Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Yarat Contemporary Art Organisation and Museum of Modern Art Baku presented an updated version of "Home, Sweet Home" exhibition in the Azerbaijani capital on September 19.

"Home, Sweet Home" exhibition, which will run until October 10, features painting, photography, installations, ceramics and sculpture by prominent contemporary Azerbaijani artists, with all works relating to the theme of home.

The exhibition includes works by Faig Ahmed, Faig Akbarov, Rashad Alakbarov, Sanan Alasgarov, Tahmin Ali, Chingiz Babayev, Rashad Babayev, Rasim Babayev, Ali Hasanov, Arif Huseynov, Ramal Kazimov, Aida Mahmudova, Fakhriya Mammadova, Farid Rasulov and Fidan Seyidova.

These fifteen artists come together to present their own meditations on the theme of heart and home.

Earlier this exhibition, organized by Yarat, an organization promoting contemporary art worldwide, opened at the recently established Azerbaijan Cultural Center in Paris in April.

Home can be defined as a 'safety island', where it is possible to take refuge from everyday hardship. Home is precisely the location from which we draw our strength and creativity. It is where we may return broken and tired, or visit with the purpose of sharing joy and news of our accomplishments.

Every inch of home is familiar and imbued with personal association. As our lives progress, we realize the ways in which our childhood still exerts influence over us, and furthermore, how curiously the house of our youth echoes into our adulthood.

Another theme of the exhibition is the female image as an integral part of the idea of home. As the family institution is strongly protected in the Caucasus, the image of the housewife is traditionally considered a personification of stability and order rather than female self-renunciation.

However, the rapidly changing world poses challenges to the predominance of such gender stereotypes, both in family and social relations. "Home, Sweet Home" explores what conclusions might be drawn from the re-evaluation of regular gender roles: whether these changes shake the 'basic pillars' of the household or whether they simply represent a new phase of evolutional development of society.

Many of the works focus on the domestic world of household items, with emphasis on the simple and the everyday, whether their representation of the domestic be actual or to some extent imaginary.

"Home, Sweet Home" explores the changes to our perception of material effects as they are passed down through generations. Whereas inherited household utensils and appliances may previously have facilitated intergenerational continuity, today they take on a different significance.

"Grandpa's armchair" or "Grandma's antique set" are seen differently with the permanent desire for the new. These antiquated objects become artifacts of the romantic and sentimental, and lose their original functionality. Home, Sweet Home explores what effect these developments will have on the integral warmth of home.