Riders of the Eternal Hunt (2022–2025)

Installation: video, photography, saddles

Kok-Boru — “Blue Wolf” in Kyrgyz — is the land where I grew up, and the memory that stays with me. Riders chase a carcass across dusty fields, hooves tearing the earth, men shouting and colliding with all their strength. Once a ritual wolf hunt, it is now an extreme sport; the primal struggle for dominance remains.

Alaman Ulak, the extreme form of Kok-Boru, dissolves rules. Hundreds of riders collide in chaos. Dust, sweat, and shouting speak the language of ambition, honor, and survival. The carcass is not the prize — it is the stage where political ambition, economic power, and authority are enacted through bodies, horses, and collisions.

Through video, photography, and sculptural objects — especially used saddles — I trace systems of power. Saddles hold traces of endurance, dominance, and authority, passing history from one generation to the next.

This work captures moments where aggression, hierarchy, and desire endure and transform. Kok-Boru and Alaman Ulak mirror a world where authority is fragile, constantly contested, and enacted through struggle. Victory becomes a claim over land, memory, and narrative.