March 2024

Location

ARTIM PROJECT SPACE

ADDRESS: 

5 Kichik Gala str., Icheri Sheher, 

Baku, Azerbaijan, AZ1001

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OPENING HOURS:

Tuesday - Sunday: 12 pm > 8 pm


CONTACT:

+994 12 505 1414


E-MAIL:

artim@yarat.az

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YARAT RESIDENTS GROUP SHOW: BOUNDARY LAYERS

14 Dec - 19 Jan 19

YARAT Contemporary Art Space is pleased to announce the group exhibition "Boundary Layers" with works by YARAT residents Evy Jokhova (UK/Russia), Aurélien Lepetit (France/Netherlands), Emil Mejnun (AZ), Aydan Mirzayeva (AZ), Giuditta Vendrame (Italy/Netherlands)


The term "Boundary Layer" refers to a thin layer in fluid mechanics of a liquid or gas in contact with a stable surface, which is subject to shearing forces. Its behaviour is important for the knowledge of aircraft or shipbuilding to optimize the gliding of the machines. The flow in such boundry layers usually diverse between laminar or turbulent. Whilst a quite, laminar flow conditions a smooth travel in regular paths, in contrast, the onset of turbulence in a boundary layer can reduce the drag force on obstacles. In the exhibition, the artists deal with boundary layers in a metaphorical sense, referring to minimal, normally invisible layers in nature as well as in the social structures, which only in case of turbulence are uncovered shaking up solid structures behind.


Set in the Caucasus Mountains Evy Jokhova’s film "In this hot desert I miss the snow" explores the invention of tradition, memory, personal histories and relationships. The underpinning background to this project are a number of personal stories of economic and political migration, the yearning for a reconnection with one's culture of origin and family history and a nostalgic love for the mountains experienced through dislocation. Rooted in the artist's personal relationship with the Caucasus through narrative and research on Caucasian rituals and traditions the film work and installation navigate the relationship between land, site and society. With specifically made props and costumes a contemporary ritual set in Khizi and Gobustan is choreographed and performed by Azerbaijani actresses Nargila Garibova and Rumiya Aghayeva.
Original score by Farhad Farzaliyev.


Aurélien Lepetit’s "Ātar" mixed-media and site-specific installation symbolically refers to the ‘god of fire’ Ātar in Solar cults, this body of work focuses on the practice of varzesh-e pahlavāni as a tool of cultural resistance reduced as an underground training practice during Tsarist and USSR regimes. It reflects on the symbolic of heroic figures in mythological, historical and national references with the epic character of Pahlavan Rustam starring with contemporary Zurkhaneh rituals. Focusing on the influences of Mazdeism, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism merged with craftsmanship heritage of glass-blowing and its industrialization, Ātar seeks the cultural diversity and enrichment of Azerbaijani legacy, its evolution and disappearance. 


The first floor is covered by Emil Mejnun’s graffiti works combining visual material of Azerbaijani culture of the urban, industrial and advertising reality applying the concept of layering and deconstruction. The artist colours, removes again the colour and adds new objects to the wall through which he explores the space to be in constant transformation. Sections stripped away reveal what lies beneath resulting in visually interesting and unexpected juxtapositions that are both destructive and creative. The work comments on the fast changing urban environment of Baku and its attitude towards historical heritage as well as the conflict whether street art is supposed to be perceived as urban decorum or a act of vandalism. 


In her work "Wood-Wide-Web" Aydan Mirzayeva continues her series highlighting the structure and fascinating particularities of wood. The work is inspired by most recent scientific knowledge that trees can register pain, learn things, and even protect and care for each other trough a root network that enables to communicate with each other. Through their fine root system, trees and plants are in contact with the fungi called mycorrhiza by which they are tied together, thus information can be forwarded from tree to tree. Using different colours following the delicate wooden patters the artist furthermore explores the beauty of a complex system investigating transient objects exposed to weather and growth and making visible aesthetics of dynamics and processes in nature. 


The site-specific installation by Giuditta Vendrame is the analogous representation of the abstract model of a "forbidden city" situated in the middle of the Caspian Sea: Oil Rocks, a city made up of hundreds of kilometres of bridges and platforms. Erected in 1949 as the world’s first offshore oil extraction site, it is invisible from the shore. Access to this heterotopic urban settlement above the sea is highly restricted and patrolled. Few are the visitors who can approach this site, mainly temporary oil workers. The construction of a fictitious model seeks to produce proximity between the inhabitants of Baku’s and this far, humid city. Walking through and within the model, on water, is intended as an act of re-appropriation of the space in between: the sea. 


Opening Date: December 14, 2018
Time: 7 pm


Exhibition dates: December 14, 2018 – January 19, 2019
Working hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12 pm – 8pm


Address: ARTIM Project Space Old City (Icherisheher) Boyuk Gala Street 30, 001A 
Admission is free

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