III Baku Public Art Festival of Arts "A drop from the sky", organized by the Contemporary Art Space YARAT, will be held from June 13th to October 5th, 2015. Its start well coincides with the first European Games to be held at the same time in Baku, so the festival will be visited by a large number of visitors and residents. Among the participants of the festival are artists such as Wafaa Bilal, Ergin Cavusoglu, Farkhad Farzaliyev and Nazrin Mammadova. Works of participants will be placed in various galleries throughout the city, also using networking technologies will be created create virtual exhibition hall. The festival will be accompanied by an educational program, including film club, conversations with artists and working on for two weeks creative workshop AA Baku school, which is a joint project with the London Architecture Association, led by architects and professors AA Omid Kamvari and Kasper Eksom.
Curated by Sara Raza, curator of the department of Middle East and North Africa and the Guggenheim UBS MAP and the head of the educational department of YARAT, the festival shows how contemporary artists and their audiences perceive rapid natural, scientific and technological changes that are taking place in Baku and beyond. Drawing inspiration from the works of Russian and world-futurist Velimir Khlebnikov, the festival opens up new ideas in poetry, philosophy, astronomy, logical and irrational. Paying tribute to the rich history of the city as an important trading port and its modern transformation, "A drop from the sky," pays special attention to projects that express nostalgia for the past and anticipation of the future and show how cross ancient and modern.
Opening the festival 13 of June, the Turkish-Bulgarian artist Ergin Cavusoglu will present a special tied to the place anamorphic outdoor painting in the Old City, called "Spread of the liquid" (2015). This work is inspired on the one hand by a long-time interest in the creativity of the artist pioneer of conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp, on the other, the rapid growth of Baku in breadth and upward. Work of Cavusoglu will include a three-dimensional architectural model, on which the artist invites pass everyone who wants to. This daily walk is recorded on camera and record broadcast on the monitor, which will create the illusion that the audience is moved inside the sculpture. 13 of June Cavusoglu will talk about his work presented at the festival in the Centre of Contemporary Art YARAT
Also studying the rapid growth of Baku, young artist Nazrin Mammadova presented the future transformation of the city in her video game "OUROBORUM" (2015), which will be presented July 22th and in which she offers gamers to participate in the reconstruction of simulation and game of the new city of the future. Its name work has received of a snake swallowing its own tail, the Ouroboros, a character of Greek mythology, the popular symbol of cyclical and continuous degeneration, it is also associated with various concepts of Azerbaijani culture, and it combines historical subjects, complex geometric pattern, futuristic architecture and folk music, both traditional and modern. The game can be downloaded for free on iOS.
Neon billboard of Farkhad Farzaliyev called "GÖYDƏ GÖY-GÖYƏRTİ GÖYƏRDİ", which will be presented June 26th – a poetic charade, playing with language and lyrics. Transforming the language of commercial advertising through the repetition of the same consonant in a variety of neon words Farzaliyev studied objects of daily mass consumption, and the fact which absurd processes occur with text, language and sounds. Turning and revising the connection between heaven and earth, the artist aims to bring down the viewer , both in language and in the field of logic and cause an ironic attitude toward the prose of everyday life and to commercialize its semiotics.
In early October, the American artist Wafaa Bilal of Iraqi origin will create a special sculpture in the form of pinhole camera called "hierarchy of beings" which was first introduced in the park of art Mariah in the United Arab Emirates in 2013. The project of bilal inspired by the works of medieval Muslim scholars, especially two Iraqi scientists and pioneers in the field of optics and visual transmission of motion, Ibn al-Haytham and Ibn al-Jazari, who worked in the era of "the Golden Age of Islam" between 750 and 1258 years. In the context of the Baku Bilal focuses on the relationship between architecture and people as two parts of a permanent installation on the coast of the Caspian Sea, and seeks to "slow down" the perpetual motion of the city.
Along with the festival, in June, begins an educational program based on a live conversation with the artists. A series of film screenings, inspired by science fiction and futuristic themes, will be held from July to August in the Centre of Contemporary Art YARAT and the open-air rooftop YAY Gallery. The program includes works by contemporary artists, and filmmakers, including Larissa Sansur, Shezada Dawood, Deniz Uster and Vahid Vakilifara. Further a two-week special open workshop organized by AA Baku School, created in collaboration with the London Architectural Association under the guidance of architects and teachers of AA Omid Kamvari Casper and Aix. AA Baku School for the first time in the history of the Caucasus region will bring together architects, writers, artists and thinkers , allowing them to participate in the seminar and consider the most advanced ideas in the field of spatial thinking.
The program of open festival:
13 of June, 17:00 – Ergin Cavusoglu. "The spread of the liquid" in the street Kichik Gala in Icheri Sheher
13 of June, 19:00 – Ergin Cavusoglu. Conversation with the artist in the Centre of Contemporary Art YARAT
26 of June, 21:00 – Farkhad Farzaliyev. GÖYDƏ GÖY-GÖYƏRTİ GÖYƏRDİ (opposite the metro station "28 May")
3 of July, 19:30 – Vahid Valikifar. Screening of the film Taboor involving the artist, the audience of the Center of Contemporary Art YARAT
10 of July, 19:30 – Larisca Sansur. Screening of "The Heritage of the Nation" with the participation of the artist, the audience of the Center of Contemporary Art YARAT
22 of July, 19:00 – Nazrin Mammadova. Presentation OUROBORUM in the video room of the Center of Contemporary Art YARAT
11 of August, 21: 00- Deniz Uster. Screening of the film "Beyond Borders means before" in the cinema in the open air on the roof of the gallery YAY
18 of August 21:00 – Shezad Davud. Screening of the film "In the direction of a possible film" in the cinema in the open air on the roof of the gallery YAY
5 of October, 19:00 – Wafaa Bilal. Presentation of the "hierarchy of things" – a place is not yet determined
About the curator:
Sara Raza (b. 1979, Surrey, United Kingdom) – curator of the Middle East and North Africa Guggenheim UBS MAP, Head of Education and Public Programs in the Centre of Contemporary Art YARAT and executive editor for West and Central Asia in the journal "Art Asia Pacific". Over the past 10 years, Raza organized large number of exhibitions in institutions such as the Center of Arts in Sharjah Mariah (2011-2014), where she worked with artists such as Adel Abidin, Wafaa Bilal and Mohammed Kazem, in the Centre of art Alaa in Riyadh where she worked as a curator of exhibitions and educational programs, in particular, Soft Power – three exhibitions of contemporary Saudi artists (2012). Raza was also involved in the organization of Rhizoma, exhibition of young novice Arab artists in the "Arab wave" at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013).
Raza received a master's degree in the history and theory of art (the twentieth century) at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and is now working on her doctorate, studying contemporary art in Central Asia at the Royal College of Art.
About the artist:
Wafaa Bilal (b. 1966, Iraq) became famous, provoking debate about international politics and internal dynamics through his high-tech art projects in which he makes extensive use of robotics, Internet and motion pictures. Works of Bilal keep coming back to the subject of his personal experiences of runing from his native country and the existence of two worlds at the same time – in the comfortable home in the United States and, in his minds, in the conflict-torn Iraq. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico and a Master of Arts at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Now he is an assistant professor in the School of Arts Tisch in New York University.
Ergin Cavusoglu (b. 1968, Bulgaria) studied at the National School of Fine Arts "Ilia Petrov" in Sofia. Then he received a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Marmara, Istanbul, a Master of Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a doctorate from the University of Portsmouth. Now he lives and works in London. In the center of conceptual art of Cavusoglu stand themes of "the spirit of the place", the threshold conditions and conditions for the creation of cultural values, which he is developing, using a variety of means – narrative films, videos, sound installations, sculpture and painting. Cavusoglu represented Turkey at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. He was nominated for the Beck's Futures Prize (2004), Artes Mundi 4 (2010).
Farkhad Farzaliyev (b. 1989, Baku) has received a master's degree with honors from the Azerbaijan State University of Architecture and construction in Baku (2012). In his works he mainly uses installations, but also works in the fields of painting, drawing, photography and sound. Farzaliyev since 2011 is a member of the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan, 2013 – participant in the project YAY Gallery and the Centre of Contemporary Art YARAT. He took part in the 16th Festival of Islamic Art at the Museum of Art in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2014). His works are represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in Baku. Farkhad Farzaliyev lives and works in Baku.
Nazrin Mammadova (b. 1989 Kutaisi, Georgia) graduated from the Eurasian Diplomatic Academy in Baku and received a Bachelor of Arts at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow, Russia. She is a member of the Union of photographers of Azerbaijan and participant of projects YARAT. Her recent exhibitions include "Time to dream"; Photofestival GRID in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; 16 th Islamic Art Festival in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (all in 2014). In 2014 she graduated from courses Delfina Foundation in London. Now she lives and works in Baku.
