YARAT announces participation in Marker at Art Dubai 2014

Art Dubai 2014, Marker: Caucasus and Central Asia

Curated by Slavs and Tatars

YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Stand A5

YARAT is pleased to announce its participation in Marker, Art Dubai’s curated gallery programme. Curated this year by the artists Slavs and Tatars, Marker takes Central Asia and the Caucasus as its focus and intends to celebrate the complexities of faith, identity and language in the region. Works have been selected to include artists born throughout the twentieth century, creating an exhibition that spans three generations of art. Developing under the paradigm of Socialist Realism in the 1950s and 1960s, artists born in the 1920s are set alongside those who matured after Azerbaijan’s 1991 independence and test new boundaries in art through the use of new media and ideas.

Video, painting, mixed-media and sculpture are included in YARAT’s exhibition. Artists Orkhan Huseynov, Altai Sadikhzade, Ali Hasanov, Aga Ousseinov, Teymur Daimi, Huseyn Hagverdi, Tahir Salahov and Reza Hazare contribute works that cover subjects as diverse as collective memory, traditional dance, landscape and musical performance.

YARAT’s participation in Marker, Art Dubai is part of YARAT’s ongoing programme of international projects and mission to create a platform for Azerbaijani art internationally.

Works by Ali Hasanov (b.1976), Orkhan Huseynov (b.1978) and Reza Hazare (b. 1987) shed light on the emerging contemporary artists of Azerbaijan. Huseynov’s film Dancing with No Sound (2011) recalls traditional dances set to silence, while Ali Hasanov’s film Arsenium (2012) is a tribute to the first performance in Baku of the Symphony of Sirens by avant-garde Russian composer and theorist Arseny Avraamov. Hazare’s work follows the tradition of Azerbaijani painting and craftsmanship, yet as an Afghan refugee living in Baku, Hazare makes work imbued with nostalgia and criticism of his Afghan heritage.

Tahir Salahov (b. 1928), the oldest practising artist in the exhibition, became part of an accepted movement in the 1960s Soviet Union, spurred on by the loosening of artistic control after Stalin’s death in 1953. Using a sparse, high-contrast palette and angular brushstrokes, Salahov’s work is renowned for unpolished depictions of Azerbaijani citizens. Part of the next generation of artists, Altai Sadikhzade (b. 1951), Teymur Daimi (b.1966), Huseyn Hagverdi(b.1956) and Aga Ousseinov (b. 1962) show works in a variety of materials, signifying the experimentation permitted to artists maturing in the late twentieth century. Ousseinov draws influence from early scientific research and diagrams and maps from Islamic and European culture to make mixed-media compositions, while Daimi’s films explore corporeality and the surreal.

Marker is Art Dubai’s curated gallery programme that focuses each year on a particular theme or geography, accentuating Art Dubai’s role as a fair of discovery and a site for the production and exchange of knowledge and ideas.

In 2014, Art Dubai’s Marker programme is curated by the artists Slavs and Tatars and takes Central Asia and the Caucasus as its focus. Celebrating the complexities of faith, identity and language in these regions, Marker 2014 includes five booth exhibitions, plus dynamic educational and research initiatives.

Founded in 2011 by Aida Mahmudova, YARAT is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally.

Based in Baku, YARAT (which means 'create' in Azerbaijani) realises its mission through an on-going program of exhibitions, education events, and festivals. YARAT facilitates dialogue and exchange between local and international artistic networks, including foundations, galleries and museums. A series of residencies further fosters opportunities for global cultural dialogue and partnerships.

YARAT’s educational initiatives include lectures, seminars, master classes, and the young artist project ARTIM (which means 'progress' in Azerbaijani). ARTIM aims to encourage the next generation of Azerbaijani creative talent to seek a career in the arts and gives young practitioners the opportunity to exhibit their works in a professional context.

Founded as part of YARAT’s ongoing commitment to developing local art infrastructure, YAY Gallery is a commercial exhibition space. In line with this, YAY (which means 'share' in Azerbaijani) shares all proceeds from sales between the artists and YARAT, supporting a range of national and international artists.

YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Stand A5, Marker, Art Dubai, UAE

19 – 22 March 2014

Project Coordinator: Sadagat Isayeva

Art Dubai: +9714 384 2000

YARAT: +99412 437 3970