Zach Kahado. Existence-coexistence

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents the personal project of the artist Zach Kahado "Existence-coexistence". In his works, the American author of Circassian origin refers to the national original culture of the North Caucasus, rethinking its heritage in installations and canvases, similar in style to American expressionism of the second half of the 20th century.

Born and living in the USA, the artist was continuously engaged in archival study of the history of his people. Each work reflects not only the ethnic context, but also the personal history of the author himself, his family values and continuous connection with his ancestors. The combination of attention to the theme of national and family heritage with the practices of contemporary art allows the artist to connect his work with the Circassian neo-avant-garde.

To create large-scale canvases and installations, Zak Kakhado uses materials that bring his art closer to traditional decorative and applied motifs - the author mixes oil paint with earth brought from the North Caucasus, he leaves traces of soot and burns on the canvas - traces of fire. Black three-dimensional backgrounds complement the embedded artifacts, also of ethnic origin — elements of national Circassian costumes, a dagger, a shichapshina (a national musical instrument), fragments of embroidery.

All the titles of Zach Kahado’s works are in one way or another connected with appeals to the family, denoting the individual’s belonging to a single tree of life. On the surface of many paintings, assemblages, parts of the installation, whimsical symbols are applied in white - these are tamgas, family signs of Circassian (Adyghe) clans. Additional objects that keep the memory of the past of thousands of people form the space inside the halls, frame the works, become the installation material - these are old sleepers taken from Nalchik. They embody the concept of the eternal journey and at the same time serve as a reminder of the historical traumas of the peoples of the Caucasus, including the gloomy episodes of deportations.

Zach Kaghado’s project is the result of a study of his own identity, which combines Circassian roots, the experience of growing up in the American environment and belonging to Islam and becomes the basis for a conversation about global historical changes and the problems of modern society. The artist endows ethnic motifs with a cloud of universal meanings and themes - a painful search for oneself, death and rebirth, collective memory, living through historical trauma and subsequent healing.

Work on the project has been ongoing since 2016 - the exhibition was previously shown at the National Museum of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (2021), at the North Caucasian branch of the State Museum of Oriental Art (2021), at the North Caucasian branch of the State Center for Contemporary Art (2022) and in the New Museum in St. Petersburg (2022). Some of the works were made by the author specifically for a new project at MMOMA.