This year at 56th International Art Exhibition – the Venice Biennale will be present for the second timeAzerbaijan, supported by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.
De Pury de Pury and Emin Mammadov curate the first exhibition, Beyond the Line which highlights the lingering spirit of artists whose lives and work were overshadowed in the mid-XNUMXth century by the repressive Soviet regime. Susie Allen, Laura Culpan, and Dea Vanagan of Artwise curate the second Vita Vitale exhibition, in which Azerbaijan brings together international contemporary artists whose work expresses concern for the fate of our planet. If you look at them together, the two exhibitions reveal a country that contemplates its past and its future, attentive to the impact that the social and industrial transformations of the XNUMXth century have on its own soil and on that of the whole world. Beyond the Line revisits a pivotal moment in Azerbaijan's history, hearing the voices of this country's mid-century artists who were silenced or ignored by Soviet rules.
With Vita Vitale, Azerbaijan looks ahead and beyond its geographical borders by constituting an international platform for artists and scientists, which fights the ecological challenges we are facing globally today and, tomorrow, as a result of our technological achievements and the consequent increase of consumerism. The exhibitions both feature the voice of artists who gravitate towards social and environmental themes that define not only the past, present and future of Azerbaijan but of the planet as a whole.
Beyond the Line
Art can speak of the environmental situation directly and allegorically. Having to work under highly controlled conditions, Azerbaijani avant-garde artists of the mid-60th century often ended up using allegory. By the 56s artists who had “rebellious” attitudes and who deviated from communist ideology were no longer arrested, executed or banned. They were punished differently: their work was ignored, they simply couldn't hold exhibitions and they weren't allowed to travel abroad. In this way they were excluded from the state structures that regulated the official art. Azerbaijan proudly presents their work in Beyond the Line by exhibiting the works of maverick artists of the Soviet period: Javad Mirjavadov, Tofik Javadov, Ashraf Murad, Rasim Babayev, and the sculptor Fazil Najafov. The exhibition will also present the film Stepping over the horizon, directed by Shamil Najafzada and also an installation by Huseyn Hagverdi, an artist who suffered a lot under the Soviet regime but nonetheless of great creativity. Exhibiting these hitherto obscure artists represents the victory of their indestructible spirit. Today, they speak of that period from the heart, thus symbolizing an ecology of the human soul. Beyond the Line serves as a counterpart to the exhibition of international artists of Vita Vitale, i.e. the second Azerbaijan pavilion at the XNUMXth Venice International Art Biennale.
Vital Life
Vita Vitale examines the delicate balance of our planet's ecosystem and the human impact on the natural world. The exhibition brings together contemporary artists from Austria, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Switzerland, the UK, USA, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan – an exhibition that transcends the boundaries of language, cultural heritage and geography itself to increase awareness of what man and his actions entail on the environment and on the global transformation of our planet.
Multimedia works and installations by international artists – among them Mircea Cantor, Loris Cecchini, Tony Cragg, Jacco Olivier, Julian Opie, Graham Stevens, Diana Thater, and Andy Warhol — the IDEA Laboratory, a place to develop creative solutions for the future, and the program of events related to the exhibition develop a link between the most advanced research between science and art, highlighting with great force how technological progress has led to a world in which nature is attacked by deforestation, pollution linked to fossil fuels and that of the seas. The exhibition prompts us to reflect on our role which is fundamental, both in terms of chaos and the preservation of the ecology, prompting us to confront the potential dangers that derive from ignoring the messages that the works convey, at the same time suggesting creative tools and ideas to make all the futures of the world “safe”.
Emin Mammadov, art consultant of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.
Heydar Aliyev Foundation
Heydar Aliyev Foundation is Azerbaijan's largest non-governmental organization, it was founded in 2004 and has since then developed large-scale programs and projects both at home and abroad. The main purpose of the Foundation is the preservation of national and spiritual values, widespread promotion of Azerbaijani culture, implementation of various kinds of programs and projects that ensure the development of science, education, health and social sphere as well as promoting the country's international image worldwide.
The Foundation has therefore engaged in prestigious international exhibitions in Baku, presenting Andy Warhol, Tony Cragg, Bernard Buffet, and the promotion abroad of young contemporary Azerbaijani artists through Fly to Baku. Contemporary art from Azerbaijan in some of the most significant cultural areas of the world – Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan; Kunsthistorisches Museum – Neue Burg, Vienna, Austria; Space D – Maxxi Museum National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome; Multimedia Art Museum of Moscow, me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany; Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France; Phillips de Pury & Company, London, UK. And again the generous funding for the restoration of the Church of the Pietà in Venice.
