Volume VII: AD/DH Print

Islam-Kant (the word ‘kant’ in Chechen means son/boy) is a Chechnya-born Dutch artist. He was born in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen-Ingush Republic, USSR, in 1967. In 1994, he graduated from the Medical Academy in Dagestan, Russia. A couple of months later, the Chechen war broke out, and he worked as a doctor in a field hospital, treating wounded soldiers and civilians. In 2000, Islam-Kant was granted political asylum in the Netherlands after he had been arrested in Moscow on false charges. (Amnesty International 1999; ‘The case of Islam Bashirov, page 56) ; In 2010 - he graduated from Leiden University, where he completed his medical studies. In 2017, he specialized in anesthesiology and pain medicine at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. At the same year Islam-Kant created his first series of artwork called "Emotions," in which he explored human emotions through animal archetypes. The next serie he produced called "Remastering. Visualization. Ulysses.". The series was inspired by James Joyce's book "Ulysses," and in it, Islam-Kant researched the novel's text and associated colors. During his time at university, he completed an internship at a psychiatric hospital Parnassia in Den Hage , where he gained valuable insights into psychiatric disorders and patient care. These impressions influenced his subsequent series of works, which is titled ‘Text book: Psychiatry’. This series presentes psychiatric diseases in pictures. Islam-Kant’s paintings often explore the themes of war, displacement, medicine, and identity, drawing on his personal experiences and emotions.