"Traces of Time traveling" in Gusar
By Laman Ismayilova
"Traces of Time traveling" exhibition will be held in Gusar State Art Gallery on April 14-July 10.
"Traces of Time" revolves around the notion of the ordinary and offers a new way of contemplating minute surroundings with local and regional contemporary artists who work in the medium of film and photography. The show calls for appreciating the beauty of trivialities that make up our daily surroundings that are usually overlooked and involuntarily blanked out.
All included works are part of the YARAT Contemporary Art Centre’s permanent collection.
Sanan Aleskerov’s series Transparency of Simplicity depict these episodes that printed on Plexiglas attain semi-transparent delicacy.
Olga Chernysheva's Screen series film ephemeral and familiar moments from her Russian living. The artist superimposes these videos with her poetic musings on life, association games and sociological observations.
The exhibition also highlights ways of presenting the ordinary in order to highlight bigger and more acute issues.
A series photos Remembering the Color by Ilkin Huseynov travel back to the artist’s hometown Ganja and capture everyday reality of the town. The harsh living conditions the artist brings to attention are hand-colored to add a spark of hope for a better future.
Similar sensation of entrapment is conveyed in Koka Ramishvili’s videos Tea, Coffee and Milk where faceless protagonists endlessly pour liquids to the tables that seem to be trapped in vicious circles. The videos act as a subversive metaphor for the reality of Post-Soviet Georgia where illusive progress seems to miss its aim.
The Open Phone Booth series by Nilbar Gures capture the tragicomic living conditions at the artist’s hometown in Eastern Anatolia that lacks in infrastructure, including telephone lines. Captured in high fashion aesthetic, these photos further highlight the discrepancy of modern world and outmoded living conditions.
Nevin Aladag’s Five Stones Game depicts an ancient Central Asian game that the artist learnt from her mother when growing up in Southern Germany. The series of photographs, seemingly just documenting the game, explore the themes of tradition and memory and how cultural identity is inherited and passed on through rituals, habits and games and how these activities attain sentimental dimension when removed from the original locale.
Rashad Babayev’s work Poetic Sculpture consists of ripped out pages from a book that is mounted on porcelain tureen and adorned with feathered fan, covered in black smudges hieroglyphs it reminds of pagan totems, only Babayev’s idol worship poetry.
Sitara Ibrahimova’s A boy is OK, a Girl is Not attempts to raise awareness around acute gender inequality and discrimination against women and points to sources of such sad consequences that are deeply interwined in Caucasian culture.
Orkhan Huseynov‘s Atelier Sovetsky is an eight-channel video installation which pays tribute to the Sovetskaya Street in Baku. During Soviet times almost every Soviet city had one street named as such. Huseynov celebrates the peculiarity of the street that gave birth to eccentric subculture with its own ceremonies and laws. The artist felt an urge to create the work as the street is undergoing a radical transformation.
Ramal Kazim’s Untitled collage comprises of fifty drawings on paper depict solitary struggles and anxieties that have become integral parts of contemporary living. Grimaced bodies seem to portray overbearing emotional distress that had to be physically expressed for a relative relieve. Dramatic poses are intensified by dark contouring, creating a strikingly honest and raw imagery.
The working days: Tuesday – Sunday. The working hours: 09:00 – 18:00. Admission is free.
YARAT is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally. Based in Baku, YARAT (meaning CREATE in Azerbaijani) was founded by Aida Mahmudova in 2011.
YARAT realizes its mission through an on-going program of exhibitions, education events and festivals. YARAT facilitates exchange between local and international artistic networks including foundations, galleries and museums.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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