Rashad Alakbarov: Look At You! / Last Flowers of XX Century: Generation Y

YARAT Contemporary Art Space (Baku, Azerbaijan) presents the new exhibitions Look At You!, the experimental multidisciplinary solo exhibition by Rashad Alakbarov and the group exhibition Last Flowers of XX Century: Generation Y by the artists Alina Orlov (Israel), Giorgi Rodionov (Georgia), Zamir Suleymanov (Azerbaijan), Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Himey (Ukraine), and Sasha Kurmaz (Ukraine). While this immersive project Look At You! is a new experiment with various materials in the artist’s creative work, it also presents his practice in a new and unpredictable way and presents the artist’s new sculptures and installations commissioned by YARAT. The group exhibition Last Flowers of XX Century: Generation Y is about the millennials, who were born in the 20th century but grew up in new millennium. They are highlighted as people different from the previous and next generations, which emphasises the uniqueness of this generation. As the last flowers of the previous century, they built the current reality through their personal realities.

Rashad 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.

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The group exhibition, titled Last Flowers of XX Century: Generation Y draws attention to ways of self-identification and self-expression through different levels of social perception. Reflecting reality with references to the Soviet past, it gives voice to the artists' youthful experience. Static or dynamic, stuck or in progress, it creates diverse images of how people make sense of their life. Embedded with memory and nostalgia, selected works also examine their social environment, which is crucial factor in the formation of this generation. Playing with concepts of culture, sub-culture, and trend, it reveals the core rhythms of lifestyle and behavior.   

Last Flowers of XX century: Generation Y brings together video, photography and photo installation works of six emerging artists. Selected works of Alina Orlov (Israel), Giorgi Rodionov (Georgia), Zamir Suleymanov (Azerbaijan), Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Himey (Ukraine), and Sasha Kurmaz (Ukraine) showcase different realities, values, and perceptions of youth from different countries who are living in the same time frame.

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Exhibitions are curated by Farah Alakbarli.

Note: 360 VR tours of the exhibitions will also be available here.