The Han Nefkens Foundation in collaboration with M HKA Antwerp; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; and The New Taipei City Art Museum, is delighted to announce Tekla Aslanishvili as the recipient of the inaugural Eurasia Moving Image Commission.
Tekla Aslanishvili was selected for her compelling and ambitious proposal, distinguished by its intellectual rigour and contemporary relevance. This 2026 commission represents a significant milestone in her career, further consolidating her position as one of the most vital voices in contemporary moving image practice. The Han Nefkens Foundation is especially delighted with her selection, which follows her earlier recognition as the recipient of the Han Nefkens Foundation—Museu Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant 2020. This continued collaboration not only underscores the Foundation’s sustained commitment to her practice, but also highlights the remarkable artistic progression she has achieved over the past six years.
The jury expressed strong admiration for the project:
“…we were unanimously impressed by Tekla Aslanishvili’s proposal. The project’s deep collaborative research across Eurasia was considered particularly valuable, and very much aligned with the objectives of the Eurasia Commission. Her proposal thoughtfully engages with histories of internationalism, while actively imagining future forms of progressive internationalism in the region. Considering its contemporary relevance and scope, along with Aslanishvili’s undeniable talent, we are sure this project will make for a remarkable art project. The jury is also confident that this project represents an important step forward in Aslanishvili’s practice.”
Aslanishvili receives USD 120,000 for the production of a screen-based video artwork, which will be exhibited at each partner institution and subsequently enter their permanent collections.
Tekla Aslanishvili commented:
“The Eurasia Moving Image Co-Commission, with its multifaceted support structure, enables a reflexive turn in my practice. For the past decade, I have used film to excavate the material and social histories surrounding energy and transit infrastructures. This project turns to cinema’s own apparatus as a primary infrastructure for constructing real spaces and relations”.
“The film investigates Soviet cinematic language as a sense-making tool of socialist modernity—the means through which a political project was imagined, staged and made perceptible. At the same time, it attends to experimental internationalist visions that outlasted that project: attempts at cultural amalgamation across Eurasia and beyond, and the cinematic transfer of revolutionary energies, solidarities, distortions and violences across borders”.
“The trust and support of the Han Nefkens Foundation and its partners arrive at a pivotal moment in my career, and I am deeply grateful. This commission encourages me to expand the scope of my cinematic experimentation and to deepen a collective inquiry into how new forms of sociality might be mediated, represented and produced through moving-image practice”.
The 2026 Eurasia Moving Image Co-Commission jury, chaired by Han Nefkens, consisted:
Kim Sunjung, Director and Heehyun Cho, Head of Exhibitions at Art Sonje Center; Kiira Miesmaa, Director and Saara Hacklin, Chief Curator at KIASMA; Nav Haq, Associate Director and Head of Exhibitions, and Ekaterina Vorontsova, Researcher, at M HKA; Hsiangling Lai, Director and Anita Huang, Director of the Exhibition Dept., at New Taipei City Art Museum, in the presence of Hilde Teerlinck, Director and Alessandra Biscaro: Coordinator of the Han Nefkens Foundation.
The Foundation and the institutions are grateful to the invaluable support of an international panel of experts, including Merve Elveren (Turkey); Shih-yu Hsu (Taiwan); Hyo Gyung Jeon (South Korea); Yung Ma (United Kingdom); Hilde Methi (Norway); Furqat Palvan-Zade (Uzbekistan); Foteini Salvaridi (Greece); Noam Segal (United States), who nominated an initial long-list of 16 candidates.
The finalists for the 2026 Eurasia Moving Image Co-Commission were: Tekla Aslanishvili (1988, Tbilisi) and Yi-Fan Li (1989, Taiwan).
