YARAT Contemporary Art Space will display art works of Azerbaijani artist Rashad Alakbarov from June 10 to December 30. 

"Look At You!" is the experimental multidisciplinary solo exhibition by Rashad Alakbarov. While the exhibition is a new experiment with various materials in the artist’s creative work, it also presents his practice in a new and unpredictable way. This immersive project commissioned by YARAT feature's the artist's new sculptures and installations.

The art project is a silent dialogue with spectators, provoking them to think. The labyrinth is the main key to make this dialogue happen. It embodies ideas of action, renewal, and rebirth corresponding to symbols that lead the person to reality/self-understanding.

Considering the "MacGuffin effect", the artist explores the context of a labyrinth and emphasizes the importance of process/way, rather than object/event. Installations embedded with allegory and metaphors lead to the deepest layers of a human being and reveal ambiguous thoughts. Originating from this concept, Alakbarov’s references, based on mankind/society, creation and being, memory and remembrance, faith, political structures, and kitsch culture, appeal to the person himself/herself.

More than an adaptation of the labyrinth concept, the exhibition reflects its transformation and the expansion of this idea. In this "journey” using distinct "tools", the artist talks about past and current processes. Referring to the red thread of the Ariadna, who is one of the main characters of the labyrinth myth and the daughter of Minos, the King of Crete, the artist has placed directional messages throughout the labyrinth.

These messages act as an auxiliary tool to understand the art pieces in the exhibition and follow the ideas of the project concept. Explaining European values through a cultural and moral prism, the artist creates parallels that intersect with Eastern philosophical thought and mythology. In the artworks where autobiographical elements exist, the artist touches upon the topics of remembrance and memory.

The components containing this leitmotif include fragments from childhood games to the post-Soviet household. They are spread all over the labyrinth like the pieces of an uncompleted puzzle. Reminiscent of Alakbarov's project at Venice Biennale, “I was here” is also a reference to local subcultures.

The exhibition is curated by Farah Alakbarli.