BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 31. The official
opening of the Fly to Baku. Art Weekend. Sense the Future NOW
festival was held at the Heydar Aliyev Center on October 30.
Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation
and Founder of IDEA Public Union, together with Alena Aliyeva,
attended the opening ceremony of the festival.
The Heydar Aliyev Center presented several exhibitions as part
of the "Art Weekend" opening.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President
of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Founder of IDEA Public Union,
said that renowned artists from various countries joined the event.
“And over the next few days, you will discover many paintings,
installations, sculptures, and performances. All to show the beauty
of nature and also its strength and its rigidity.
In 2012, we have established a Caucasus "Big Five" that include
endangered species of animals, which are the brown bear, grey wolf,
the Caucasian leopard, the imperial eagle, and the gazelle. And
since then, we have worked together with local departments and
international organizations to preserve these endangered species of
animals and to reintroduce them into the wild and also to increase
their habitat. And it has been quite successful.
In order to understand nature and to love it, the best way is to
spend more time in the nature. Then you can really connect to it.
And also, we want to make sure that everybody remembers that they
can make a huge difference by themselves, even with very small
actions. So, this is what the Sense the Future NOW festival means
to us,” Leyla Aliyeva added.
The event also featured the national dances performed by
Azerbaijan State Children's Philharmonic
Expressing his gratitude to Leyla Aliyeva on behalf of
international art representatives, who have come to Baku to
participate in the festival Fly to Baku. Art Weekend. Sense the
Future NOW, Art curator Simon de Pury said: “Back in 2012, I had
the great pleasure to meet you there in London. And I remember you
said there are two things that I'm really very, very interested in.
One is, I really want the artists from Azerbaijan to get a wide
acknowledgement, to get widely seen around the world and to get a
lot of international exposure. And so we discussed and did do an
exhibition in 2012, Fly to Baku, which incorporated some of the
greatest and most interesting living artists of Azerbaijan.
We did the first exhibition in London. It was a huge success and
subsequently, that exhibition travelled to many cities. It went to
Paris, it went to Moscow, it went to several cities around the
world.
Then, in 2016, we did a great retrospective dedicated to the
American artist George Condo. And that exhibition was a big success
here in the Heydar Aliyev Centre. And that is when I discovered
this incredible building Zaha Hadid was one of the greatest
architects of our time. And I think that the building in which we
are now is her magnus opus. In my view, it's her best work in a
brilliant career.”
The event featured the immersive theatrical performance authored
and directed by Parviz Mammadrzayev, with the visual atmosphere
created for "Art Weekend" by Laman Yusifli. Through choreography,
music, and visual storytelling, the play embodies a poetic journey
that explores the fragile relationship between humanity and
nature.
Following the ceremony, the Azerbaijan State Dance Ensemble
performed "Jangi" and "Yalli," dances showcasing the country’s
ancient dance traditions.
Held for the second consecutive year at the initiative of Leyla
Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Head of
the IDEA Public Union, the festival's exhibition program brings
together diverse artistic approaches, generations, and geographies,
offering audiences an opportunity to reflect on themes such as
memory, cultural heritage, nature, biodiversity, identity, and the
future.
The “Big Five of the Caucasus” is one of the key themes of this
year’s “Art Weekend,” exploring the region’s biodiversity and the
role of animals in cultural memory, mythology and collective
identity.
Another project presented in the Heydar Aliyev Center is
“Legendary Creatures: An Azerbaijani Bestiary”. Connecting the “Big
Five” with mythological creatures from Azerbaijani folklore, it
highlights the importance of preserving wildlife and cultural
heritage.
The exhibition features six works by six artists, including
carpet art, sculpture, photography, metalwork and mixed media.
All the works are presented to the public for the first time as
part of “Art Weekend.”
A contemporary art exhibition “When Nature Speaks. Heirs”
features the Caucasian leopard, brown bear, grey wolf, golden eagle
and goitered gazelle, exploring the relationship between humanity
and nature, highlighting heritage, responsibility and the natural
world we leave to future generations. It brings together artists
working in installation, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and mixed
media.
Attendees then toured an exhibition titled “The Skin of Truth”
by Chinese artist Zhang Ji feature works from the artist’s “The
Skin of Truth” and “Ultima” series, blending architectural motifs
from different religious and cultural traditions with contemporary
painting. Inspired by landmarks such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba
and the Alhambra Palace, Zhang Ji uses a syringe instead of a brush
to create raised surfaces reminiscent of bas-relief sculpture. His
works have been exhibited in the United States, the United Arab
Emirates, the United Kingdom, China, France, Spain, Switzerland,
Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and other countries, and included in
collections worldwide.
The Heydar Aliyev Center also presents “What If Women Ruled the
World?” by renowned American artist Judy Chicago and Italian artist
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Mirror of Eternity.
Since 2022, the What If Women Ruled the World?” project has
developed a global archive spanning several countries. Visitors in
Baku will be able to contribute to its next chapter by answering
questions in an interactive recording booth.
Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Mirror of Eternity
project employs artificial intelligence to combine human portraits,
generating new faces that have never existed before. Participants
upload their portraits to the system, which then merges them with
another person’s portrait to create a new image. Each portrait thus
exists not as a fixed record of memory, but as an evolving digital
entity transformed through successive encounters. The project
explores the relationship between humanity, memory, technology, and
the ever-changing nature of life.
The Fly to Baku. Art Weekend. Sense the Future NOW festival will
run until November 1.
