Ahmet Öğüt: No poem loves its poet / Farid Rasulov: Qurban Olum

The opening of exhibitions, Ahmet Öğüt No Poem Loves Its Poet and Farid Rasulov Qurban Olum, have been postponed for now and we will announce the new opening dates on our official website and social media channels. Wishing all our followers and visitors health and love in these trying times! 

YARAT Contemporary Art Space is pleased to present a solo exhibition from the Amsterdam-based Kurdish artist Ahmet Öğüt, running March 18–June 14, 2020. The show features two new, site-responsive commissions spanning across video and sculpture, entitled Hiçbir şiir, şairini sevmez (No poem loves its poet) and Living Beings Squatting Institutions. Referring to the physical and societal structures imposed by mankind throughout history—dividing both living beings and cultures—Öğüt’s works allude to how these structures are ultimately permeable states.

The video installation Hiçbir şiir, şairini sevmez (No poem loves its poet) takes its title from a piece of Turkic graffiti the artist encountered during a visit to Sovetsky—a historic neighborhood in Baku now under demolition. Presented on a large modular LED wall, with original music composed by Sub-Botnick (Ahmet Öğüt and Maru Mushtrieva), the video features overhead footage spanning across Baku’s central districts. Two lost flight attendants can be seen within the rubble holding a road sign for Tolstoy Street, which formerly ran through the Sovetsky neighborhood. Observing the cultural evolution and radical urbanization of Azerbaijan—which has shared Soviet, Turkic and Azerbaijani histories—Öğüt gestures towards the succession of governing bodies who have attempted to remove traces of their predecessors via urban gentrification, social norms and economic powers.

Interweaving throughout the exhibition space, an architectural installation mimics Baku’s city walls, originally erected to hide "undesirable" areas; those which are occupied or are remains of Soviet culture. Creating a path for viewers which both blocks and reveals the video and sculptural works, Öğüt’s installation acts as a metaphor for those who have lived and are still living in Baku today.

This exhibition is co-curated by Mari Spirito, Protocinema, and Suad Garayeva-Maleki.

This exhibition is also supported by Goethe-Zentrum Baku

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YARAT Contemporary Art Space is pleased to present Qurban Olum, a solo show of newly-commissioned sculptures, paintings and film from the Baku-based Azerbaijani artist Farid Rasulov, running March 18–June 15, 2020. As a founding artist of YARAT, Rasulov returns to the space with an exploration of the sacrificial holiday “Qurban Bayram”. Questioning the greed and excess that the festival has inadvertently come to symbolise, the artist employs a twist of absurdism, satire and the grotesque to prompt the reconsideration of ancient practice in our constantly evolving modern age.

Having previously represented Azerbaijan in the 53rd and 55th Venice Biennales, Rasulov is well-known for his works exploring both Azerbaijani and wider oriental traditions. The artist works across various mediums—including painting, installation, animation, sculpture and 3D graphics—and takes inspiration from folk crafts or rituals, reflecting on the validity of the ideals inherent in these traditions which remain unchanged for centuries.

At YARAT, Rasulov takes Qurban Bayram as the departure point for his show—a major Islamic holiday that entails the slaughter of an animal in a "festival of sacrifice." Symbolic of Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience of God, the animal was traditionally shared between relatives, the home, and those in need. However, in recent times this offering has developed into an indicator of status and wealth. In his new film Yuxuların Yuxusu (Dream of Dreams), Rasulov creates a dramatic, comedic narrative set within a hospital room. Two doctors can be seen talking whilst dissecting a clothed sheep for the festival, in which they intermingle an abundance of jewellery with its entrails; at once darkly humorous and ironic, the scene highlights the absurd materiality that has come to be associated with the event.

This exhibition is curated by Suad Garayeva-Maleki.

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