Exploring inward

Aida Mahmudova & Faig Ahmed

Exploring Inward

Aida Mahmudova & Faig Ahmed

Exploring Inward Curated by Farah Piriyeva

27 January – 6 February Louise Blouin Foundation

Foreword

by Farah Piriyeva

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

Carl Jung 4 / Foreword

Exploring Inward

A

ida Mahmudova and Faig Ahmed have been brought together for this show to explore the intersecting territory on which their body of art is built. When viewing their works independently, you don't appear to find commonalities in their concepts, either visual or theoretical. However, if you place their artworks side by side, an unframed seascape by Mahmudova and the gravitational carpet by Ahmed, they radiate the same spirit, the same mood.

The mood of an explorer. Their work possesses the strong power inherent in any explorer, whether an explorer of distant lands, an astronomer exploring the universe, or a scientist exploring what lies within. There have always been those who were exploring from within – for instance, miners digging in the earth's core, or the early 20th-century psychologists who stated that the deeper you investigate the unconscious the closer you are to the truth. Looking inward will lead you to discover what lies beyond the surface.

Aida Mahmudova and Faig Ahmed both explore from within. This is what unites their work; the phenomenon of the explorer's curiosity, of one who travels in search of knowledge, who digs into the past to find a way forward. This constant cyclic journey present in their work brings them together, joined by the eternal question: What lies inside?

Foreword / 5

About Buta Festival

2nd BUTA FESTIVAL OF AZERBAIJANI ARTS LONDON. NOV’14 – MAR’15

Five years after introducing London audiences to the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan, the Buta Festival of Azerbaijani Art is back.

The 2014-15 festival seeks to explore the Azerbaijani soul, uncovering what makes this country so unique through its art. It's a journey back to the roots of a culture and a look at how those roots continue to grow vibrantly in the modern world.

The past five years have seen huge changes in Azerbaijan, especially in the capital Baku.

The city's landscape has been transformed by a series of landmark buildings and its cultural life has been hugely enhanced by some world-class exhibition and performance spaces.

From the sinuous curves of Zaha Hadid's award-winning Heydar Aliyev Centre to the imposing Flame Towers, the ancient city is shaking off its humdrum post-Soviet environment. And that process is inspiring a burgeoning contemporary art scene, taking the country to big international festivals and inspiring the fresh new YARAT to create a platform for a confident young generation in a country that is reinventing itself anew.

Indeed, reinvention is one of the underlying themes of this festival – traditional arts, from carpets to mugham, re-interpreted by a new generation of creative talents. Names like jazz pianist Isfar Sarabski as well as artists Aida Mahmudova and Faig Ahmed take on traditional forms and transform them. They follow in the pioneering footsteps of the likes of jazzman Vagif Mustafa Zadeh, composer and conductor Niyazi and artist Farkhad Khalilov, all of whom are represented in the festival.

This time the Buta festival takes to the streets of London with a series of public art installations from seven of the brightest talents in contemporary Azerbaijani art. These works form the core of a quest; each work, displayed around London, reflects a facet of the national character and unlocks the answer to a riddle.

There is no better way of getting to know another culture than to explore its creative life.

In the upcoming months the Buta Festival will show how Azerbaijan is changing – rapidly, before our very eyes – into a lively, contemporary nation which has deep respect for its proud traditions while forging an exciting new future. butafestival.com / 7

Artists

Aida Mahmudova & Faig Ahmed

Artists / 9

Aida Mahmudova

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ida Mahmudova's body of work is aimed at retrieving the memories of her motherland and shows the eternal richness of the modest neighbourhoods of the Absheron peninsula in Azerbaijan, the countryside of her childhood. It depicts the intensity of a lucid dream of remembering, almost a hallucination. “My art is a constant and continued investigation of my memory, as it informs my identity�, says the artist. Her artwork resembles the landscape of the unconscious mind, demonstrating a chaotic combination of those vague images of one's past, a chronicle of the memories that have been locked away, the flashbacks that haunt us all.

A 17-metre-long unframed canvas, entitled On the Way Home, by the Sea, the biggest artwork created by Mahmudova, depicts the Caspian Sea and its shores, as she remembers it. This monumental piece delivers the artist's longing for her memory of the sea, the feelings it awoke back then when looking at it, rather than just the sea itself. The image of the sea was an integral part of her childhood, as she passed along its shores on her daily journey home. The Absheron peninsula is embraced by the waves of the Caspian Sea, and throughout history, Azerbaijani artists have always been influenced by its magical and mysterious views. These views, sometimes restless, sometimes calming, left an indelible impression on Mahmudova as a little girl.

She remembers the sea as it appeared to her then, powerful and awe-inspiring in its 10 /

The vulnerability of the emotionally painted seascape, accomplished through a dreamlike soft colour scheme and expressive application of acrylic paint executed with a bold impasto, shows the sensitive and delicate nature of the artist herself. By exploring and investigating her memories, Mahmudova unveils her deepest recollections creating a work that resembles the mysterious and irrational workings of the unconscious mind. The work's overwhelming entity only emphasises that surreal and silent space, which has no angles or landmarks, just like Mahmudova's painting, which leads one to experience a sense of disorientation first and then hits you with a wave of nostalgia. Her monumental work is more than just a pictorial representation of the sea.

Somehow, the process of watching this massive landscape is a mirror experiment, where one experiences looking at the reflection of one's own memories.

Artists / Aida Mahmudova / 11

Artists / Aida Mahmudova / 13

Faig Ahmed

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orking with ancient carpet, Faig Ahmed constantly uncovers its timeless symbolism, those ceaseless patterns containing deep spiritual signs and symbols that he tries to decipher.

His work resembles that na ve inquisitiveness of a child that wishes to break down anything that comes its way, in order to find out what it is made of. The artist strongly believes that by decoding those messages, one will be led to uncover the essence of infinity, endessly looking for the exit that will bring you to nothing but the inception. Just like Mahmudova, Ahmed is showing another type of cyclical journey, not the inner one but the macrocosmic, within which mankind exists.

At some point in his career, Ahmed started questioning and wondering about eternity, genetics, and the inevitability of existentialism. Aimed at breaking down and even refusing the solid canons and ancient traditions, experimenting with incorporating Azeri rug making into abstract shapes, creating fusion pieces by redefining the boundaries between folk and contemporary art, Ahmed suddenly faced something irreversible, that he has no way out of. His work for the Exploring Inward exhibition is dedicated to the latest research he has been doing inspired by these considerations, possessing that constant interflow with infinity.

Indeed, Ahmed's kaleidoscopically bright and conceptual rugs carry an exuberant Opart sensibility; the structural tension and a 14 /

bold perspective achieved by integrating tumour-shaped errors and elements of chiaroscuro drag the viewer somewhere beyond the surface. Those deflections growing within the monochrome rhythms of the carpet frames presented by Ahmed at Exploring Inward resemble the slow motion ripples of an atomic bomb imploding instead of exploding.

Many understand Ahmed's work and the processes he captures as external. However, those alienated forms and shapes that he incorporates into the rug-weaving process can be perceived from another angle, by considering them as processes of internal character. By internally growing and decoding that ancient representation of tradition, Ahmed brings it to another level, a 4D format, just like his monumental installation Gravitation. What will the carpet look like once what fundamentally belongs to it has been taken away, like a mechanical device lacking a power source? A massive carpet that looks absolutely static and yet radiates some sort of dynamism inside, has been disassembled by the artist-decipherer and resembles a silent motionless sculpture hanging in the gravitational space.

Artists / Aida Mahmudova / 15

Faig Ahmed

Threads Installation

DISCONNECTION Size variable Edition 1/1 150 x 350 cm Date: 2014 16 /

Artists / Aida Mahmudova / 17

Faig Ahmed

Carpet

UNTITLED Size variable Edition 1/1 150 x 240 cm Date: 2014 18 /

Carpet

UNTITLED Size variable Edition 1/1 150 x 200 cm Date: 2014 Artists / Aida Mahmudova / 19

Faig Ahmed

Carpet

GARA Handmade woolen Edition 2/3 200 x 150 cm Date: 2014 20 /

Carpet

INVERT Handmade woolen Edition 2/3 200 x 150 cm Date: 2014 Artists / Aida Mahmudova / 21

Faig Ahmed

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Installation

BREAKUP AND BREAKDOWN Woolen carpets (2 pieces) Edition 1/1 200 x 250 x 350 cm Date: 2014 Artists / Aida Mahmudova / 23

Faig Ahmed

Artists / Faig Ahmed / 25

About Artists Aida Mahmudova B. 1982, Baku, Azerbaijan Lives and works in Baku and London

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-forprofit 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.

Solo exhibitions: 2013 INTERNAL PEACE, solo exhibition, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland

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INTERNAL PEACE, solo exhibition, Kichik GalArt Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan Group Exhibitions: 2014 ‘HERE TODAY…’, international art exhibition, by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Baku Magazine, The Old Sorting Office, London, UK 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: 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 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

Faig Ahmed B. 1982, Sumgait, Azerbaijan Lives and works in Baku

Faig Ahmed graduated from the Sculpture faculty at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in Baku in 2004. Faig represented Azerbaijan at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Since 2003, he has been working with various media, including painting, video and installation.

Currently, he is studying the artistic qualities of Azerbaijani traditional rugs – he disassembles their conventional structure and randomly rearranges the resulting components of the traditional composition then combines these fragments with contemporary sculptural forms. Our opinions and decisions are resulting from the influences of our childhood. If we could know all the details of someone’s life we could easily predicted his reactions and choices. Tradition is the main factor creating the society as a self regulated system.

Changes in the non-written rule happen under influence of global modern culture. The carpet is a symbol of invincible tradition of the East, it’s a visualization of an undestroyable icon. In my art I see the culture differently. This is more of expectation of a reaction because it’s exactly the change of the points of view that changes the world. Slight changes in the form of a carpet dramatically change it’s structure and maybe make it more suitable for the modern life.

The Eastern culture is very reach visually. I cover it all in minimalistic forms, destroying the stereotypes of the tradition and creating new modern boundaries. A man can widen the borders and change them but no one has ever dare to break our spirit.

Solo exhibitions: 2014 Fluid forms, Cuadro Gallery. Dubai, UAE 2013 East in Twist, Leila Heller Gallery, NYC, US 2012 Actual Tradition, Kicik Qalart gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan Actual Tradition, Islamic Art Festival, Sharjah, UAE Group exhibitions 2014 Cuadro gallery, Exhibition of artist in residency, Dubai ,UAE Past tradition , Exhibit 320 gallery, curated by Diana Campbell. Delhi, India Artist in residence. Delfina Foundation. London. UK LOVE ME LOVE ME NOT. Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan Threads, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem .

Holland,Arnhem

At the Crossroads 2, Sotheby’s auction house’, London, UK 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; 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 HOME SWEET HOME Contemporary art exhibition, Baku MOMA, Azerbaijan Love me Love me Not, Venice Biennale, Yarat contemporary art space pavilion’, Venice, Italy Wonder works, Cat street Gallery, Honk Kong’, China Jameel Prize 3 shortlist nomination Victoria & Albert Museum. London, UK SOTHEBY’s At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art from the Caucasus and Central Asia, London, UK HOME SWEET HOME Contemporary art from Azerbaijani Cultural Center in Paris, France 2012 NEXT LEVEL, Contemporary art gallery “YAY”, Baku, Azerbaijan Commonist, Yarat Contemporary art space, Baku, Azerbaijan Merging Bridges, Yarat Contemporary art space, Baku, Azerbaijan 012 BAKU PUBLIC ART Festival, organized

by YARAT Contemporary Art Space Baku, Azerbaijan 2011 Foreward, organized by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan FABULOUS FOUR, Kicik Qalart gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan 2010 IMAGINE ART AFTER, E:vent Gallery, London, UK 2009 BAKUNLIMITED. Exhibition of contemporary art of Azerbaijan. Voltahalle, Basel, Switserland IV Internetnational Transkaukazja festival, Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw, Poland 2008 STEPS OF TIME, Exhibition of contemporary art of Azerbaijan. Kunsthalleim Lipsiusbau, Dresden, Germany MINIMUM WAGE project group-exhibition Center of Contemporary Arts Baku, Azerbaijan 2007 REALITIES OF DREAMS, ALUMINUM 3, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Baku Azerbaijan OMNIA MEA, Azerbaijan Pavillion, 52nd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy 2006 CAUCASUS Contemporary Art Exhibition of Caucasus artist, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia 2005 Man & Woman, Exhibition project, Museum Center,Baku, Azerbaijan 2003 Aluminium 1, by Wings of Time Association, Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan

About Artists / 27

... Understand ‘Exploring Inward’ as an experiment, just as Faig Ahmed experiments in his works; and expect it to be spacious, just like Aida Mahmudova's sea of memories, her perception of inner landscape and its connection with the outer world...

Farah Piriyeva

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About Curator Farah Pirieva Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio Bio

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Credits Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page

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PUBLISHED IN 2015 ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2ND BUTA FESTIVAL OF AZERBAIJANI ARTS LONDON. NOV’14 – MAR’15

BUTAFESTIVAL.COM

EXHIBITION Curator: Farah Piriyeva Produced by: Buta Festival Support: YARAT, YAY Gallery CATALOGUE Design by Fakhriyya Mammadova Images © Rauf Askerov Text © Farah Piriyeva For the book in this form © Buta Festival All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the rights holder.

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