01 Jun 2011

The Pavilion of Azerbaijan in the 54th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia

The Pavilion of Azerbaijan in the 54th International Art Exhibition  la Biennale di Venezia, June-September 2011  presents

RELATIONAL, OF BAKÛ

Artists; MIKAYIL ABDURAHMANOV, ZEIGAM AZIZOV, KHANLAR GASIMOV, AGA OUSSEINOV, ALTAI SADIGHZADEH, AIDAN SALAKHOVA. 

Distinguished artists from Azerbaijan are presenting their works in the Azerbaijan Pavilion, in the 54th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia, in Palazzo Benzon.

The seven paintings of Mikayil Abdurahmanov, the seven paintings and two sculptures of  Altai Sadighzadeh, the five sculptures and eight drawings of Aidan Salakhova, the floor sculpture, the performance  and the mixed media installation of  Khanlar Gasimov, the video and mixed media installation of Zeigam Azizov and the video and mixed media installation of Aga Ousseinov were conceived in consideration of the concept  “ILLUMInations” and are installed with dialectical arrangement to the abundantly decorated rooms of Palazzo Benzon.

The works of these artists markedly advocate an inspiring culture of Baku, but the content and aesthetics of their work is extremely relational, intricate and complex and need to be perceived within the intricate discourses of today’s  global art. In regards to their current environmental contexts, i.e Baku, London, Moscow, New York their concepts, techniques and styles are quite diverse, but their imaginary and hypothetical horizon, which opens to inter-cultural and inter-human relations, is common. 

Like many other of their generation, these artists have witnessed and experienced the political and economical transformation of the last four decades; all of them had a strong modernist inheritance, even if it was determined by Soviet ideology; and later all of them have experienced the rise of culture as symbolic capital. For all of them, Baku is the nucleus of the fire that has ignited their creativity, but they all had a desire to break through the borders of that officially programmed art and culture. Indeed the pavilion is being signified with an ornamental double-gondola, a picture inscribed onto the Gobustan rocks, southwest of Baku. The tradition in Azerbaijan, as deep as Prehistory, is intentionally displayed in the graphic identity of the pavilion. The exquisite double-gondola image from Baku, transported to the Grand Canale in Venice not only represents the depth of universal  cultural relations based on visual expression and production but  is also a concurrence to the allure of Tintoretto  in the biennale concept.

In current cultural environments in South Caucasus, Middle-East and the East Mediterranean there is a fusion of tradition, modernism, post-modernism and relational aesthetics, over and above a quest for subjectivity within the democratization processes. The works of these artists strongly reflect this fusion and subjectivity.  However, this fusion and quest for subjectivity distinguishes itself from the Western model. In one perspective it strikingly embodies a 20th century rupture and unity of contradictory forms and concepts under the influence of Eurocentrism, Orientalism, Nationalism, Utopia and Chaos; in the other it includes the general reification of human relationship under the restraints of market economy. Yet, despite all these challenges the artistic praxis is pursuing globally widespread interests, effective and convincing opinions and enriching imaginary that come to existence in visual productions.

The Azerbaijan Pavilion is realized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The exhibition is curated by curator and comissar of the Pavilion Cinghiz Farzaliev and curator Beral Madra (BM Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul) with the contributions of co-commissioner Vittorio Urbani (Nuova Icona, Venice).

The team of the Pavilion respectively consists of Assistant Curator: Amina Melikova, Editor: Togrul Afandiyev, Coordinator: Suad Garayeva, Coordinator:  Mila Askarova, Photographer & Designer: Farhad Farzaliev and Exhibition Architect and Designer: Vincenzo Casali.