26 Jun - 05 Oct 15
Commissioned by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, A Drop of Sky is the 3rd Public Art Festival in Baku and will run 13 June – 5 October 2015 Coinciding with the first European Games, and benefiting from the broad international audience who will be in Baku, over this period, the Public Art Festival will give both residents and visitors to Baku the chance to see a range of events held within the frame of the Festival. Participating artists include Wafaa Bilal, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Farhad Farzaliyev and Nazrin Mammadova. Artworks will be displayed at various locations throughout the city as well as through a web based technological component that explores the virtual public art platform. The festival will be accompanied by an education programme including a film club, artist talks and a two week workshop, AA Baku school: a collaboration with Architecture Association in London led by architects and AA tutors Omid Kamvari and Kasper Ax.
Farhad Farzaliyev’s neon billboard project entitled 'Göydə Göy Göyərti Göyərdi' / 'Green Grass in the Sky Turned Blue' (2015) launched on 26 June 2015 is a poetic tongue twister that toys with language and lyricism. By re-appropriating the language of commercial advertising through the repetitive of the use of the same consonants in multiple neon words Farzaliyev investigates the objects of public daily consumption and how these are sometimes absurdly processed through text, language and alliteration. In reversing the relationship between the ground and the sky the artist aims to confuse viewers both logically and linguistically and provide a humorous commentary on everyday commercialism and semiotics.
Farhad Farzaliyev (b.1989 Baku, Azerbaijan) completed an MFA with distinction at the Azerbaijan State Architecture and Construction University in Baku (2012). He works predominantly in the medium of installations, but also paintings, graphics, photography and sound. Farzaliyev has been a member of Artists Union of Azerbaijan since 2011 and a member of YAY Gallery and YARAT Contemporary Art Centre since 2013. He has participated in a large number of group exhibitions around the world including the 16th edition of the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2014). His works are held in the collection of the MoMA, Baku. Farhad Farzaliyev currently lives and works in Baku.