Azerbaijan Booth Catalogue / 2014 / Art Dubai / UAE

Azerbaijan

MARCH 19 - 22, 2014

MARKER 2014 A5 / Baku, Azerbaijan

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

CONTEMPORARY ART ORGANISATION

• HUSEYN HAQVERDIYEV / PROFIL / detail / stone carving / 2004 / 54 x 23 x 16 cm / Courtesy of the BAKU MOMA and YARAT

CONTENT

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• WHO WE ARE • OUR STRATEGY • 2013 INTERNATIONAL EVENTS • PHOTOS FROM EVENTS • ART DUBAI FAIR • PHOTOS FROM ART DUBAI • ARTISTS

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

• ARTWORKS

• AGA OUSSEINOV / THE FOG, series / detail / wire, burlap, hydrocal, tempera / 2004 / 44 x 54 x 3 cm / Courtesy of the artist and BAKU MOMA

• WHO WE ARE

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ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

YARAT Contemporary Art Organization was founded in 2011 by Aida Makhmudova as a non-profit organization involved in education, promotion and development of contemporary art in Azerbaijan. The overall purpose and the major goal of the Baku-based organization is providing a professional creative platform for both emerging and established Azerbaijani artists.

One of YARAT`s key tasks is to enable cooperation and communication with other notfor-profit artistic foundations operating in Azerbaijan and abroad. At the same time, YARAT is focused on educational initiatives and professional training for artists in international “artists-inresidence” programs.

• REZA HAZARE / NOSTALGY / detail / oil on canvas / 2008 / 120 x 140 cm / Courtesy of the artist and YAY! Gallery

• OUR STRATEGY

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We are striving to make contemporary art- related customs well established in Azerbaijan. Therefore, many of our projects are iterated every year, thereby promoting the establishment of cultural traditions.

Integrating our efforts in this regard will definitely help us achieve tremendous results.

We are suggesting a lasting cooperation in presentation and promotion of Azerbaijani contemporary art and culture both within the country and abroad.

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

Advocacy and protection of Azerbaijani interests on a global level is a matter of paramount necessity in the modern world.

Nowadays, our country’s success is strongly dependent on how effectively our talents, which Azerbaijan never lacked, are represented abroad.

• INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

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• MASTERPIECES IN BAKU / CHRISTIE’S ON THE CASPIAN / The Four Seasons Hotel, Baku / 15 - 16 September 2012

• HOME, SWEET HOME. EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART FROM AZERBAIJAN AT AZERBAIJANI CULTURAL CENTER IN PARIS (18 APRIL - 16 MAY 2013)

• ESPACE CULTUREL LOUIS VUITTON PARIS /`OTHERNESS. I IS SOMEBODY ELSE`/ JUNE 5 - SEPTEMBER 15 2013

• LOVE ME LOVE ME NOT CONTEMPORARY ART FROM AZERBAIJAN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS / 55 VENICE BIENNALE / JUNE 1 – NOVEMBER 24 2013

WWW.YARAT.AZ

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

• AIDA MAHMUDOVA / INTERNAL PEACE / THE BARBARIAN ART GALLERY / ZURICH / JUNE 9 - JULY 13 2013

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• PHOTOS FROM EVENTS

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1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9. ‘Masterpieces In Baku’ Christie’s on the Caspian / Four Seasons Hotel, Baku. Courtesy of the YARAT. 7, 8. ‘Home, Sweet Home’ Exhibition of the Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan at Azerbaijani Cultural Center In Paris. Courtesy of the YARAT 14. ‘Otherness. I Is Somebody Else’ exhibition at Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris. Exposition view of Reza Hezare works. Courtesy of the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton.

10.‘Internal Peace’ Aida Mahmudova’s solo exhibition at the Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich. Courtesy of the artist and Barbarian Art Gallery.

11, 12, 13, 15. ‘Love Me Love Me Not’ Contemporary Art From Azerbaijan And Its Neighbors, Collateral Event at 55 Venice Biennale.

Courtesy of the YARAT.

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

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• ART DUBAI FAIR Art Dubai, the leading international art fair in the Middle East and South Asia, offers the opportunity to engage with the most comprehensive and promising line-up of artists from across the region and the world.

Taking place March 19-22, 2014 at Madinat Jumeirah, the fair returns as the most global fair to date with 85 participating galleries from 34 countries and works by more than 500 artists across its programmes. For the first time, the galleries are presented in three distinct programmes: Contemporary; Modern, inaugurating this year; and Marker, the curated section of invited art spaces and galleries focusing in 2014 on Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Alongside the gallery halls, Art Dubai also features an extensive not-for profit programme including dynamic

commissioned site-specific works for Art Dubai Projects; an exhibition by winners of The Abraaj Group Art Prize; the critically-acclaimed, five-day forum the Global Art Forum; a live radio station; film and video screenings; The Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program for children and teenagers; plus an engaging programme of curatorled tours, book signings and launches and talks, among other activities. Held under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, Art Dubai is run in partnership with The Abraaj Group and is sponsored by Cartier and Emaar. Madinat Jumeirah is home to the event.

Dubai Culture & Arts Authority is the strategic partner of Art Dubai and supports the fair’s yearround education programme.

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

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MARCH 19 - 22, 2014

MARKER 2014 A5 / Baku, Azerbaijan

CONTEMPORARY ART ORGANISATION selected for Marker 2014 Exhibiting Artists:

TAHIR SALAHOV HUSEYN HAQVERDIYEV AGA OUSSEINOV ALTAI SADIKHZADE TEYMUR DAIMI ALI HASANOV ORKHAN HUSEYNOV REZA HAZARE

“Symphony of Sirens" by avantgarde Russian composer and theorist Arseni Avraamov.

Hazare’s work follows a tradition of Azerbaijani painting and draſtsmanship, yet as an Afghan refugee living in Baku, Hazare makes work imbued with nostalgia and criticism of his Afghan heritage.

Tahir Salahov (b. 1928), the oldest practising artist in the exhibition, became part of an accepted movement in the 1960s Soviet Union, spurred by the loosening of artistic control aſter Stalin’s death in 1953.

Using a sparse, high-contrast palette and angular brushstrokes, Salahov’s work is renowned for unpolished depictions of Azerbaijani citizens. Part of the next generation of artists, Altai Sadikhzade (b. 1951), Teymur Daimi (b.1966), Huseyn Haqverdiyev (b.1956) and Aga Ousseinov (b. 1962) show works in a variety of materials, signifying the experimentation permitted to artists maturing in the late 20th century. Ousseinov draws influence from early scientific research and diagrams and maps from Islamic and European culture to make mixed-media compositions, while Daimi’s films explore corporeality and the surreal.

YARAT’s participation in Marker, Art Dubai is part of YARAT’s ongoing programme of international projects and mission to create a platform for Azerbaijani art internationally.

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ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

YARAT Contemporary Art Space take part in Marker, Art Dubai’s curated gallery programme, at stand A5. Curated this year by the artists Slavs and Tatars, Marker takes Central Asia and the Caucasus as its focus and intends to celebrate the complexities of faith, identity and language in the region. Works have been selected to include artists born throughout the 20th century, creating an exhibition that spans three generations of art. Developing under the paradigm of socialist realism in the 1950s and 60s, artists born in the 1920s are set alongside those who matured aſter Azerbaijan’s 1991 independence and test new boundaries in art through use of new media and ideas.

Video, painting, mixed-media and sculpture are included in YARAT’s exhibition. Artists Orkhan Huseynov, Altai Sadikhzade, Ali Hasanov, Aga Ousseinov, Teymur Daimi, Huseyn Haqverdiyev, Tahir Salahov and Reza Hazare contribute works that cover subjects as diverse as collective memory, traditional dance, landscape and musical performance.

Works by Ali Hasanov (b.1976), Orkhan Huseynov (b.1978) and Reza Hazare (b. 1987) shed light on the emerging contemporary artists of Azerbaijan. Huseynov’s film Dancing with No Sound (2011) recalls traditional dances set to silence, while Ali Hasanov’s film Arsenium (2012) is a tribute to the first performance in Baku of the

• TAHIR SALAHOV

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b. 1928, Baku, Azerbaijan lives and works in Moscow and Baku

• THE BIRTH OF THE ARTICHOKE water color on paper / 2008 / 60 x 92 cm Courtesy of the BAKU MOMA and YARAT

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

Studied at Azimzade State Art College in Baku and the Surikov Moscow Art Institute in the 1950s. Salahov’s paintings and drawings, which came to prominence in Baku in the 1960s, counteract the polished ceremonial Soviet artwork of the Stalinist era, using a sparse, dark palette and angular stroke to create compositions of Azerbaijani citizens, from cultural figures to oil workers.

• HUSEYN HAQVERDIYEV

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b. 1956, Baku, Azerbaijan lives and works in Baku

• PROFIL stone carving / 2004 / 54 x 23 x 16 cm Courtesy of the BAKU MOMA and YARAT

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

has graduated from both the Azimzadeh State Art College, Baku (1975) and Mukhin High Art and Industrial Academy, St Petersburg (1980). He worked with different media, including sculpture, drawing and created monumental ast. Haqverdiyev has achieved widespread recognition for his work, in particular his public sculptures such as the Virgin Mary at Baku Catholic Church. In 2003 he was named the Honored Artist of Azerbaijan.

• AGA OUSSEINOV

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b. 1962, Baku, Azerbaijan lives and works in New York, USA

• THE FOG, series wire, burlap, hydrocal, tempera / 2004 / 44 x 54 x 3 cm Courtesy of the artist and BAKU MOMA

• THE FOG, series wire, burlap, hydrocal, tempera / 2004 / 43 x 44 x 3 cm Courtesy of the artist and BAKU MOMA

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

graduated from the V.I. Surikov State Art Institute in Moscow (1986) and achieved international recognition. Though he now lives in New York, he retains strong ties with Azerbaijan and represented the country at the 54th Venice Biennale, 2011. His sculptures, works on paper and videos are inspired by early scientific research of diagrams and map drawings from Islamic and European culture.

• OBSERVER OF THE PLANETS oil on canvas / 2010 / 100 x 120 cm Courtesy of the BAKU MOMA and YARAT

• ALTAI SADIKHZADE

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b. 1951, Baku, Azerbaijan lives and works in Baku

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

He is a renowned artist whose work is held in both museums and private collection sthrough out the world. He was trained both at the Azimzadeh College of Art in Baku and the V.I. Surikov State Art Institute in Moscow. He has since represented Azerbaijan at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. He is also an Honored Academician of Russian Academy of Arts. Though primarily a painter and sculptor, he designed and coordinated the construction of the Museum of Modern Art, Baku.

• TEYMUR DAIMI

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b. 1966, Baku, Azerbaijan lives and works in Baku

• UNDER COVER video / 2002 / 7 min Courtesy of the artist and YARAT

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

is a filmmaker and an artist who studied at the Azimzadeh College of Art and at the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Art. He is also an established writer whose articles have appeared in art publications around the world. Teymur's work was among the work chosen to represent the art of Azerbaijan at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2007.

His articles were published in the Azerbaijani pavilion’s catalogues for 52nd & 54th Venice Biennale.

• ALI HASANOV

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b. 1976, Baku, Azerbaijan lives and works in Baku and Moscow

• ARSENIUM video / 2012 / 12.34 min Courtesy of the artist and YARAT

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

is an artist, musician and filmmaker who works on art projects in both Azerbaijan and abroad. He graduated from the Azerbaijani State University of Culture and Art and received a degree in filmmaking from Baku International Film School. Since then, he has pioneered performance art in Azerbaijan and represented his country at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He is also the founder and leader of a musical collective called PG Large Used Project. Hasanov remains active in various genres such as visual and performance art, video and sound installations, as well as painting and drawing.

• ORKHAN HUSEYNOV

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b. 1978, Baku, Azerbaijan lives and works in Baku

• DANCING WITHOUT SOUND video / 2012 / 6 min Courtesy of the artist and YARAT

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

He graduated from the Azimzadeh State Art College (1995) and the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Art (1999) before going on to complete his Master's degree at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in Baku. He represented Azerbaijan at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. He works in a variety of media from painting to installation but his works are united by their celebration of Azeri customs and history.

• REZA HAZARE

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b. 1987, Zahedan, Iran lives and works in Baku

• IN EXCILE, series pencil on paper / 2008 / 62 x 86 cm Courtesy of the artist and YAY! Gallery

• IN EXCILE, series pencil on paper / 2008 / 62 x 86 cm Courtesy of the artist and YAY! Gallery

• NOSTALGY oil on canvas / 2008 / 120 x 140 cm Courtesy of the artist and YAY! Gallery

ART DUBAI / MARKER 2014 / YARAT / AZERBAIJAN

Born in 1987 in Zahedan, Iran.

Works and lives in Baku, Azerbaïdjan. Reza Hazare is an Afghan artist born in an Afganian refugee family. He graduated from the Visual Arts School of Teheran in 2005, and moved right aſter in Azerbaijan where he pursued his studies. His works constantly questions the living conditions of human beings aſter a war has ended, the status of refugees, and the way one can rebuild life aſter such events.

YARAT Contemporary Art Organization 31/33 A.Zeynalli str., Icheri Sheher, Baku, Azerbaijan, Az1000 www.yarat.az / info@yarat.az