Connecting people through art 

The Han Nefkens Foundation, in collaboration with the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), the Singapore Art Museum (Singapore), and the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), is delighted to announce Saodat Ismailova as the recipient of the inaugural Moving Image Commission. Selected by a distinguished international jury, Ismailova was recognized for her proposed new film exploring the layered dynamics between women's emancipation and ideology in the Soviet Era.

Ismailova’s forthcoming work will be produced with the support of a USD 100,000 commission, which includes an artist’s fee. The completed piece will premiere across all partner institutions, entering the permanent collections of the Museo Reina Sofía, the Singapore Art Museum and the Walker Art Center. As such, each Moving Image Commission reflects a different way for museums to extend their collection: an approach that is based upon shared curatorial vision and the pooling of resources for the common good.

Saodat Ismailova stated: “To receive the Han Nefkens Foundation commission is an opportunity to continue my long-researched project Nurkhon — a figure whose story was heavily manipulated by Soviet-era ideologies. My interest lies in narratives that have been reshaped by time — in the martyrs and erased figures whose presence flickers between myth and history.”

“Through this work, I wish to explore the fragile intersection between emancipation and ideology, where the body of a woman becomes both a stage and a battlefield. It is within this tension that memory resists erasure and reclaims its voice.”

“The support of the Han Nefkens Foundation marks another important step in my practice — not only for its generosity, but for the trust, time, and curatorial dialogue it provides. I am deeply grateful to the Foundation and its partners for accompanying this process.”

The Jury stated: “For the inaugural edition of the Han Nefkens Foundation, Museo Reina Sofía, Singapore Art Museum and Walker Art Moving Image Commission, we selected Saodat Ismailova for her proposal’s timely and poetic exploration of the complex dynamics between women’s emancipation and ideology in the Soviet Era. Combining archival research, a film-within-a-film structure and the interplay of movement and sound, the project aims to explore the tension between ideology and individual freedom, where memory resists historical erasure. Extending the artist’s long-standing engagement with women’s bodies, histories, and cultural legacies, the work seeks to illuminate the body as a site of negotiation between liberation and control. We recognised the significance and contemporary resonance of this theme across regions and contexts, noting how Ismailova’s practice has long delved into the complex and layered collision of cultural histories in Central Asia, focusing on Uzbek history and culture across the 20th century and making pointed connections to the present.”

The 2025 Moving Image Commission Jury was chaired by Han Nefkens, Founder of the Han Nefkens Foundation, and composed of Amanda de la Garza, Artistic Deputy Director and Julia Morandeira, Director of Study, Museo Reina Sofía; Henriette Huldisch, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs and Pablo de Ocampo, Director and Curator of Moving Image, Walker Art Center; Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Chief Curator, June Yap, Director (Curatorial & Research), Ong Puay Khim, Director (Collection, Public Art & Programmes), Amy Cheng, Senior Curator (Curatorial & Research) and Haeju Kim, Senior Curator & Head, Residencies (Curatorial & Research), SAM. In the presence of Hilde Teerlinck and Alessandra Biscaro, respectively Director and Coordinator of the Han Nefkens Foundation.

The Scouts were Asinnajaq, Canada; Jheanelle Brown, United States; Vic Brooks, United Kingdom; Inti Guerrero, Colombia; Nav Haq, United Kingdom / Belgium; Marcella Lista, France; Aude Christel Mgba, Cameroon / The Netherlands; Filipa Ramos, Portugal; Carles Àngel Saurí, Spain.

The Finalist artists were: Saodat Ismailova, 1981, Uzbekistan (recipient), Jane Jin Kaisen, 1980, Denmark; Mar Reykjavik, 1996, Spain.