Contemporary Art Space Azerbaijan
POETICS OF THE ORDINARY
Contemporary Art Space Azerbaijan as the focus country for the not-for-profit exhibition Vienna Focus VIENNA INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2 - 5 OCTOBER 2014 SANAN ALESKEROV ORKHAN HUSEYNOV AIDA MAHMUDOVA www.viennafair.at www.thenewcontemporary.com www.yarat.az
POETICS OF THE ORDINARY
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Cramped, low buildings and narrow roads as a result of chaotic construction characterize the district of Sovetsky, meaning ‘Soviet’. The quarter is renowned for its challenging living conditions as for its ornate architecture, with elaborate window grates and old wooden doors. Sovetsky also has an important role in the country’s history; many prominent figures of Azerbaijan in the 20th century were born in Sovetsky. Solidarity and traditional principles have united Sovetsky’s communities in the surge of cultural change and external pressures. Based on this YARAT artists at ‘VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary’ have created a body of works that reflects the rich history and culture of Sovetsky. 4
POETICS OF THE ORDINARY
Forward
About
YARAT is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally. Based in Baku, YARAT (meaning CREATE in Azerbaijani) was founded by Aida Mahmudova in 2011. YARAT realises its mission through an on-going program of exhibitions, education events and festivals. YARAT facilitates exchange between local and international artistic networks including foundations, galleries and museums. A series of reciprocal residencies further fosters opportunities for global cultural dialogue and partnership. 6
Educational initiatives include lectures, seminars, master classes, and the Young Artist Project ARTIM (meaning PROGRESS in Azerbaijani). ARTIM aims to encourage the next generation of Azerbaijani creative talent to seek a career in the arts, and gives young practitioners the opportunity to exhibit their works in a professional context. Founded as part of YARAT’s ongoing commitment to growing local art infrastructure in 2012, YAY Gallery supports both national and international artists. YAY is a social enterprise, so all proceeds from sales are shared between the artist and YARAT. 7
About
Since its inception in 2011, YARAT has produced over 70 events, both in Azerbaijan and abroad. These include participation in biennales; two public art festivals; educational courses for artists, art students and children; lectures, screenings and film festivals for the general public; and exhibitions of both Azerbaijani and international artists. The exhibition at the 55th Venice Biennale of Art in 2013 was a milestone project for YARAT, bringing together 17 artists from Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, Turkey and Georgia, to consider the present and historical cultural dialogues shared by these neighbours. The exhibition went on to Baku where it was shown at the award-winning Heydar Aliyev Center, designed by Zaha Hadid. Exhibiting artists included Slavs and Tatars, Taus Makhacheva, and Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed, who went on to receive a nomination for the Jameel Prize and exhibited at London's Victoria and Albert Museum in early 2014. Other milestone projects for YARAT include the exhibition Merging Bridges at the Baku Museum of Modern Art in 2012, which featured artists James Turrell, Idris Khan and Sarah Lucas amongst others, shown in dialogue with Azerbaijani artists. In 2013 YARAT produced the second public art festival Participate, involving five international and five Azerbaijani artists whose works focused on community and participation. That year YARAT also brought previously unseen work by artist Lalla Essaydi to the Baku Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition Beyond Time and Beauty. Through their ARTIM program to support young artists, YARAT produced an exhibition of 29 emerging Azerbaijani artists called Zavod. Curated by artist Faig Ahmed, this exhibition took place in an abandoned exSoviet air-conditioning factory. In 2014 YARAT increased its reach through international projects. At Art Dubai Marker, the institutions and not-forprofit section of the fair, YARAT brought work by eight artists. YAY Gallery brought two emerging YARAT artists to the Saatchi Gallery in London to take part in the inaugural START art fair, dedicated to young galleries internationally. In autumn 2014 YARAT produced one of two non-profit projects at Moscow's contemporary art fair COSMOSCOW, with a solo exhibition by Rashad Alakbarov. YARAT now brings three artists to VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary for this year's VIENNA Focus exhibition for 2014.
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YARAT's education program is wide-reaching; to date YARAT has led master classes and short courses with professors from institutions in Russia and the Caucasus region, as well as from the University of Arts London and Royal College of Art. YARAT has produced workshops for children from under-privileged parts of the city, as well as screenings and lectures for art students. In 2014 YARAT held a Photography Summer School in partnership with Magnum Photography in Baku, while in London, several artists undertook residencies at Delfina Foundation supported by YARAT. YARAT continues to expand its programs and facilities. In autumn 2014 YARAT opened a building with 13 artists’ studios and living spaces for artist(s)-in-residence. In March 2015 YARAT will open a dedicated new art centre; YARAT Contemporary Art Space. This will be a 2,000 square-metre building in a former naval base, housing exhibition galleries, their growing permanent collection, an auditorium, an education centre and a library.
Introduction
“Real change, or rather the cause of all change, is always internal... It is the renewal of mind that produces better health, more happiness, greater power, the increase of life, and the consequent increase of all that is good in life.” Christian D. Larson, 1912, ‘Your Forces and How to Use Them’
Cities, like human beings, need constant renewal to move forward into the future. Constantly re-inventing and redefining themselves to keep pace with modernity, however long-standing they may seem, cities are transient. Baku is no exception. A city with an ancient history, Baku is currently undergoing rapid urban and social change. YARAT’s ‘Poetics of the Ordinary’ examines this phenomenon through the prism of one of the city’s districts, which is on the brink of change – Sovetsky. For many, Baku’s ‘Sovetsky’ area is a place with a distinctive character and unique social climate. The street was initially named Yuryevskaya (1788-1917), before being changed to Sovetskaya in 1929 when the adjacent districts came to be known as Sovetsky. Nowadays the street is renamed after a prominent writer and social activist N.Narimanov. th The formative period for Sovetskaya Street was the end of the 19 century when an oil boom attracted people from all walks of life to Baku. Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Baku has always been home to ethnic and cultural diversity, but during this period it was magnified. An unprecedented growth in population led to a construction boom and the new labourers who worked in construction, oil fields and industrial facilities settled around Sovetskaya Street. The city became increasingly cosmopolitan, as Italian and French architects were commissioned to build magnificent mansions for new oil barons and the face of the city began to change. th Around Sovetskaya Street at the end of the 19 century there was a large indigenous population with a strong sense of community. The dense population and immigration meant traditional ways of life in these communities were combined th and a distinct culture began to form. As the 20 century began, the population continued to grow, with people from villages around Azerbaijan, such as the Absheron villages of Novkhani, Sarayi and Hokmali, settling in the district. Residential architecture developed chaotically, and living in close quarters, the communities preserved their culture as the city changed further. As the 20th century progressed, the Soviet government sought to erase the differences between social classes, religious groups and ethnicities to encourage homogeneity amongst its vast population. However, Sovetsky's strong community kept much of their cultural practice in tact. While authorities were trying to instil new values and introduce a uniform Soviet identity, Sovetskaya Street and the area around it began to stand for a unique Azerbaijani mentality, psychology and lifestyle. Many writers, artists and scientists came from Sovetsky and contributed to the emergence of the
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“Life is the principle of self-renewal, it is constantly renewing and remaking and changing and transfiguring itself, it is infinitely beyond your or my obtuse theories about it.” Boris Pasternak, 1957, ‘Doctor Zhivago’
‘Azerbaijani’ art and culture of that time. During the Soviet era, many were criticized and even prosecuted for living by their own unwritten rules and breaking out of conventional thinking of that time. Up until the 1980s, Sovetsky retained this symbolic role as the main hub of resistance to the official Soviet power, but its role became less important after the dismantling of USSR and Azerbaijan’s political independence in 1991. This new cultural context made Sovetsky less visible st in the life of contemporary Azerbaijan. At the turn of the 21 century, city planners became aware of the need of redevelopment for many areas that were neglected during the Soviet era including Sovetskaya Street. The exhibition Poetics of the Ordinary features three Azerbaijani artists who address this recent history and the shifting urban reality of Baku. Contemporary Azerbaijani artists Aida Mahmudova, Senan Aleskerov and Orkhan Huseynov, each work with different media to portray the life of Sovetsky (Sovetskaya Street) and the people who live there. The works include black and white photography, installation and video art. Sanan Aleskerov (b.1956) offers a rare glimpse into Baku’s forgotten corners through his street photography of Sovetsky. With a career spanning several decades, Aleskerov predominantly produces work in black and white, ranging from portrait photography to photojournalism. His new series of photographs opens with a roof-top view and goes on to explore the urban landscape of the area, focusing on empty streets and their crumbling 'monuments' to Soviet infrastructure such as telephone poles and old drinking fountains. The focus of Aleskerov’s series of images is the dilapidation of physical surroundings and a need for renewal. Orkhan Huseynov (b.1978) works across different media including painting, installation and video to express his ideas. He belongs to a generation of Azerbaijani artists who have gained international recognition in recent years. His new work is concerned with the individuals who live in the district of Sovetsky. In this series of filmed vignettes he exposes the ‘underbelly’ of Baku, recreating both joyful and violent scenes from his own childhood and those of his friends and family. Through isolating vivid memories, he sheds light on life in Azerbaijan before its independence in 1991. An installation by Aida Mahmudova (b.1982) repurposes an ornate door fragment from the Sovetsky district. The fragment is combined with 'shadows' cast on the floor in polished steel, brought together to highlight the transience of this urban environment and commemorate a moment in time. This work follows on from Mahmudova's installation, sculpture and painting that are concerned with memory, nostalgia and identity that represents Azerbaijan's modernisation.
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Artists
SANAN ALESKEROV ORKHAN HUSEYNOV AIDA MAHMUDOVA
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THE GREATEST CHALLENGE IS TO SEE… _ Teymur Daimi
Sanan Aleskerov
THE GREATEST CHALLENGE IS TO SEE‌ _ Teymur Daimi
If we asked ourselves what media technology is the most popular and widespread, the answer would be unequivocal – photography. It is difficult to find a more accessible and popular form of visual expression than the photograph. In terms of media practices, our period is likely to go down in visual art history as the century of popular photography. 16
Everyone takes photos, and everything is photographed. For this, it is no longer necessary to have a stand-alone camera – a mobile phone or tablet ‘charged’ with necessary technical ability can capture images. Everyday life for the modern individual has ceased to be private, due to the availability of photographic technology, combined with social networks where the captured images can be immediately uploaded. Additionally social networks designed solely for the placement and distribution of photos, offer digital manipulation tools that enable images taken to appear professional. The privacy of individuals has been infringed upon uncontrollably. The images of food, clothing, hairstyles, body parts, gatherings and tomfoolery, not to mention the epidemic selfie with its ‘viral’ narcissism have lead to a phenomena that can be characterized as a cult of ‘decadent exhibitionism’. The increase of availability of modern technology that enables the ordinary laymen to enhance or manipulate images has unfortunately encouraged the dilution of the perception of what is professional photography. The current trends have lead to the degradation of this art form. Sanan Aleskerov is a prominent Azerbaijani photographer who has shunned the current modern evolution of mass digitally enhanced photography but has managed to stay relevant within the contemporary context. Aleskerov is a representative of the older generation of photographers. Admirers of his work name him as a living classic and consider him as 'the father of Azerbaijani photography.' Aleskerov witnessed the period of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan. Moreover he grew, and his mind set was formed by the formal Soviet educational system that explains his core principles and thorough attitude to the craft of photography. Working in various genres, techniques and formats, Aleskerov demonstrates an adoration of his hometown, Baku, to which he has devoted a huge body of work. I recall that a few years ago, Sanan advised one of his able pupils to make a series of images dedicated to Sovetskaya Street. He said that the photos taken are going to have an enduring value as historical records. The prospect of regeneration was little doubted, but few thought that it would occur with such a pace. There is no doubt this old and seemingly unattractive street, as well as many other similar nondescript streets, will be transformed in accordance with regeneration and modernisation of Azerbaijan. Baku city, as the capital of Azerbaijan, cannot enter into the new millennium with ‘architectural load’ of the past.
The ‘architectural load’ relates to a huge number of old residential buildings and structures that have no particular historical or cultural value, and have a use that expired long ago. Yet culturally it holds significance and the preservation of that memory is crucially preserved by newsreels, photos and film. Here again, we come to the inevitability of photography as the most relevant of media outlets. Not narcissistic pop pictures, but a thoughtful, singular photography. This is the sort of art that is an endearing aspect of what has been developed by Sanan Aleskerov in his creative laboratory. Aleskerov presents three photographs dedicated to the Sovetskaya Street. What is their focus? Aleskerov’s center of attention is doubly framed to indicate the subjectivity of the author, the elements he is interested in and the elements he wants to draw the viewer’s attention to. It is more challenging to put accents inside the frame of a picture, in contrast to painting and drawing, because the cold and dispassionate photograph fixes everything with the same indifference of a camera lens. In other words, all points on the surface of the image are equal. But in Aleskerov’s photographs, we see how he manages to frame within the frame; each picture leads the eye along a certain track – the hues and changing tone of the composition highlighted, immediately draws our attention. The artist places the object of his interest into the work’s center, framing that center to distinguish it further and add the double accent. The impassive and cold lens of Aleskerov captures the image; it is the photographer’s skill to highlight what he truly sees. As such, the picture becomes not just a neutral chronicle but also a living testimony.
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Sanan Aleskerov
UNTITLED 2014 scan from analog photo digitally manipulated digital print, plastification 180 x 180 cm
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UNTITLED 2014 scan from analog photo digitally manipulated digital print, plastification 180 x 180 cm
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Sanan Aleskerov
UNTITLED 2003 scan from analog photo digitally manipulated digital print, plastification 180 x 180 cm
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PRESERVING MEMORY _ Teymur Daimi
Orkhan Huseynov
PRESERVING MEMORY _ Teymur Daimi
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Orkhan Huseynov’s Atelier Sovetsky is an eightchannel video installation dedicated to the theme of the Baku street known as ‘Sovetskaya’ (meaning Soviet Street). In Soviet times, almost every town in the USSR had a street with this name. Sovetskaya Street in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was not just an ordinary street like any other – it possessed a unique subculture. In other words, this district was a separate, and in many ways self-sufficient world, with its own rituals, ideas and laws shaping the everyday lives of its residents. The artist conceived this project because this street is now undergoing a radical transformation due to the regeneration of Baku’s infrastructure. Huseynov’s video aims to document the subtle mental landscape and unique atmosphere of this street. It aims to document what is worthwhile in order to ensure that its enduring spirit, so dear to many generations, is preserved in people’s cultural memory. Contemporary art provides the necessary conceptual tool for such reflection. The artist’s work, then, is linked with the theme of memory – in other words, the theme of conscious life itself, which is not possible without memory. One’s sense of self is rooted in an uninterrupted process of self-remembering, i.e. memory of one's own existential core. Every day: there is a change in one’s surroundings or situation, the backdrop to one’s life. The person living through all these changes and observing them always remembers, thanks to his memory that contains the ‘common thread’ of his inner identity. He may be swept away by some activity or may plunge, ‘self-forgetting’, into a situation that fills him with turbulent emotions, but never for one second does he doubt his own identity. Loss of memory as the basis of self-identity is equivalent to destruction of the individual as an integral, self-aware being. In such a case we may continue to live for a long time as a physical body, but as a mentally and socially active individual, we cease to exist. Chingiz Aitmatov's novel The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years is the story of a man who is taken prisoner and undergoes unimaginable torture, administered with the intention to deprive him of memory. He is turned into a being, though human in form, has no memory
ATELIER SOVETSKY The Boy / The Demobee 2014 video installation, format HD1080p various durations
of its previous life. In this novel, the author introduces the idea of the mankurt, a man without a past, who can be used to carry out murders and other sordid tasks… Over time, this word has become a generic term. We have established, that a person's loss of memory and the past – as one of the links in the time vector of past-present-future – implies destruction of the individual, a spiritual death. Does this also apply to the community? Probably it does, as illustrated in expressions such as ‘collective memory’ and ‘collective unconscious’. Memory is a characteristic of a social organism, a nation, a people or any community of individuals, and the loss of this memory results in destructive processes and the disintegration of the collective body. How can a community's memory be preserved? In two ways: by commemorating the hallowed dates of momentous events for the community (the 'mental' route to commemoration), and through material artefacts – architectural monuments, sculptures, features of the urban landscape which have their history and hence a niche in the community’s collective memory. Today, one of the most serious threats to collective memory, strange though it may seem, is progress. As the Russian scientist Sergei Kapitsa put it: ‘the ‘historical epoch’ has been compressed into one generation. We cannot fail to notice this… Stalin, Lenin, Napoleon and Nebuchadnezzar – they belong to what is known in grammar as the pluperfect: the distant past. It has become fashionable to bewail the generation gap, the death of traditions – but perhaps this is a natural consequence of the acceleration of history’. With the disappearance of these communities, a whole stratum of history is lost, entire subcultures are disappearing. Why are these subcultures important? On the face of it, unsightly, old one – and two-story houses, built around yards with no special amenities or comfort. Yet it was just these difficult living conditions that created the special microclimate of this district. Here, in Soviet times, the influence of Soviet legislation was least felt. The atmosphere was one of reckless, anarchic freedom of spirit. Instead of the codified laws of the Soviet Union, precedence was 25
Orkhan Huseynov
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ATELIER SOVETSKY The Family / The Prisoner / The Rabbit / The Man / The Game 2014 video installation, format HD1080p various durations
given to a concept of honour and an archaic understanding of justice, springing from the moral code and philosophy of life of the inhabitants of the Greater Caucasus. At the same time there was special warmth arising from lively human presence and participation; people were close in spirit, both in their joys and in their misfortunes. Through his work, the artist Orkhan Huseynov has tried to preserve a ‘mental extract’ of this subculture in the historical memory of the people of Baku. The eight screens of his video installation show little scenes with minimal physical activity, taking the form of small expressive gestures associated with the behavioural conventions that prevailed in the Sovetskaya Street district. Despite the use of modern moving-image technology, the artist has chosen a retro style – the mini-actions on the screens are presented in the style of old Soviet black-and-white photographs. Photographers in the 1950s, 1960s and even later, tended to tint with gentle colouring, they retouched black-and-white photos with special dyes, turning them into glamorous pictures. Although they were not considered glamorous in their day as the technique was routine. In the Atelier Sovetsky, the ‘retrospective’ content is in keeping with the ‘retrospective’ form. The artist's work, reflecting scenes of characteristic 'mini-gestures', aims not only to recreate the chains of associations linked with this district of the city, but gives visual form to a new, modified folklore. 27
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POETICS OF THE ORDINARY _ Teymur Daimi
Aida Mahmudova
POETICS OF THE ORDINARY _ Teymur Daimi
We are at the beginning of the third millennium for the Azerbaijani capital Baku, a period that will be remembered for a constructional boom of an unprecedented scale. Of course, throughout its history, the city has been renewed, rebuilt, enlarged. New housing estates, neighbourhoods, parks, cultural and social facilities have appeared. But the developments happening now are both qualitatively and quantitatively different. 30
We are witnesses to a fundamental rebirth of the city, its transition in to another ‘architectural dimension’. This is a real cultural and town-planning revolution. However, the city hasth witnessed dramatic change once th before. In the late 19 and early 20 centuries, an oil boom in the then little-known, provincial city of the Russian empire turned Baku into a cultural and industrial centre of the South Caucasus over a few years. Baku was born as millions know it today – the Windy City and the city of ‘black gold’. The oil barons, as if competing with each other to show their culture and generosity, erected uniquely beautiful buildings and cultural structures that withstood comparison to the most beautiful architectural sites in Europe of that period. Baku gained a reputation for being an open, cosmopolitan city, at the crossroads of all sorts of religious and cultural traditions, nations and languages. Then, under the Soviet regime, there was a long period of relative 'calm' when Baku changed gradually, almost invisibly, to the casual onlooker. Today we are in the midst of the second petroleum boom. The signing of the ‘contract of the century’ by the 12 large global oil companies in 1994 marked the beginning of Baku's passage into a dynamic and selfrenewing metropolis. Today, vast areas of the urban environment are bustling construction sites. The town-planning policy has a clear drive toward the future that is now inevitably close to us, when we behold the most extravagant architectural structures of the city – the newly built Heydar Aliyev centre, designed by the architect Zaha Hadid, and the ‘Flame Towers’ to name a few. But like any progressive process, this transition is not without risks. In particular, a radical re-formatting of the urban landscape requires the utmost caution towards the old buildings and architectural structures of enduring historical value. Baku is a city with a history dating back to ancient times and its story is reflected in stone, in the architectural appearance of the capital. Aida Mahmudova, has focused her creative activity on the cultural and aesthetic relevance and re-contextualisation of objects belonging to the architectural past of Baku. She is far from indifferent to the old and worn spots, battered by time and ruthless circumstances. Mahmudova belongs to a generation not only open-minded to all new things, provoking liberal innovative changes in society, but also to one less linked
UNTITLED 2014, detail Installation, wood stainless steel, iron 695 x 105 x 266 cm
Aida Mahmudova
to the past. As the past disappears rapidly into the shadows, the younger generation, who are now in their 30's, have not had time to become spiritually attached to these cultural formations, they seem too ‘ancient’ (in historical scholarship this has been called ‘time compression’). By contrast, Mahmudova embodies a reverent attitude to nostalgia, centred on such urban places, which are fixed in her childhood memory. The installation by Aida Mahmudova is an example of this reverence. In the installation there is one old door, shabby yet noble in its beauty and craftsmanship, with a cast shape on the floor, resembling a fallen shadow from the metallic lattice of the door. These two visual elements – volumetric and planar figures – mark the vertical and horizontal of the composite space. The object is minimalistic, but is has a history, or rather prehistory. The door was once part of a residential house in Sovetskaya Street, reminding us that everything has its beginning, continuation and end. We are challenged to think of this in another way, everything does not die, but transforms, and is reborn in a new way. It might be that the initiator of the new birth is an artist who puts an object doomed to dereliction, into the guise of an artwork – and this is at the core of Mahmudova’s work. This composition is one of the many works inspired by a long-term fascination with such transience and renewal. The strategy is simple and noble: to give new life to old objects, so as not to interrupt the relation between the past and the present. The installation by Mahmudova tracks two concerns which originated in modern art – the ‘ready made’ and Arte Povera (Italian for poor art). These traditions are brought together with one important caveat – in Mahmudova’s work she has included a quality that is risky for contemporary art, aesthetics. This presents a risk because the aestheticizing of an object can reduce it to the level of applied design, neutralising critical issues that are crucial to the discourse of modern art. The shift from the brutality of Arte Povera to a more aesthetically focused composition is brought about by the ornate ‘shadow’ cast on the floor. The stainless steel does not reflect the shadows from wrought iron frame of the lattice, but on the contrary, the steel depicts where the empty space between the wrought iron frame is. Such contradiction is resolved in the work with the utmost sensitivity to these empty spaces between the
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UNTITLED 2014, detail Installation, wood stainless steel, iron 695 x 105 x 266 cm
Aida Mahmudova
frame. The reason for this focus on the negative space is to highlight her recurring concern with time and memory. What is a lattice? A door or window lattice, it does not matter... First of all, it is a material object of planar shape, consisting of a pattern within the wrought iron frame, with empty spaces between. This creates a clear pattern faceted by the wrought iron. We must admit that our attention is mostly attracted by the mesh pattern of the frame, our view also penetrates the openings. This is similar to how we look at the world through a window. In a symbolic sense we are talking about the special optics of vision, which may be described as the universal ‘Eye of Memory’ accommodating a plurality of views of people of different generations. The ‘Eye of Memory’ is invisibly and paradoxically accumulated in these cross-cutting patterns, on the border between the worlds. To exhibit it, it is necessary to give material form to this invisible ‘substance’. Hence, Mahmudova fills in the spaces with solid material and it changes something invisible and etheric into something visible and tangible. She concretizes and compacts the things that can disappear subtly. The artist, therefore, perpetuates the fleeting and subtly perceptible, crystallizes the spiritual, commemorates a moment... Another association related to the symbolic stainless steel polished to a high finish used by Mahmudova, is the theory by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, who is said to have invented the legendary ‘Kozyrev’s mirrors’, in order to compress time. The author seems to aesthetically balance the outline of wrought iron frame and patterns of the empty space created between them, unwittingly recognising the equivalence of the figure and background. We can deduce that the door and the complex horizontal figure on the floor complement each other. The door, being ready-made, gives momentum to the subject, while the lattice suggests a more delicate ‘needlework’. In addition to this symbolism, the work of Mahmudova is unobtrusively beautiful, yet totally devoid of saccharine prettiness. The installation is a progression of her earlier work it emphasises the recurrent themes that are integral to the understanding of her own identity. Nostalgic, old memories illustrated through the use of ‘readymades’ to reflect the timelessness of the object and its memory even though it has been transformed within a contemporary context.
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UNTITLED 2014 Installation, wood stainless steel, iron 695 x 105 x 266 cm
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About Artists
SANAN ALESKEROV ORKHAN HUSEYNOV AIDA MAHMUDOVA
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Sanan Aleskerov B. 1956, Baku, Azerbaijan Lives and works in Baku, Azerbaijan
Sanan Aleskerov graduated with a degree in journalism from Azerbaijan State University in 1982 and has worked with photography in a number of ways during his career, including photo-journalism and commercial photography. Between 1999 and 2009, Aleskerov served as a chairman of the artistic council of the Union of Photographers of Azerbaijan. Since 1996 he has been teaching, with a creative focus on documentary photography. Characteristic work of his involves projects that observe urban, social and visual changes to cities and landscapes. Sanan Aleskerov is highly regarded for his photography. For ten years he headed the Artistic Council of the Azerbaijan Association of Photographers and gained many followers. Over the past quarter of a century, he has been awarded many prestigious prizes in national and international photographic competitions and festivals. Aleskerov artist was among the first contemporary Azerbaijani photographers to gain recognition abroad after Azerbaijan gained its independence. As a journalism graduate, Aleskerov has returned repeatedly to the genre of documentary photography with a focus on observational projects. According to Aleskerov, what interests him is ‘spiritual ecology’. This definition includes relationships between people, man's relationship to the environment, and the life of this environment independent of human intervention – the world of objects, architectural structures and wildlife. Aleskerov's work is held in the collection of Museum of El Salvador Velasek, Reus, Spain; The Baku Centre of Arts, Baku, Azerbaijan; and the Museum of Istiglal, Baku, Azerbaijan. It is also held in private collections in USA, Turkey, Austria, Germany, UK, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Norway and France.
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Solo exhibitions 2013 TRANSPARENCY OF SIMPLICITY, YAY GALLERY, Baku, Azerbaijan 2008 IMAGES, Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan 2003 SHAHID AVENUE – 1990, Istiglal Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan SANAN ALESKEROV: SELECTED WORKS, University Marc Bloch, Strasbourg, France 1998 ELEMENTS OF MY LIFE, Gallery TMS, Tbilisi, Georgia 1988 SANAN ALESKEROV: SELECTED WORKS, Baku Centre of Arts, Baku, Azerbaijan 1987 SANAN ALESKEROV: SELECTED WORKS, Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan Group exhibitions and projects 2012-2013 'FLY TO BAKU. Contemporary art from Azerbaijan': Kunsthistorisches museum - Neue Burg, Vienna, Austria; Spazio D - Maxxi building National Museum of XXI Century arts, Rome, Italy; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia; me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France; Phillips de Pury& Company, London, UK 2013 ORNAMENTATION, 55th Venice Biennale, Azerbaijan Pavilion, TRANSPARENSY OF SIMPLICITY Photography Collection, Venice, Italy 2010 'THE SEVEN: Contemporary Azerbaijan Photography', Curator, Modern Art Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan 2009 CULTURE SCAPES ASERBAIDSCHAN, Cultural Days of Azerbaijan, Basel, Switzerland PHOTOQUAI, Musee du quai Branly, Paris, France 2008 STEPS OF TIME, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany
2007 DIALOG WITH NEIGHBOUR, Efeshane Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey 'CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY IN AZERBAIJAN', Contemporary Art Centre, MOMA, Moscow, Russia OMNIA MEA, Azerbaijan Pavilion, FIRE, Labyrinth Group project, 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy INTERNATIONAL PROJECT RECOGNIZE NEIGHBOUR, Tophane Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY IN AZERBAIJAN, CSI Gallery, Moscow, Russia 2006 KARAVANSERAI AZERBAIJAN – IDENS RIKE, Archaeologist Museum, Stavanger, Norway 2005 LANDART-OIL, Labyrinth Group project, Contemporary Art Festival, Q Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan 2002 AYNA – 2002, First International Photography Festival, Association of Photographers of Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan 2001 DAYS OF CAUCASIAN CULTURE IN MONGOLIA. A collection of works', Museum of Modern Art, Ulan Bator, Mongolia APPENDIX, exhibition of a conceptual photo, Karvasla, Tbilisi, Georgia 2000 FIRE, ‘Labyrinth’ Group projects, V. Samedova Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan ‘Labyrinth’ Group exhibition, CDH Gallery, Moscow, Russia 1989–1991, 1995–1997, 1999 London Salons of the Photo, London, UK Awards 2006 Special Prize, 'Tradition and Modernity' Competition, Baku Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan 2001 Grand Prize, 'Image of PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Competition, Baku, Azerbaijan First Place, 'Tradition and Modernity' Competition, Baku Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan 2000 Humay Award for Labyrinth 'Landart I' project, Baku, Azerbaijan 1996 Bronze Medal, Federation of International Art Photography, Istanbul, Turkey 1995 – 1996 London Salon of Photography Honorary Medal, London, UK 1994 Honorary Ribbon, Federation of International Art Photography, Edinburgh, UK
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Orkhan Huseynov B. 1978, Baku, Azerbaijan Lives and works in Baku, Azerbaijan
Orkhan Huseynov graduated from the Faculty of Ceramic Design at the Azimzadeh State Art College in Baku in 1995 and from the Faculty of Ceramic Design at Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Art in 1999. He received his Master’s degree in 2000 from the Faculty of Art History and Theory at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in Baku. Huseynov works in the fields of installation, painting and video. Orkhan Huseynov works with painting, drawing and many other media to consider Azerbaijan's country's folk tradition and history. Cultural idiosyncrasies, everyday life, monuments, and traditional games all find reflection in his works. Previous painting and graphics series have been devoted to subjects ranging from pre-revolutionary Baku and the country’s oil fields, to Baku’s nightlife and the private lives of the city’s inhabitants. His subjects are often imbued with humour and always with attention to historical accuracy. Huseynov’s recent works range from political responses to the NagornoKarabakh conflict, through to conceptual works that reference cultural history, such as the previously exhibited work Sabir from Fly to Baku.
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UNDER THE SCALDING SUN, painting project, Deutch Kirche, Baku, Azerbaijan
Solo exhibitions 2013 THE OFFICE. Solo exhibition. Kichik Qalart Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan 2003 V. Samedova Exhibition Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan OLD BAKU, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2000 VakifBank Art Gallery, Ankara, Turkey Orkhan Huseynov – Graphics, Humay Azeri Cultural Centre, London, UK 1999 Solo exhibition, V. Samedova Exhibition Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan Group exhibitions 2014 LOVE ME LOVE ME NOT, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2012-2013 ‘FLY TO BAKU. Contemporary art from Azerbaijan’: Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan; Kunsthistorisches museum – Neue Burg, Vienna, Austria; Spazio D – Maxxi building National Museum of XXI Century arts, Rome, Italy; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia; me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France; Phillips de Pury& Company, London, UK 2013 LOVE ME LOVE ME NOT, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 2012 MERGING BRIDGES, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan 012 BAKU PUBLIC ART FESTIVAL, Baku, Azerbaijan COMMONIST, Contemporary art exhibition, organized by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 FOREWORD, Alternative Art Place, Baku, Azerbaijan FABULOUS FOUR, ArtExEast Foundation, Baku, Azerbaijan THE JOURNEY TO THE EAST, Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK), Krakow, Poland THE JOURNEY TO THE EAST, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland 2010 GROUND FLOOR AMERICA, Den Frie Centre for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen ‘Contemporary Art of Azerbaijan’, Aidan Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2009 TRANSFORMATION ALUMINIUM 4, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Baku BAKUNLIMITED, ‘Cultural Days of Azerbaijan’, Voltahalle, Basel, Switzerland M’ARTIAN FIELDS-COLLABORATION. Exhibition ot young artists, M’ARS Gallery, Moscow, Russia 2008 ART IS NOT ONLY UGLY, Atrium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, Germany STEPS OF TIME: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan, Residenzschloss, Dresden, Germany MINIMUM WAGE project, group-exhibition, Center of Contemporary Art, Baku, Azerbaijan 2007 nd OMNIA MEA… Azerbaijan's first national presentation at 52 Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy REALITIES OF DREAMS. ALUMINIUM 3, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Baku Azerbaijan 2006 CAUCASUS Exhibition, Moscow State Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia EAST OR WEST, International Art Festival, Museum of Art, Die, France 2005 MAN & WOMEN exhibitions projects, with French Embassy in Azerbaijan, curator and participant, Museum Centre Art Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan ALUMINIUM 2, International Contemporary Art Festival. Museum Centre Art Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan 2004 METRO – SPACE, former Galeria Priestor for Contemporary Art, Bratislava, Slovakia 2003 7+7. MORE TRANSPARENT, The Museum Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan 1st International Exhibition ALUMINIUM, Baku, Azerbaijan INOUT, international festival of digital arts, Prague, Czech Republic LAST EAST EUROPEAN SHOW, international exhibition, Muzej savremene umetnosti, Belgrade, Serbia 2002 ORIENTALISM: INSIDE & OUTSIDE. International exhibition, S.Bakhlulzada Exhibition Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan CAUCASIAN ALEATORY, International exhibition, Batumi, Georgia COSMOPOLITICA, The performance action in framework of International Music Festival ‘New music from the Last Century’, Baku, Azerbaijan 2001 Turkish-American Association’s Gallery, Ankara, Turkey 2000 WINGS OF TIME, Exhibition of Young Artists, Khagani Art Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
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Aida Mahmudova B. 1982, Baku, Azerbaijan Lives and works in Baku and London, Azerbaijan
Aida Mahmudova is an Azerbaijani artist and the Founding Director of YARAT, a not-for-profit contemporary art organisation, based in Baku. Her work addresses memory and nostalgia. Drawing inspiration for the landscape and architecture of Azerbaijan, Mahmudova works in installation, sculpture and painting, to capture forgotten and marginal corners of her rapidly modernising country. The core of Mahmudova’s work involves repurposed abandoned architectural features, formed into installations, as well as paintings of empty sites on the outskirts of Baku. Seeking to commemorate a moment in time through these subjects, her works act to counter the on-going experience of transience, yet they simultaneously celebrate items which are themselves on the cusp on disappearing. As such, Mahmudova preserves the sense of ephemerality that permeates a country already layered with past civilisations. Key to Mahmudova’s work is the tension between fiction and reality, and a fascination with memory and identity’s impermanence. To Mahmudova, identity is formed by memory, which is continually altered and ‘re-remembered’ over time. The landscapes and architectural relics externalise this sense of change and reflect underlying tensions experienced by the generation who experienced Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991. She graduated from Central Saint Martin's in London with a degree in Fine Art in 2006. To date, her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the MAXXI in Rome and the 55th Venice Biennale for the exhibition ‘Love Me, Love Me Not’ (which later travelled to the Zaha Hadid – designed Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku) amongst others. Her work was also the subject of a solo exhibition at the Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich. In 2011, Aida Mahmudova founded YARAT, a not-for-profit contemporary art organisation based in Baku, Azerbaijan. YARAT is dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan, and creating a platform for Azerbaijani art both nationally and internationally. The organisation also produces a comprehensive programme of exhibitions and education. In 2012 she launched YAY Gallery, a social enterprise which shares proceeds between exhibiting artists and YARAT's projects. Mahmudova was appointed Curatorial Director of Baku Museum of Modern Art in 2013 to oversee their exhibition programme.
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Solo exhibitions: 2013 INTERNAL PEACE, solo exhibition, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland INTERNAL PEACE, solo exhibition, Kichik GalArt Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan Group Exhibitions: 2014 POETICS OF THE ORDINARY, ViennaFair The New Contemporary, Vienna, Austria LOVE ME LOVE ME NOT, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan 2013 LOVE ME LOVE ME NOT, Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 2012-2013 FLY TO BAKU. Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan: Kunsthistorisches Museum – Neue Burg, Vienna, Austria; Spazio D – Maxxi building National Museum of XXI Century arts, Rome, Italy; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia; me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France; Phillips de Pury & Company, London, UK HOME SWEET HOME group exhibition, Azerbaijan Cultural Center, Paris, France and Baku Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Baku, Azerbaijan 2012 012 BAKU PUBLIC ART FESTIVAL, Baku, Azerbaijan MERGING BRIDGES, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 FOREWORD, Alternative Art Space of YARAT, Baku, Azerbaijan
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Credits & Copyrigths
Pages 2-3. Baku, Sovetskaya Street. 1950s. Unknown photographer. Courtesy: State Archive Center of Moving Image and Photo materials (Baku) Page 5. Detail from Orkhan Huseynov's video installation “Atelier Sovetsky”, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Page 9. Detail from Aida Mahmudova's installation taking place, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Page 14. Redevelopment of Baku. Yuryevskaya street. Demolishment of the buildings takes place on Priyutski street and the whole area stretching up to First Kanitinski street. May 1928. Photo by Bregadze. Courtesy: State Archive Center of Moving Image and Photo materials (Baku) Page 18. Sanan Aleskerov. Untitled. 2014, scan from analog photo, digitally manipulated, digital print, plastification. 180 x 180 cm. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Page 19. Sanan Aleskerov. Untitled. 2014, scan from analog photo, digitally manipulated, digital print, plastification. 180 x 180 cm. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Pages 20-21. Sanan Aleskerov. Untitled. 2003, scan from analog photo, digitally manipulated, digital print, plastification. 180 x 180 cm. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Page 22. Baku, View from Sovetskaya Street. 1960s. Unknown photographer. Courtesy: State Archive Center of Moving Image and Photo materials (Baku) Page 25. Orkhan Huseynov. Stills from video installation “Atelier Sovetsky”, “The Boy”, “The Demobee”, 2014, various durations. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Pages 26-27. Orkhan Huseynov. Stills from video installation “Atelier Sovetsky”, “The Family”, “The Prisoner”, “The Rabbit”, “The Man”, “The Game”, 2014, various durations. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Page 28. Baku, Sovetskaya Street, 1960s. Unknown photographer. Courtesy: State Archive Center of Moving Image and Photo materials (Baku) Page 31. Aida Mahmudova. Detail from “Untitled”, 2014, installation, wood stainless steel, iron, 695 x 105 x 266 cm. Photography by Fakhriyya Mammadova. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku)
Page 33. Aida Mahmudova. Detail from “Untitled”, 2014, installation, wood stainless steel, iron, 695 x 105 x 266 cm. Photography by Fakhriyya Mammadova. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Pages 34-35. Aida Mahmudova. “Untitled”, 2014, installation, wood stainless steel, iron, 695 x 105 x 266 cm. Photography by Fakhriyya Mammadova. Courtesy of the artist and YAY Gallery (Baku) Pages 36-37. View of Baku city. Photography by Fakhriyya Mammadova for Baku Public Art 2013 organised by YARAT. Page 40. Sanan Aleskerov. Photography by Natalya Abilova. Florence, Italy, 2013, Courtesy of the artist and Natalya Abilova Page 42. Orkhan Huseynov. Photography by Fakhriyya Mammadova, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2011. Courtesy of the artist and Fakhriyya Mammadova Page 44. Aida Mahmudova. Photography by Fakhriyya Mammadova, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Fakhryya Mammadova
Published in 2014 on the occasion of the exhibition POETICS OF THE ORDINARY VIENNAFAIR The New Contemporary as the VIENNA Focus special exhibition for 2014 Vienna International Art Fair 2 - 5 October 2014 Messe Wien, Austria, Hall A
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