 lives and works in London (UK).
Education
2016-PhD (Doc.Phil), Klagenfurt University , Austria
2008-2012-PhD (candidate), Goldsmiths University of London
2012-MPhil (Art), Royal College of Art, London, UK
1998-MA, Modern Continental Philosophy, Staffordshire University, UK
Awards and nominations
2006 – Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Visual Arts (nomination), UK
2006 – Decibel Awards for Artists (shortlist), UK
2005 – Digital Media Arts Bursary, Artsadmin, UK
2003 – DAAD, Academic Art Exchange, Germany
Research and teaching (selected)
2008 to present – VL, Klagenfurt University, Austria https://campus.aau.at/visitenkarte?atoken=-32284071
2022-Hisory of Consciousness Department/Isaac Julien Lab, UC, Santa Cruz, United States
2022-Visual Arts Department, Middlesex University, London, UK
2017- Department of Fine Arts, Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Austria
2010 – 2012 – Department of Visual Arts, Aberdeen University, Scotland
2006 – 2011 – Fine Art Practice, Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK
2008 – 2010 – Fine Art Practice, Goldsmiths University, London, UK
Talks and conferences (selected)
2021- Is a ‘Post’ in ‘Post-human’ the Same as a ‘Trans’ in ‘Trans-human’? in the conference Posthuman Mimesis: Embodiment, Affect, Contagion, Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven
2020-Russification project, in symposium From Alexandria to Tokyo: Art, Colonialism and Entangled Histories, Mori Art Museum and Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational in partnership with Institute of Comparative Culture, Sophia University. https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/online-event/conference/alexandria-tokyo
2019 – Trans-imitation: translating imitation and derushage as a new image of thought, The Mimetic Condition: A Transdisciplinary Approach conference, Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, Belgium http://www.homomimeticus.eu/2019/11/25/workshop-the-mimetic-condition-a-transdisciplinary-approach/
2019-Trans-imitation: from representation of truth to its imitation: Bernard Stiegler’s notion of ‘derushage’ as a new mimesis, “Truth, Fiction, Illusion, Worlds and Experience” conference, APL Annual Meeting co-organized with Theory, Culture and Society to be held 29 May – 2 June, 2019 at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria
2019- The incompleteness of the subject as a constant reminder and a fuzzy ontology, Baku Book Centre, Baku AZ
2019- Art in the Age of Pharmacological Translations, Ta(r)dino 6 Art Centre, Baku, AZ
2018-Without Origins: Husserl’s temporal objects in the light of non-essentialist thinking, the British Society for Phenomenology annual conference, the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK https://www.britishphenomenology.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/BSP-Conference-Booklet-2018.pdf
2017- A Temporal Order of Things: Husserl’s ‘temporal objects’ and the (industrial) temporalisation of consciousness, the British Society for Phenomenology annual conference, Brighton University, Brighton, UK https://www.britishphenomenology.org.uk/bsp-podcast-zeigam-azizov-a-temporal-order-of-things-husserls-temporal-objects-and-the-industrial-temporalisation-of-consciousness/
2016-Time in the accusative case, Playtime conference, University of Arts,London and Stuart Hall Foundation, London, UK https://www.victoria-miro.com/news/329
2015-Three films by Zeigam Azizov, Screening . talk and discussion with Viktor Misiano, Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan http://yarat.az/index.php?lang=en&page=46&yrtEventID=1643&yrtLocationID=4
2012-OilScapes: The Ecology of Oil and the Ecology of Images, Aberdeen University, Peackok Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Scotland https://peacockvisualarts.com/oilscapes-various-artists/
2011-Commentary, a seminar with students of film studies at the Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland, (see the film here as an outcome of this seminar): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcN5dBjs1Fk
2010-Representing Saualm, Lakeside Kunstraum, Klagenfurt, Austria
https://archiv.lakeside-kunstraum.at/index.php?id=250&L=1
2009-Keynote Lecture at the conference: Rethinking Complicity and Resistance: the Relationship between visual Arts and Politics, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland
http://projects.beyondtext.ac.uk/StudentLedInitiatives/index.php
2000- A Seminar with Stuart Hall: The world at one with itself, inIVA, London
Exhibitions and screenings (selected)
2020
Unusual phrases…, Evolving Arts, Dubai, UAE
2019
Newspeak , Baku Biennale, Baku
Headlines etc, Azerbaijan pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice
2018
Disappearance, Abilov Cultural Centre, Baku, AZ https://report.az/en/cultural-policy/exhibition-disappearance-opens-in-baku/
Letters to Words, a site-specific installation, Baku, AZ
2017
Local Time , Artspace, Sydney, Australia https://julielouisebacon.com/portfolio/local-time/
2016
In This City of Bright Fires , Artim gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan http://yarat.az/index.php?lang=en&page=12&yrtMaincatID=12&yrtSubcatID=0&yrtEventID=1410
Decaffeinated colonialism, MSDM, London
2015
Three films by Zeigam Azizov, Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7mNKosFY7U
2013
The Origin of Geometry, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE http://www.maraya.ae/index.php?r=exhibitions/view&id=30
2012
Migrasophia (migration+philosophy), Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAEhttp://maraya.art/index.php?r=exhibitions/view&id=8
Oilscapes, Peacock Visual arts, Aberdeen, Scotland
2011
Illumunazioni, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/35745/the-republic-of-azerbaijan-at-the-54th-venice-biennale/
Machine Raum, Velje Museum of Art, Velje, Denmark
2010
The oil scenario, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Scotland
Saualm, Kunstraum Lakeside, Austria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9tkP8lkyDQ
2009
Oil and Art, Kunstraum Lakeside, Austira https://archiv.lakeside-kunstraum.at/index.php?id=117&L=1
Re-imagining October, Calvert22, Londonhttp://staging.calvert22.org/re-imagining-october/
Dramaturgy of the Subject, Open Space, Vienna
2008
Hard spell 2, Toynbee Studios, London
The rehersal room, FormContent, London
2007
Hard spell: A Promise to Generations, Kunstraum Lakeside, Austira https://archiv.lakeside-kunstraum.at/index.php?id=142
Dreams and Realities, 3rd Baku Biennale, Baku, Azerbaijan
2006
Global Photography now: Post Soviet states, Tate Modern, London https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/global-photography-now-post-soviet-states
2nd Caucasus Biennale, Tbilisi, Georgia
Border Crossing, Care off, Milan, Italy
Semionatu, Neon gallery, Bologna, Italy
Global tour, W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands http://kunstaspekte.art/event/global-tour-2005-12
2005
Die Rundshau,Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aaarau, Switzerland
2004
Trading Places, Pump House gallery, London https://welcomebb.sophiehope.org.uk/projects/tradingplacesartists.html
North, Hamburger Bahnhof , Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin
2003
Utopia Station, Hause der Kunst, Munich
Dreams and conflicts, the 50th Venice Biennale, Venice http://projects.e-flux.com/utopia/about.html
Sparwasser HQ, Berlin
Migration: Globalization of Space and Time, Siddhartha Hall, Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi
Becoming Global, Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau
2002
Outsourcing, inIVA, London
Risk and responsibilities of representation, Ludwig museum, Budapest
City-Info, Dresden-Prohlis, Dresden
Broadcast, Cubitt gallery, London
Art in Media Space, Austrian Cultural Forum, London
Routes, Grazer Kunstverein, Austria https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-101779223/routes-grazer-kunstverein-graz-austria
2001
Mutations, TN Probe, Tokyo, La Rafffinerie, Brussels,
Belonging, Shedhalle, Zurich
Loft Story, SE Travel Agency, Istanbul
Never look back, Shedhalle, Zurich
Touring London, (with Isaac Julien), inIVA, London https://www.iniva.org/programme/projects/touring-london/
Strategies of Presentation, Kopelica gallerie, Ljubljana
Videonalle 9, Kunstverein, Bonn
2000
ForthepeopleontheirwaytoEurope, Exnergasse Kunsthalle, Vienna
Arcade Project, The Trade Apartment, London
Mutations: Urban Rumours, Free Art, Fribourg, arc en reve centre d’architecture, Bordeaux
Transact, Museum in Progress, Vienna (www.mip.at) https://www.mip.at/persons/zeigam-azizov
1999
Temporary Radio, Espace 2, Radio Suisse -Romand, Geneva
1998
The Trial of Pol Pot, /Centre national d’art contemporain/, project by Liam Gillick and Phillipe Parreno, Grenoble https://www.google.com/search?q=liam+gillick+and+philippe+parreno,+the+trial+of+pol+pot&rlz=1C1RUCY_enGB831GB831&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=iDwXg-xRVO0mAM%253A%252CsZVoL_fuKzEEZM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRFdFLaxCmboKf2ZfInL5U0gi8m7g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjywrHhp9zhAhXJaVAKHdmvBSMQ9QEwCHoECAkQBA#imgrc=iDwXg-xRVO0mAM:
1995
Ideal Standard Summertime, Lisson gallery, London https://www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/ideal-standard-summertime
Postscript, Lisson gallery, London
Viewpoint, ICA, London
Reviews (selected)
Maja Giric (MC Presento, Belgrade), Interview with Zeigam Azizov about fuzzy ontology, (Audio), Belgrade, 4th of February, 2023
Sara Raza, Punk Orientalism, Black Dog Press, London, 2022
Wakana Kono, Art Scene, Baku // BT, 02.(vol.72. No.1080) p.188-189, Tokyo, Japan, 2020
Kat Koch, May You Live in Interesting Times https://www.brothart.com/blogs/news/may-you-live-in-interesting-times-58th-venice-biennale-review-by-kat-koch
Niccolò Lucarelli , Il Demone DellaTechnologia, Artribune, 2019
Martelletto, N., L’Arte Esalta Venezia, Cultura, Venice, 20th May 2019
Dilara Vagabova, Notes on Zeigam Azizov’s art, Yol magazine, Baku, 2016
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ways of Curating, Penguin, 2014 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Jhs0AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT109&lpg=PT109&dq=hans+ulrich+obrist,+ways+of+curating+zeigam+azizov&source=bl&ots=Ozmo-re21_&sig=ACfU3U3h_5NMyYyTVIe765C4xCeUUMangA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig3IHkqdzhAhXPK1AKHW4HB0gQ6AEwC3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=hans%20ulrich%20obrist%2C%20ways%20of%20curating%20zeigam%20azizov&f=false
Anne Seaman, The Beginning of Thinking Is Geometric reimagines maths through contemporary art, The National, 2013 https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/art/the-beginning-of-thinking-is-geometric-reimagines-maths-through-contemporary-art-1.310132
Marion Hohlfeldt, Betwixt and Between: Displacement and liminality, Interventions journal, January 29, 2013
Yasmine Allam, Being Contemporary, is Not Cutting off the past, http://www.contemporarypractices.net/essays/volumeXI/beingcontemporaryisNotCuttingoffthepast.pdf
Sara Raza, ‘Migrasophia’ (Migration + Philosophy), (catalogue essay), Maraya Art Centre, Al Gasba, Sharjah, 2012
Lee Sharrock, Biennale Bedlam, FADWEBSITE, 2011 https://fadmagazine.com/2011/06/08/biennale-bedlam-by-lee-sharrock/
Milena Placentile, The 54th Venice Biennale, akimbo.ca, 2011 http://www.akimbo.ca/akimblog/?id=466
Lockwood Smith, From Bangladesh to Azerbaijan, artlog.com, 2011
Ilary Valbonesi, Interview with Zeigam Azizov, 2011 h
Ferhat Senetci, Machine Raum, http://videoistanbul.blogspot.com, 2011
Mark Nash, Re-imagining October, Calvert 22, 2010
Michaela Monschein, Erdol und Kunst, artpool, Vienna, May 2009
Marion Hohfeldt, Attitudes urbaines: Espaces contrôlés et déplacements artistiques, Nouvelle revue d’esthétique, France, 2008/1 (n° 1)
Hedwig Saxenbuher and Christian Kravagna, Media Use, Kunstraum Lakeside, Klagenfurt, 2007
Joaquin Barrendios Rodriguez, El Arte Global y Las politicas de la novidad, Luminar, vol.V, n 001, Mexico, 2007 http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1665-80272007000100159&lng=es&nrm=iso
Joaquin Barriendios Rodriguez, Global Art and politics of mobility: (Trans) cultural shifts in the international contemporary art-system, Medewerker, Amsterdam, 2007 https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/4518613/global-art-and-politics-of-mobility-transcultural-shifts-in-the-
Wirtschaftliches Buchstabieren, Karntner Tageszeitung, Klagenfurt,17th March, 2007
Christian Kravagna, General Travel Conditions, in Routes, Revolver books, Germany, 2007
Stuart Hall, Three ‘Moments’ in Post-war History, Oxford Journals, History Workshop Journal, Issue 61, 2006 https://www.jstor.org/stable/25472834?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Laure Philipse, “Der wereld als ‘a global village’, 8 weekly, Amsterdam, 2006
Trading Places, Variant, summer issue, 2005
Johannes Wendland, Dot.City ladt sich aug, Frankfurter Rundshau, 01.07.2003
Brigitte Huck, Routes, Artforum, May, 2003 https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/200305/routes-46794
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Molly Hesbit, Rirkrit Tiravanija, What is the station, Venice Biennale catalogue, 2003
Mattias Dusini,Anders Reisen, Springerin, April, 2002
Reinhard Braun, Kunst zwischen Cultural Studies und Politik, Camera Austria, 80
Walter Seidl, Auf der Reise, Arts Magazine, 2002
Books and pamphlets (selected)
The Time of the Image: A Philosophical Exploration of the Image in the work of Bernard Stiegler, Herbert von Halem, Cologne, 2020 https://www.halem-verlag.de/the-time-of-the-image/
Oilscapes, (ed. with Janet Stewart), Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, 2012
Migrasophia: migration+philosophy, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, 2012 https://www.academia.edu/36436201/Migrasophia_migration_philosophy
Investigations towards the film: Back to Moscow and back. Again. Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau, 2004
Radiotemporarie, (ed.), Le Magasin, CNAC, Grenoble, 2001
Essays, articles and interviews (selected)
Russification project, MAM Documents 004, Mori Art Museum, 2022
Take care and be careful: in memory of Bernard Stiegler, Moscow Art Magazine, Moscow, RF, 2021
Contingency of cultures, cultures of contingency: Cultural Studies with a Philosophical Attitude , in Matthias Wieser / Elena Pilipets (eds.) Medienkultur als kritische Gesellschaftsanalyse Festschrift für Rainer Winter , Herbert von Halem Verlag, Cologne, Germany, 2021 https://www.halem-verlag.de/eine-festschrift-fuer-rainer-winter/
“Self-made man”: Freedom as the condition of one’s own making,
Moscow Art Magazine, Moscow, RF, 2020
Politics and poetics of “post-truth”: trans-imitation, Moscow Art Magazine, Moscow, RF, 2019
Universal via particular: Fuzzy objects of art, Moscow Art magazine, Moscow, RF, 2018
(with Rainer Winter), Cultural Studies in the past and future: Interview with Stuart Hall, Studi Culturali, Bologna, Italy, 2017 https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1405/87546
Chinese translation: http://雷纳·温特,蔡嘉慕·阿齐佐夫,李开.文化研究的过去和现在——斯图亚特·霍尔访谈[J].文化研究,2018(03):199-216
The engagement with the thought: The absent centre of art, Moscow Art Magazine, 2015
Watching Philosophy on YouTube, ETUM, E-Journal for Theatre and Media, November 2015 https://www.academia.edu/35861869/Watching_Philosophy_on_YouTube.docx
The Contingent Object of Art: Place as a Position, Moscow Art Magazine, Moscow, 89, 2015 http://moscowartmagazine.com/issue/7/article/98
The ‘Cut-n-mix’ Culture: The Impossibilities of Production in New Media, Ibraaz Journal, November, 2014 https://www.ibraaz.org/essays/47
Linguini, Languages, Cultures, in Commerce by Artists, Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada, 2011 https://artmetropole.com/events/commerce-by-artists-european-lecture-tour-by-luis-jacob
From the frozen decade to the disoriented world, Moscow Art Magazine, 82, 2011
Editing as art: Harun Farocki, Moscow Art Magazine, 79-80, 2010
Stuart Hall and the location of culture, Moscow Art Magazine, 77-78, 2011 http://xz.gif.ru/numbers/77-78/azizov-hall/
(with Peter Osborn) , The grammar of curating, Manifesta Journal, 7, 2009, Amsterdam
Unusual phrases for the usual phrasebook, in Proud to be Flesh: A Mute Magazine Anthology of Cultural Politics After the Net, Autonomedia, 2009
Post-script to Migrasophia: Ubiqutious topology, Open Space, 2009, Divus, Vienna
(with Asit Bhatt), Representing India: Indian highway, Moscow Art Magazine, 2009,
East-West, Moscow Art Magazine, 70, 2008 http://moscowartmagazine.com/issue/22/article/358
(with Peter Osborn), The intellectual turn: dialogue with Peter Osborn, Moscow Art magazine, 69, 2008 https://www.academia.edu/36436458/The_Intellectual_turn_Dialogue_with_Peter_Osborne
Can we still speak? Text for the MAFA degree show catalogue, Central St.Martins, University of Arts, London, 2007 https://www.academia.edu/37258975/Can_we_still_speak.docx
The rhetoric of time: the old narrative through the prisms of the new point of view, in Progressive Nostalgia, (ed. V.Misiano), WAM, 2008, Moscow
Ajan retorikka: Vanha kertomus uudesta nakokulmasta, catalogue, Kiasma Museum of Modern art, Finland, 2007
The rhetoric of time: the old narrative through the prisms of the new point of view, Moscow Art Magazine, 65/66, 2007 http://moscowartmagazine.com/en/issue/42/article/847
Elliptical notes on uncertainty: USA, Moscow Art Magazine, 64, 2007http://moscowartmagazine.com/issue/27/article/476
Global tour: art as a scene of proliferated ‘attractions’ and ideas, in Global Tour: Art, Travel and Beyond, W139, Amsterdam, 2005
A joker in the pack of globalization: Dialogue with Stuart Hall, in Routes (ed. Christian Kravagna) Grazer Kunstwerein, Austria, 2005 https://www.academia.edu/36436132/Dialogue_with_Stuart_Hall.docx
Unusual phrases for the usual phrasebook (extracts from Migrasophia), Mute magazine, London, 2005 http://Unusual_phrases_for_the_usual_phrase_book_extracts_published_by_Mute_London_2006
Invisible frontiers, Occasions 8, Austrian Cultural Forum, 2004
Investigations towards the film: Back to Moscow and back. Again. Bauhaus Foundation, Dessau, 2004 https://www.academia.edu/36436102/Investigations_towards_the_film.doc
Paramnesia, Project Russia, Moscow, 2004 https://archi.ru/press/journalist_present.html?id=16083
When PhD becomes an artwork, msdm stencilled papers, 2004http://www.msdm.org.uk/pr/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/zeigam_azizov_when-phd-becomes-an-art-work.pdf
Memory factory, Coleman project space, London, 2004
(with Stuart Hall), The world has to be made to mean!, Venice Biennale catalogue, Venice, 2003
Will multiculturalism be russified? In Moneynations, (ed. Marion von Osten), Selena Verlag, Vienna, 2003
Migrasophia: de ser ‘Artista’ a ‘Devenir Otro’, Brumaria 1, Madrid, 2002 http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1134816059
Domesti(fi)cation of Visual Pleasures, in Outsourcing, (ed. Paula Raush) inIVA/MSDM, London, 2002
Brand Ranking: in between conformity and consciousness, in Outsourcing
In between home and globe, Routes, Grazer Kunstverein, 2002 https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Routes.html?id=LRJ8YgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Camouflage: The Visible in the Invisible, Third Text, 57,2011 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09528820108576948
Rusification and terrain of self-determination, in Imported (ed. Rainer Ganahl), Semiotexte, NY, 1998 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/imported
See also:
https://www.mori.art.museum/en/learning/4418/index.html
https://www.halem-verlag.de/the-time-of-the-image/
https://www.iniva.org/library/digital-archive/people/a/azizov-zeigam/
https://uni-klu.academia.edu/ZeigamAzizov
Zeigam Azizov© 2019