YARAT CENTRE: RASHAD ALAKBAROV LOOK AT YOU! SOLO SHOW

YARAT Contemporary Art Space presents the new solo exhibition “Look At You!” by Rashad Alakbarov.

VIRTUAL TOUR

“Look At You!” is the experimental multidisciplinary solo exhibition by Rashad Alakbarov. While the exhibition is a new experiment with various materials in the artist’s creative work, it also presents his practice in a new and unpredictable way. This immersive project commissioned by YARAT feature's the artist's new sculptures and installations. 

Alakbarov’s exhibition, titled “Look At you!”, is a silent dialogue with spectators, provoking them to think. The labyrinth is the main key to make this dialogue happen. It embodies ideas of action, renewal, and rebirth corresponding to symbols that lead the person to reality/self-understanding. Considering the “MacGuffin effect”, the artist explores the context of a labyrinth and emphasizes the importance of process/way, rather than object/event. Installations embedded with allegory and metaphors lead to the deepest layers of a human being and reveal ambiguous thoughts. Originating from this concept, Alakbarov’s references, based on mankind/society, creation and being, memory and remembrance, faith, political structures, and kitsch culture, appeal to the person himself/herself.

More than an adaptation of the labyrinth concept, the exhibition reflects its transformation and the expansion of this idea. In this “journey” using distinct “tools”, the artist talks about past and current processes. Referring to the red thread of the Ariadna, who is one of the main characters of the labyrinth myth and the daughter of Minos, the King of Crete, the artist has placed directional messages throughout the labyrinth. These messages act as an auxiliary tool to understand the art pieces in the exhibition and follow the ideas of the project concept. Explaining European values through a cultural and moral prism, the artist creates parallels that intersect with Eastern philosophical thought and mythology. In the artworks where autobiographical elements exist, the artist touches upon the topics of remembrance and memory. The components containing this leitmotif include fragments from childhood games to the post-Soviet household. They are spread all over the labyrinth like the pieces of an uncompleted puzzle. Reminiscent of Alakbarov's project at Venice Biennale, “I was here” is also a reference to local subcultures.

The exhibition is curated by Farah Alakbarli

About artist

Rashad Alakbarov (b. 1979, Baku) graduated from the Faculty of Decorative Arts at Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in Baku (2001). He has worked with different media, including painting, sculpture, theatrical decoration, video art and architectural design, but the use of shadows in his installations has become the main direction in the artist’s conceptual work. The first public showing of this type of work was at the “Wings of Time” exhibition in Baku in 2000.

His solo exhibitions have been shown in different spaces: “The Magic of the Light” (Dalian Times Square, Dalian, PRC, 2018), “Words” (Baku MoMA, 2014), “The Other City” (YAY Gallery, Baku, 2013). Rashad Alakbarov is the participant of the international events: “Beyond the Shadows” (Tainan, Taiwan, 2019) MiSK Art Festival (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2019, 2017); Islamic Art Festival (Sharjah, UAE, 2018, 2016, 2012); Cosmoscow Art Fair (Moscow, Russia, 2014); Artbat Fest (Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2014); 12th Avesta Art Festival (Stockholm, Sweden, 2014); East Wing Biennial (London, UK, 2014) he also represented Azerbaijan at the 52nd, 55th and 56th Venice Biennials. His works are held in private collections in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Italy and Russia.

Notes to editors:

Exhibition: Rashad Alakbarov, Look At You! 

Location: YARAT Contemporary Art Centre (National Flag Square)

Dates: 10 June – 19 December, 2021

Exhibition opens: Tuesday through Sunday, from 12 pm – 8 pm

Admission is free