Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan
For the first time in the capital of the republic, a large-scale exposition will be shown dedicated to the theme of Azerbaijani carpet weaving, its traditions and modern embodiment. The Kazan viewer will have a unique opportunity to see carpets in a historical perspective, plunge into the world of ornaments and hidden meanings.
The Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum (Baku), the world’s first museum of such a profile, possessing the world’s most complete collection of Azerbaijani carpets, will demonstrate wonderful classical works of carpet art, woven at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Each of them is a sample of one or another regional tradition, characteristic of the features of the ornament, color and technical techniques.
The art of Azerbaijani carpet weaving, included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2010, is flourishing nowadays, continuously enriching itself with new approaches, but without losing ancient traditions. Contemporary artists create works at a new spiral in the development of the ancient craft. It is this circumstance that unites the traditional Azerbaijani carpets presented at this exhibition and the author’s works of Chingiz Babayev, working under the creative pseudonym CHINGIZ.
A modern artist, being the bearer of the traditions and cultural norms of his people, in sketches and carpets woven according to these sketches, develops his own language of ornaments, a new dramaturgy of the carpet. Without distorting the traditions of Azerbaijani carpet weaving, he interprets them, creating cutting-edge art. So new author’s carpets oppose classical works, entering into a dialogue with them, thereby overcoming distance and time. The installation “Pure History”, also presented at this exhibition, can serve as the key to the master’s work. A carpet without an ornament, monophonic, a shade of natural wool, is the basis of the foundations, a kind of tabula rasa, – this is an appeal to eternity: many symbols of different epochs “crumbled” from it over the past centuries.
In a documentary accompanying the exhibition, CHINGIZ will share with the audience the secrets of the creative process, tell about the philosophy of the traditional carpet and its modern interpretation.
The opening of the exhibition is planned to be attended by curator of the project – the director of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum Shirin Melikova, as well as the author of modern carpets Chingiz Babayev.