NEWS

Azerbaijan State Art Gallery will open a virtual exhibition "Glorious History".

The project is dedicated to Black January tragedy, imprinted in the memory of the Azerbaijani people forever.

The virtual exposition will be available on gallery's social networks on January 20. 

The exposition will include works of Azerbaijani artists reflecting the tragic events of January 20, 1990. Notably, all these works are kept in the gallery's fund. 

The 20th of January, 1990, is marked in the modern history of Azerbaijan as one of the most tragic days for the country.

On January 20, 1990, hundreds of civilians were crushed or injured by the Soviet troops in Baku, upon an order from the USSR leadership that was trying to maintain the Communist regime in Azerbaijan and strangle the national liberation movement.

The invasion was launched at midnight and was committed with brutality. Some 137 people were killed, 611 were wounded, 841 were illegally arrested, and five went missing as a result of the intrusion of troops into Baku and other regions of the country.

Founded in 1975, Azerbaijan State Art Gallery displays more than 14,000 paintings, graphics, sculptures, decorative and applied arts and contemporary art examples. 

The main activities of the gallery include preservation and restoration of Azerbaijan's cultural heritage, researches on the current situation and prospects of the fine arts and decorative-applied arts and much more. 

The majority of exhibitions in Azerbaijan and abroad are mainly composed of the works stored in the gallery. 

The State Art Gallery regularly successfully holds various art projects, lectures and other events.

Zhara Kids International Music Festival will be held virtually on February 2.

The festival will bring together famous pop singers and bloggers from Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, USA, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and other countries.

Notably, the first ever Zhara Kids Music Festival was held in Moscow last year. The music event brought together talented kids and teenagers. 

Young singers shared the same stage with famous artists such as Emin Agalarov, Jasmine, Slava, Sogdiana and others, who received the Kids Choice Awards from the debutants.

The performance of Emin Agalarov and A.LI left no one indifferent. The young singer premiered his rap song.

Zhara Music Festival is co-organized by People's Artist of Azerbaijan Emin Agalarov, Honored Artist of Russia Grigory Leps, founder of Russkoye Radio and Zolotoy Grammofon Award Sergei Kozhevnikov.

More than 200 singers and bands like Chingiz Mustafayev, Monatik, Philipp Kirkorov, A’Studio, Vera Brezhneva, Bosson, Rita Dakota, Dmitry Matatov, Glyuk’oza, Nikolay Baskov, Kristina Orbakaite, Burito, Aleksandr Panayotov, Ani Lorak and others took part in the festival in 2019. 

Zhara Music Festival 2020 in Baku was postponed amid COVID-19 pandemic. The festival will take place from July 28 to 1 August, 2021.

Organized by Sapar Contemporary Gallery + Incubat, a well-known artist Aida Mahmudova’s second exhibition has been launched in the United States.

PASTPRESENTFUTURE exhibition is a new series exploring the fragmentary nature of being through distorted memories across time and landscape. As part of the gallery’s ongoing effort in supporting leading female artists working across Central Asia and Caucasus, PASTPRESENTFUTURE marks the artist’s second solo-show in the United States.

In the new body of work, the artist conflates past, present, and future to create works which exist beyond external constraints - ideological, political, or religious – to forefront a purely emotive and instinctive process of creation. The result is powerful works of unguarded conception, taking direct inspiration from the relationship between the artist and medium.

Using grass and dry plants within her impressionistic brushstrokes, works such as Roots (2020) reveal invigorating details of terrains found in the artist’s homeland of Azerbaijan. Delving into the actualities of land surfaces, Mahmudova’s process imbues these evocative natural surroundings with a sense of nostalgia. The process of building layers, or tearing them apart, and of mixing various materials including dry plants, ceramic, copper, become an exercise for material growth and emotional healing for the artist.

Living and working in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mahmudova’s works are harmonious with the physical nature of her chosen materials and her preferred earthly palette. Her deeply intuitive explorations continue to evolve across the spectrum of universal human sentiments of love, loss, memory, and desire, eschewing external constructs. In the artist’s own words, “being part of society applies certain restrictions on our understanding of the nature of being, and our interaction with others – through this, we lose channels of innate communication. Art for me has no boundaries, it is open to any communicational variations, and the artistic process is in a way an act of tearing away at our fundamental principles, which are manmade and therefore ultimately fragile.”

Aida Mahmudova (b. 1982, Baku, Azerbaijan) lives and works in Baku. She graduated from Central Saint Martins, London with a degree in Fine Art in 2006. She has widely exhibited internationally, including group and solo exhibitions in Belgium, London, Rome, New York, Moscow and Baku. Selected solo exhibitions include: Can't Capture The Light, Deweer Gallery, Otegem (2017); Passing By..., Leila Heller Gallery, New York (2015); and Internal Peace, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich (2013). Mahmudova exhibited at the 55th Venice Biennale in the group show Love Me, Love Me Not (2013) and in the 56th Venice Biennale as part of VITA VITALE curated by Artwise (2015).

SAPAR Contemporary Gallery + Incubator works with international artists who span three generations and five continents. They engage in global conversations and develop vocabularies that resonate as strongly in Baku, Almaty and Istanbul as they do in New York, Berlin, Baku and Mexico City. Their artistic practices vary from meditative traditional ink painting to writing programming code; what connects them are the artists’ capacity for empathy, insight, and imagination, their whimsy and generosity of spirit, as well as the rigor and depth of their studio practice. The gallery program offers a unique lens that is immediate and global, future-oriented and accessible, multi-sensory and immersive. SAPAR Contemporary also commissions works that are site-specific but infused with sensibilities, materialities and traditions of the artists’ backgrounds.

SAPAR Contemporary has also launched a Neo-Nomad Incubator focused on the emerging art scene and cultural traditions of Central Asia. The Incubator program is headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The first edition of the Neo Nomad Incubator evolved around the notion of traditional and digital nomadismand aesthetics connected to nomadic experiences. The project explored the relationship between traditional nomadic cultures of Central Asia and Middle East, and realities of migration, globalization and hyper mobility. Current incubator efforts are going towards highlighting unique art scenes in Central Asia, Caucasus, South East Russia and Mongolia. Since 2020 Incubator program has been focused on female artists from this region.

A delegation led by Director General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Dr. Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik has visited the Icherisheher, Inner City, a historic core of Azerbaijan`s capital Baku.

They were informed about Icherisheher State Historical and Architectural Reserve, which was classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, as well as landscaping and restoration work carried out there.

They also visited the Palace of Shirvanshahs built in the early 15th century and considered one of the landmark architectural monuments of Azerbaijan.

Then, the ICESCO delegation visited the famous Baylar mosque. Built in 1895, Baylar mosque laid down the foundations of new architectural researches of religious constructions subject to protection of the local architectural traditions. Its interior consists of vestibule, chapel and chancel of specially underlined type of masonry and having a decorative expression form. Baylar mosque embodies the constructive principles of European, Eastern and local architecture.

The delegation also visited the newly built park in the territory of the Baku Khan Palace Complex.

ICESCO Director General Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik signed Icherisheher State Historical and Architectural Reserve`s guest book, and was presented with a keepsake.

A delegation led by ICESCO Director General Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik has today visited the Alley of Honors to put flowers at the tomb of national leader, founder and architect of modern Azerbaijani state Heydar Aliyev.

The delegation also put flowers at the grave of prominent ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva.

They then visited the Alley of Martyrs to commemorate Azerbaijani heroes who gave their lives for the country's independence and territorial integrity.

“Inventory work is still underway in the liberated Azerbaijani lands,” the country’s Minister of Culture Anar Karimov told a press conference at ADA University.

“Currently, information has been obtained over 6 districts. According to information available as of today, 399 cultural institutions have been found in those areas. At the same time, 372 historical and cultural monuments have been identified. Out of them 195 monuments are located in Shusha," the minister said.

Anar Karimov said that the information received is being collated at present. “The Ministry of Culture is developing a roadmap and it is planned to involve both local and foreign experts in this process. With regard to restoration of monuments, we have already completed the classification of monuments. First, of course, we need to start with the monuments of universal value. Restoration work will be launched in the city of Shusha. As you know, the territory of Shusha city has been cleared of mines and the city has been declared a cultural capital of Azerbaijan. Afterwards, the restoration of monuments will begin in Aghdam, Fuzuli and other districts. However, as I have mentioned, the first step to be taken in these districts is the complete de-mining of the territories," he added.

Uzeyir Hajibeyli's musical comedy "Arshin Mal Alan" has been premiered in the Bulgarian city of Kardzhali as part of cooperation of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Bulgaria.

The four-act performance “Arshin Mal Alan”, the author of which is an outstanding composer of Azerbaijan and the entire Turkic world Uzeyir Hajibeyli was staged at the famous Musical Theater "Kadriye Latifova" in Kardzhali and dedicated to the composer's 135th anniversary. The staging of the play is also timed to the 60th anniversary of the Kardzhali Theater.

The director of the play is the chief director of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater Hafiz Guliyev, the artist is Tomiana Tomova Nacheva, the choreographer is Ginka Kircheva. The roles were performed by the actress of the Izmir State Theater Masura Tair (Gulchohra), as well as Bulgarian and Turkish artists Yagub Yagub (Asker), Dinko Kovachev (Sultanbek), Nursan Abdurrahman (Jahan khala), Orhan Tahir (Suleyman), Karima Ismail (Asya), Aisun Ahmad (Telli), Mustafa Ismayil (Veli).

The International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation carries out activities in the direction of preserving, studying and popularizing the history and culture of the Turkic world, participates in the celebration of the anniversaries of outstanding personalities, composers, poets and writers of the Turkic-speaking peoples, in promoting their heritage in the international arena. Over the past years, a number of projects have been implemented between Bulgaria and the Foundation, including in March 2019, with the joint organization of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Bulgaria, celebrations dedicated to the Nowruz holiday were held in the cities of Sofia and Kardzhali.

Iranian “Saeb Tabriz” newspaper has published a documentary archive material “Leo Tolsoy’s daughter on Armenian atrocities”. In the material, Alexandra Tolstaya, a daughter of the renowned Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, shares her memories of a genocide committed by Armenia in the city of Van, Turkey, in 1915.

Gara Garayev Virtual Music Contest will be held in Moscow on February 18. 

Founded by the State Budgetary Institution of Continuing Education in Moscow "Children's Music School named after Garayev", the event will be held with the assistance of the Moscow Department of Culture.

The competition is open to musicians in the following nominations - piano, strings, wind and folk instruments, guitar, academic vocal, choir, chamber ensembles up to eight people and electronic instruments.

The competition will feature works by prominent composer Gara Garayev as well as the Russian and foreign classics of the 20th century. 

Having synthesized Eastern and Western musical traditions, his works cover essentially all genres. The works by Gara Garayev are performed all over the world.

Garayev inherited his love of music from his parents. His father Abulfaz Garayev was a famous pediatrician in Baku. Abulfaz Garayev was known for his kindness and generosity. When patients were too poor to pay for treatment, he often left money under the prescription that he had written out for them.

He knew Azerbaijani folk music very well and loved to sing. Garayev's mother, Sona Khanim, was among the first graduates of the Music School, the Baku branch of the Russian Music Society.

At the age of eight, Garayev first entered the junior music school at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. His exceptional musical talents let him study simultaneously in two faculties at the conservatoire. His teachers were Georgi Sharoyev, Leonid Rudolf, and the prominent Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli.

In 1938, Garayev composed his first musical piece, a cantata "The Song of the Heart" to the poem by Rasul Rza. It was performed in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in the same year. He was only 20 years old at the time.

Garayev returned to Baku in 1941. He began teaching students at Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society.

In 1945, both he and Jovdat Hajiyev wrote the "Motherland" opera, for which they were awarded a prestigious Stalin Prize. At the age of 30, Garayev was again awarded this prize for his symphonic poem "Leyli and Majnun", based on the same-titled famous work of Nizami Ganjavi.

In 1952, under the direction of the choreographer P. A. Gusev, Garayev's "Seven Beauties" ballet was staged at the Azerbaijani Theater of Opera and Ballet. Based on Nizami Ganjavi's famous poem, "Seven Beauties", it became the first Azerbaijani ballet and opened a new chapter in the history of classical music of Azerbaijan.

His ballet, "Path of Thunder", staged in 1958, was dedicated to racial conflicts in South Africa. In the same year, he wrote the score for the documentary film" A Story About the Oil Workers of the Caspian Sea", directed by Roman Karmen and set at the Oil Rocks.

Through his life, Garayev wrote nearly 110 musical pieces, including ballets, operas, symphonic and chamber pieces, solos for piano, cantatas, songs and marches, and rose to prominence not only in Azerbaijan, but also worldwide.

He brilliantly juxtaposed features of Mugham with jazz, blues, African music, European counterpoint styles, and developments related to the 20th century Western music such as the 12-tone technique.

Garayev died on May 13, 1982 in Moscow at the age of 64. The memory of great composer will always live in the hearts of Azerbaijani people.

Azerbaijan`s Minister of Culture Anar Karimov has met with Director General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik in Baku to discuss the current state of and prospects for cooperation between the country and the organization.

Minister Anar Karimov highlighted the importance of the long-term cooperation between Azerbaijan and ICESCO. The minister emphasized the significance of this cooperation for Azerbaijan.

Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik thanked Minister Karimov for the meeting and expressed his confidence that relations between the organization and Azerbaijan would continue to develop and include new elements. He hailed the role of Azerbaijan’s leadership in developing these relations.