BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 18. The opening
ceremony of the contemporary art exhibition titled “Geyzer” was
held at the Museum of Modern Art on January 17 as part of the “Oil
Boom Smiles at Everyone” festival, Trend reports.
The festival is supported by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation,
sponsored by bp, and organized by the Magsud Ibrahimbeyov
Creativity Center.
The opening ceremony was attended by Anar Alakbarov, Director of
the Heydar Aliyev Center, official guests, and prominent
representatives of the arts community.
Running from November 2025 to February 2026, the “Oil Boom
Smiles at Everyone” festival is dedicated to the creative legacy of
prominent Azerbaijani writer Magsud Ibrahimbeyov. The festival is
built around the cultural and historical context of the oil boom
era and brings together various art forms. It explores themes of
transformation, expectation, and inner tension reflected in the
author’s literary works.
The “Geyzer” contemporary art exhibition is one of the flagship
projects of the festival. Conceptually referencing the play “Oil
Boom Smiles at Everyone,” the exhibition offers an immersive
interpretation of the intersection between personal experience and
collective history.
Speaking at the opening, Anna Ibrahimbeyova, Director of the
Magsud Ibrahimbeyov Creativity Center, emphasized the special
significance of the day for the festival: “Today is truly a
magnificent event, as young and talented artists are participating
in the festival. What particularly delights me is that many of the
participants are not just exhibiting but are deeply reflecting on
ideas and turning to Magsud Ibrahimbeyov’s books.”
Anna Ibrahimbeyova noted that the presented works are primarily
impressions, personal interpretations, and artistic
responses—transforming words and images into the language of visual
art.
In his speech, Anar Alakbarov, Director of the Heydar Aliyev
Center, expressed gratitude to the entire team involved in
realizing the event. He highlighted the great importance of the
“Oil Boom Smiles at Everyone” festival, which has been ongoing
since November 2025: “The events and performances presented within
the festival framework carry great significance. I hope this
becomes a tradition. Today, I met with the artists. They are
presenting one beautiful work after another. I wish each of them
success in their future creative endeavors.”
Addressing the event, Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, bp’s Vice President
for the Caspian region, Communications and External Affairs,
stated: “Today we are celebrating one of those holidays that have
existed until now and will continue in the future — a holiday born
at the intersection of art and literature.” On behalf of bp, he
expressed pleasure in contributing to the realization of such a
wonderful event.
The exhibition curator, Nigar Rzayeva, said in her speech that
Magsud Ibrahimbeyov’s work is so vibrant and contemporary that it
has become a major source of inspiration for the project and the
presented works. She extended her thanks to the entire creative
team, as well as to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, bp company, and
the Museum of Modern Art for the support provided.
Afterward, the guests toured the exhibition.
In the project, oil emerges as a real force that determines the
rhythm of Baku, people’s destinies, and the overall development of
the country. It creates the environment in which human
relationships have been shaped throughout the nation’s history.
The title “Geyzer” alludes to an oil fountain — the eruption of
oil to the surface under pressure — as well as to the principle of
a geyser releasing accumulated energy. The same impulse is provided
by Magsud Ibrahimbeyov’s play and is developed in the artistic
works of the project.
The exhibition features nine artists. The exposition is
conditionally divided into two interconnected parts: a conceptual
video work based on the reprocessing of archival materials, and
works by contemporary artists that form the main artistic
space.
Additionally, the exhibition includes a photographic work by
Anna Ibrahimbeyova — the initiator and organizer of the festival,
and Magsud Ibrahimbeyov’s wife. This piece is presented outside the
main participating lineup.
The participating artists are: Fidan Sadig, Irina Eldarova,
Kanan Aliyev, Mushfig Heydarov, Nazrin Mammadova, Nigar Familsoy,
Orkhan Garayev, Sarkhan Hajiyev, and Vusale Agharaziyeva.
Fidan Sadig’s installation “Nameless” touches on the invisible
presence of women during the oil boom period. A faceless female
figure becomes an image of lost individuality, with the body
serving as a boundary between a woman’s inner state and social
pressure. A pattern reflecting fragments of Baku during the oil era
replaces the face, fixing the trace of industry and history on the
body. The female figure is presented in a state where the
individual’s voice is almost unheard.
Irina Eldarova’s work “Drakaris. Fire-Worshippers” addresses
solar energy as the primary source of life and a symbol of the Land
of Fire. Here, the sense of ephemerality disappears, replaced by a
continuous energy impulse. Humanity is presented as a collective
image — a titan that has tamed fire and created systems extending
from the depths of the earth to the global space for its
transmission. The work is constructed as a visual expression of the
scale and power of the energy that shapes the modern world.
Kanan Aliyev’s sculptural work “Expectation” is built around the
sensations of ascent and anticipation. Pipes rise chaotically from
the pedestal, forming a closed square that symbolically refers to
the conventional unit of oil — the cube. Individual pipes extending
outward from this construction transmit sound. As the viewer
approaches, they hear an intensifying internal movement, as if
something is striving to rise and burst forth. The work references
the experience lived in Baku during the oil boom era, when the
sound accompanying an oil eruption was perceived as a harbinger of
impending change.
This feeling is deeply personal for the artist. In the 1990s,
during a period of water shortages in Baku, he experienced
firsthand the emotions of expectation, tension, and joy: “I would
turn on the tap over and over again and listen. I was waiting for
that sound. When the water finally came, I was simply happy.”
Mushfig Heydarov’s conceptual sculpture “Posthuman” presents an
image of a human stripped of gender and individual characteristics.
The figure’s large scale reinforces its perception as a posthuman
entity — an object shaped by the modern era. The artist alludes to
the idea that energy, technology, and information are gradually
altering the ways humans live and perceive themselves, creating new
realities.
In this context, oil plays a foundational role: as the primary
energy source underpinning industrial and digital systems. It is
precisely this energy that drives transformation processes,
resulting in the risk that humanity may progressively lose its
bodily and social identity, becoming a universal, depersonalized
functional carrier.
Nazrin Mammadova’s abstract work “Geyzer” captures the moment
when hidden energy rises to the surface and begins to alter a
person’s inner states. Energy ascending from subterranean layers
disrupts familiar lines, creating unstable conditions between
disintegration and formation.
The artist is drawn to the tension of the transitional moment:
old emotional structures collapse, while new ones have not yet had
time to take shape. This process manifests as the sudden release of
accumulated energy.
In the structure of the work, associations with the Absheron
landscape are perceptible through color, form, and depth.
Nigar Familsoy’s painting “Side Effect” centers on the image of
a crow — an observer of historical changes and turning points. It
emerges within an aggressive yellow field that acts like the
blinding light of progress.
The work foregrounds the irreversible nature of the oil and
technological boom. The illusion of general prosperity collides
with the reality of consequences. In this collision, the crow
remains an immobile witness, simultaneously embodying both faces of
progress.
Orkhan Garayev’s work “Curtain” analyzes the oil boom as a field
of contradictions formed between dazzling development and the
invisible reality of everyday labor. The construction, composed of
triangular lamellas, creates two visual surfaces; each surface
reveals itself only from a specific viewing angle, placing physical
toil in direct opposition to outward brilliance.
When viewed head-on, the image disintegrates into an abstract
form. This optical “blindness” serves as a metaphor for illusion
and fragmented perception. Meaning emerges only in the process of
movement: the viewer is compelled to change position in order to
grasp the whole. Just as in life, clarity arises from the
combination of separate fragments.
Sarkhan Hajiyev’s work “Interval” is an artistic video fantasy
depicting the state between material and digital realities. The
shift between realities occurs gradually and almost imperceptibly
for a person, with no precise beginning or end point. Against this
backdrop, oil appears as primordial matter and the memory of
ancient life, from which emerges the image of a butterfly — evoking
consciousness and soul.
The imagery of oil and artificial intelligence forms a visual
language expressing humanity’s position caught between material
memory and digital reality.
A second video artwork is created based on archival materials
from the Azerbaijan State Film Fund, presenting oil as an
inseparable part of real life and history.
Vusale Agharaziyeva’s work “Field” draws on
historical-documentary images from the oil boom era: people
standing knee-deep in oil, working in a heavy, sticky environment
where the boundary between body and substance dissolves. In the
space the artist calls “Field,” human and oil become elements of
the same entity. This monumental painting carries no pathos or
claim to idealization. The artist focuses on the direct inclusion
of the historical process through the acceptance of human physical
and bodily experience.
This logic continues in the installation titled “Center”. The
circular wooden form alludes to manual labor and the earthen
environment in which it takes place. The rotating center generates
continuous motion. Resting upon it is a single pair of oil worker’s
gloves — a silent witness to human existence, a memory of labor and
the toil of many people.
The contemporary art exhibition “Geyzer” will continue until
February 2.
