RESIDENTS SHOW: EXPERIENTAL TIME GROUP SHOW

13 Dec - 14 Feb 20

YARAT Contemporary Art Space is pleased to announce the group exhibition Experiential Time with works by YARAT Residents Zhanna Gladko (Belorussia), Diana Hajiyeva (Azerbaijan), Gelare Khoshgozaran (Iran/USA), Rytz Monet (Italia), Shalala Salamzadeh (Azerbaijan).

Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? According to the theory of quantum gravity, the way we perceive time as a flow of the past, present and future does not actually exist, but instead represents an idea of human perspective.

The exhibition loosely draws on the Azerbaijani fairy tale The Order of Time, which tells the story of a poor man profiting from the predictions of a wise snake about times of wolves, swords and humanity. The man behaved corresponding to the time, either fraudulently, violently or generously, which raises the question: are we creating time and its circumstances or is our behavior the result of the times that we live in? The artists investigate their personal experiential time during the residency, tracing the region’s past, history and mythology and its impact on the so-called present. The works explore moments of ambivalence, fractures, shifts and coexistence, as well as reflecting on fundamental human desires to foresee the future through spiritual and digital features.

Zhanna Gladko’s work To be at Swords’ Points belongs to her autobiographical series Inciting Force (2011-2019) and investigates the "provocations of power" in modern society in relation to gender, cultural, historical and religious aspects. The series consists of images, materials and symbols that refer to categories of empowerment and force, which is put in contrast with documents from family archives. The photographs and video work explore moments of ambivalence, duality of perception and fragmentation through traditional Caucasian dance with daggers, where women usually perform a graceful dance and men perform a dance with knives. Her work questions notions of masculinity and machismo, referencing mythology, current discussions on gender topics and shifting codes.

Diana Hajieva’s work Fortunator explores faith as a fundamental human need, which has been abused by business models in supposed collaboration with God by so-called fortune-tellers, mediums or bioenergetics. The work consists of three circles linked to each other; by turning one circle, the visitor receives answers to fundamental questions. The artist critiques belief in the supernatural phenomena of divination, which constitutes a devolution of responsibility on others and where a stranger’s opinion might actually have a significant negative impact. “My work is about naivety. The participants can get answers to his or her questions by turning the circle. However, like in real life, without reflecting with our own intellect it is impossible to get appropriate answers”.

Gelare Khoshgozaran’s installation “ق /Qāf/” is titled after the 24th letter of the Persian alphabet, the 21st letter of the Arabic alphabet, and the name of the imaginary mountain range: kohi-Qaf، کوه قاف (Persian), جبل قاف (Arabic) in popular Middle Eastern mythology. The ‘emerald mountains’, ‘purgatory mountains’ and ‘Jinnistan’ (the land of the jinn) are only some of the mythological descriptions of Qāf. Most famously, in Farid ud-Din Attar’s Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr (The Speech of the Birds), a phoenix (simurgh), the mythical bird of wisdom, lives in isolation on top of Mount Qāf where thirty birds travel across the Seven Cities of Love to reach. Therefore, over time kohi-Qaf has become a metaphor for the farthest destination and most arduous journey. Qāf has been interpreted as the Caucasus (Qafqaz) Mountains stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The word Qāf is the Arabised form of the Middle Persian word gâp meaning “unknown”.

The two-channel-video installation by Rytz Monet “Der Euro des Kaukasus” (“The Euro of the Caucasus”) focuses on architecture and money as a symbol and vehicle of public identification embodying the economic, social, and cultural specifications of a certain period. The first video consists of explanations by Robert Kalina, the Austrian designer of the Euro and Manat, about the banknotes’ visual features and their meaning, dwelling on his aim to create vehicles to generate collective imagination. The National Bank of Austria was commissioned by the National Bank of Azerbaijan to print the Manat with the requirement that it should be similar to the Euro, thus the Manat became known as the Caucasian Euro. The second video shows footage of abandoned Soviet monuments and architecture in post-Soviet space, which served to glorify in communist values in earlier days. Nowadays, stray dogs and cats populate the disused ruins and monuments.

Considering the concept of breaking the traditional linear approach of time and space, Shalala Salamzadeh’s installation Superposition investigates studies in quantum physics that have proven that objective reality does not exist. According to quantum superposition, an object can be in several states at the same time. The artist assumes that space-time in which we perceive society cannot be divided into separate periods but rather can be imagined as granular, a fine structure woven from loops. The artist is interested in how humankind creates a future in the format of an alternative, digital reality. Through the medium of augmented reality, in her work a person who does not exist in real tells a story from the “future” and reflects on a new world.

YARAT Residency Program

YARAT Contemporary Art Space invites artists to apply for the residency programme. The programme is divided into two periods (March – July, September – December) and grants selected artists an opportunity to live and work in Baku for up to four months. Each period hosts two international residents. YARAT Residency Programme is open for artists who are engaged in open, research-based practice across disciplines and show an interest in discovering the Caucasus region. The programme engages residents in discussions with fellow artists and international arts professionals, as well as travel around Azerbaijan. Artworks resulting from the residence are exhibited at the ARTIM Project Space, Baku. YARAT Residency programme is predominantly conducted in English.

Opening Date: December 13, 2019

Time: 7 pm

Address: ARTIM Project Space Old City (Icherisheher) Kichik Gala Street 5

Exhibition dates: 13 December 2019 – 14 February 2020

Working hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12 pm – 8pm

Admission is free

For more information: www.yarat.az; 0125051414