NEWS

From October 31 to November 4, the 1st International TURKSOY Theater Festival will be held in Shusha and Baku, Report informs.

The festival will be held on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev, the declaration of the city of Shusha as the cultural capital of the Turkic world for 2023, the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the professional national theater of Azerbaijan, and the 30th anniversary of TURKSOY.

The collectives of TURKSOY member countries—Samarkand Musical Drama Theater from Uzbekistan, Issyk Gol Musical Drama Theater named after Kasimali Jantoshev from Kyrgyzstan, Turkestan Musical Drama Theater from Kazakhstan, Istanbul State Theater from Türkiye, and Turkmenistan State Musical Drama Theater named after Mahdimgulu—will take part in the festival.

The festival will also bring together well-known theater experts and stage personalities from the Turkic world, and the issues of the development of this field in sister countries will be discussed.

As part of the international event, the 9th meeting of the council of directors of state theaters of TURKSOY member countries is planned to be held in Shusha.

Tofig Ibrahim Mirzayev was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist for his contribution to the development of Azerbaijani cinema.

According to Report, President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree in this regard.

At the same time, by another presidential decree, Mirzayev was awarded Shohrat Order (Order of Glory) for his merits in the development of Azerbaijani cinema.

On June 16, Mirzayev will be 90 years old.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Doménikos Theotokópoulos, better known as El Greco (Crete, 1541-1614) l, meet for the first time in the house-museum that the Cretan painter has in Toledo and that allows to contemplate, in the same space, to these two painters who broke norms and revolutionized art, according to Indo&NY.

It is a face-to-face meeting that reveals the common features and the color palette that made the work of these two geniuses a reference to the world. Picasso admired El Greco, and it is well known that the Cretan painter influenced the work of great Spanish painters. So the arrival from this Wednesday of two canvases from Malaga to Toledo, which make up the exhibition "Picasso visits el Greco", has become 'good news' and one more claim for the cultural offer of the regional capital.

The artist from Malaga has come to the Museo del Greco de Toledo "la casa del cretense" to show two of his reference works: "Woman with a hat sitting in an armchair" and "Venus and love", in a museum that would have been a reference, just as the Prado was, if it had existed when Pablo Picasso began to paint. This transfer has been made possible thanks to the institutional exchange with the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland, which has made it possible for two works by Picasso to be exhibited at the Museo del Greco until September 25, which were last in Spain in 2015, at the Museo del Prado, as explained this Wednesday during the presentation of the paintings by the director of the El Greco Museum, Rosa Becerril. In return, the Museo del Greco has lent 'San Juan', 'San Bartolomé' and 'San Simón', three paintings from El Greco's Apostolate that will form part of the 'Picasso-El Greco' exhibition, which can be visited from 11 June to September 25 at the Swiss museum. The location of 'Venus and love' has been installed in the library, in front of Greco's 'San Bernardino', which is a characteristic work of his final production; and 'Woman with a hat sitting in an armchair' is in the Apostolate room, next to 'The tears of San Pedro' by Greco, with which it coincides in composition and colours.

Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor this weekend confirmed to the BBC that the band would be releasing a new song featuring the band’s late, legendary frontman Freddie Mercury called “Face It Alone”, according to Deadline.

Taylor called it, “a little gem from Freddie,” culled from the sessions for their 13th studio album, The Miracle, which was released in 1989. Mercury died two years later.

Taylor said in the interview that they had “kind of forgotten about” the tune, calling it “wonderful” and “real discovery.”

He then teased, “I think it’s going to be out in September.”

May added, “It was kind of hiding in plain sight. We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t really rescue that.’ But in fact, we went in there again and our wonderful engineering team went, ‘Okay, we can do this and this.’ It’s like kind of stitching bits together…But it’s beautiful. It’s touching.”

Mirzagha Ali oghlu Aliyev -an Azerbaijani Soviet theater and film actor, People's Artist of the USSR, the winner of two Stalin Prizes of the second degree was born on October 25, 1883 in Hovsan settlement of Baku. In 1893-1896, he studied at Muslim religious school in Persian and Arabic, in 1897-1899, went to the Baku State Russian-Muslim School, and in 1899-1900, at the Baku Vocational College. In 1900-1901, he worked at the Baku Taghiyev factory. Mirzagha Aliyev‘s path to the theater is similar to the path followed by G. K. Sarabsky and many others: young factory worker Aliyev got acquainted with the actor of one of the Baku amateur companies M. Muradov in 1901. Soon he left the work at the factory. At that period, Aliyev put up playbills and sometimes took part in amateur performances. In 1902, he was entrusted with the small role of a servant in M. F. Akhundov’s play "Dervish Mesteli Shah". After the debut of the newspaper, an increasing interest of the audience to the young actor was noted. The spectators were admired by the images of Shakhmarbey created by M. Aliyev (“Fakhraddin’s grief” by N. Vezirov), and many others. In 1906-1907, M. Aliyev headed the "Hamiyyat" theatrical group that made shows mostly in industrial districts of Baku. Soon he joined the theater group of the “Nijat” society. Like many other older actors of Azerbaijan, M. Aliyev did not receive professional education. In 1905-1906, M. Aliyev performed very successfully in vaudevilles (translated and original comedy plays with music) preceding the comedy genre in Azerbaijan.

In 1908, he appeared in the “Irshad” newspaper calling on the Baku intelligentsia to organize a publishing partnership to publish works by Azerbaijani writers, poets and playwrights. In 1909, he became one of the initiators of the opening of the Russian-Azerbaijani women's school. Mirzagha Aliyev died on 25 October 1954, in Baku. One of the streets of Baku is named after him.

Netflix and Formula 1 have confirmed that the highly popular series, "Formula 1: Drive To Survive" has been renewed for the fifth and sixth seasons.

The Netflix crew will arrive in Baku to film the fifth season to be released in 2023, Azernews reports citing.

"Formula 1: Drive to Survive" is a documentary series produced in collaboration between Netflix and Formula One to give a behind-the-scenes look at the drivers and races of the Formula One World Championship.

Season 4, which documents the 2021 Formula One World Championship documents, shows the fierce title battle of that season between seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and Dutch driver Max Verstappen.

The fourth season ranked in the top 10 on the Netflix platform in 56 countries around the world.

Meanwhile, the 2022 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, known as the world's most prestigious motor racing competition, will take place in the City of Winds on June 10-12.

The motto of the sixth Grand Prix will be "F1 returns: to the track and to the stands!".

The BCC also presented the most striking visuals of the season. For the first time, they were symbolized by the colors of the Azerbaijani flag.

No concerts will be held this year in order to ensure the safety of spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic.

However, Baku City Circuit (BCC) gets ready to host various entertainment for race fans at the Seaside National Park.

The 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will last three days. There will also be certain changes in the timing of the races within the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. F1 racing will be held in Azerbaijan until 2024.

A new collection of carpets has been presented at the Heydar Aliyev Center.

The unique art project, supported by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, is aimed at preserving and promoting Azerbaijan's spiritual values ​​and cultural heritage, Azernews reports.

Six artists and fourteen carpet weavers, headed by People's Artist of Azerbaijan Eldar Mikayilzada, took part in the creation of a new collection, titled "Azerbaijani carpentry. Dance of Loops". The work on the project started in 2016.

Prominent figures of culture and science, representatives of the diplomatic missions, creative intelligentsia and youth organizations attended the event.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the director of the Heydar Aliyev Center, Anar Alakbarov, expressed gratitude to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Heydar Aliyev Center, and the team that participated in the implementation of the project.

Anar Alakbarov stressed that the part of the collection was previously presented at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and then in Cannes. He noted that the project was presented for the first time in Baku.

People's Artist Eldar Mikayilzada thanked President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, and the Heydar Aliyev Center for the high attention to national culture and craftsmen arts.

"The idea of the collection was born in 2014 under the influence of the carpet map of the great master Latif Karimov. I started to collect the necessary material based on ancient architecture, carpet ornaments, and clothing. As a result, the sketch project was presented to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and was further implemented at the highest level," he said.

Some 170 colors and shades are used in the new collection inspired by the Palace of Shaki Khans, rich flora and fauna, Tekelduz embroidery and etc.

Detailed information about the works is included in the book of the same name.

With its unique design and high artistic value, Azerbaijani carpets art is known worldwide.

Through the attention of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, a number of important documents for the development of Azerbaijan’s carpet art have been adopted, and various projects have been implemented.

In 2010, UNESCO included Azerbaijan's carpet weaving art in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Azerbaijani carpets are divided into seven major carpet weaving schools distinguished by patterns, composition, color palette, and techniques: Guba, Baku, Shirvan, Ganja, Gazakh, Karabakh, and Tabriz.

According to their technical aspects, Azerbaijani carpets are classified as flat-woven (pileless) and knotted (pile).

The national carpets are kept in the world's best museums such as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Victoria and Albert in London, Textile in Washington, Louvre in Paris, Topkapi in Istanbul, Berlin Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of New York, and the Museum of Art in Budapest.

Spectacular fashion show "AFFFAIR in Carpets" and presentation of carpets have been held in Baku.

The large-scale event took place at the Heydar Aliyev Center with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Azernews reports.

Inspired by Azerbaijani carpets, in particular, from the Karabagh carpet school, the project focuses at preserving the historic traditions in contemporary ways.

The fashion show featured magnificent dresses designed by acclaimed national designer Rufat Ismayil. The fashion collection was designed on the basis of Azerbaijani carpet motifs.

For many centuries, the carpet-weaving art has been passed down from generation to generation in Azerbaijan. Diverse carpet motifs have always given impetus to creative ideas and art works.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation successfully implements a number of projects to support, preserve and promote Azerbaijan's carpet-weaving worldwide.

In 2010, the Azerbaijani carpet art was included into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO.

Entered on UNESCO's list, the national traditional carpet-making art again draws attention to new projects.

Speaking at the event, the Board Chairman of Azerkhalcha OJSC Emin Mammadov stressed that Azerbaijani carpet weaving has a long history.

"Azerbaijani carpet weaving has a long history, being a classic art. Each type of art, including carpet art, is on the path of development and search for new ideas realized in collaboration with designers and conceptual artists. Thanks to this, we are implementing new projects to preserve and Azerkhalcha OJSC works presented here, created on the basis of five well-known carpet motifs, have been produced in a limited number of 25 copies. In the new project, we created harmony and synthesis of ancient traditions and modern trends," he said.

The fashion show included 50 dresses from the collections "Sumakh Haute Couture" and "Sumakh Affordable Luxury".

So far, the fashion collection Sumakh Haute Couture" has been previously demonstrated in Paris and Moscow. The collection "Sumakh Affordable Luxur" was presented in Baku for the first time.

Art works created on the basis of five famous carpet motifs included in the collection are especially remarkable.

The carpet "Folding-unfolding" is remarkable among Karabagh carpets for their artistic features, being a part of the set of patterns related to the series of "Folding-unfolding" carpets.

Elements of another artwork, remarkable for its beauty, originate from the Karabakh carpet. Seeming to be composed of repeated elements from the first sight, this composition scatters about as a myriad of stars.

The art work called "Nakhchivan" was created from various elements of a carpet, an example of the Karabakh carpet school, and new composition by using patterns of the Khatai and Chalabi carpets.

The artist was inspirated by the elements of Hunting carpets (Karabakh carpet school) and used elements of the composition "Band-Rumi", which has been widely seen in Azerbaijani and the Near East art schools. As a result, he created a beatiful artistic composition with a lattice content.

The art work "Pazyryk" took its source from the carpet of the same name related to the Turkic ancestry and is considered the oldest carpet in the world (dating back to 2500 years), preserved at the Russian Hermitage Museum.

As part of celebration of 75 years of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotasav, the Embassy of India, Baku is screening Bollywood Hindi Movies with subtitles in the Azerbaijani language at Cinema Plus in Ganjlik Mall.

The films to be demonstrated are “Phillauri”, “Badrinath ki Dulhania”, and “Nil Battey Sannata”.

A man seemingly disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair threw a piece of cake at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum and shouted at people to think of planet Earth, according to AP.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday that the 36-year-old man was detained following Sunday’s incident and sent to a police psychiatric unit. An investigation has been opened into the damage of cultural artifacts.

Videos posted on social media showed a young man in a wig and lipstick who had arrived in a wheelchair. The man, whose identity was unknown, was also seen throwing roses in the museum gallery to slack-jawed guests.

The cake attack left a conspicuous white creamy smear on the glass but the famous work by Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t damaged.

Security guards were filmed escorting the wig-wearing man away as he called out to the surprised visitors in the gallery: “Think of the Earth! There are people who are destroying the Earth! Think about it. Artists tell you: think of the Earth. That’s why I did this.”

Guards were then filmed cleaning the cake from the glass. A Louvre statement confirmed the attack on the artwork involving a “patisserie.”

The 16th-century Renaissance masterpiece has seen a lot in its over-500 years in existence.

The painting was stolen in 1911 by a museum employee, an event which increased the painting’s international fame. It was also damaged in an acid attack perpetrated by a vandal in the 1950s, and has since been kept behind glass.