Venice: Biennale – Around Town – Palazzo Barbaro – The Union of Fire and
Water exhibition. The Union of Fire and Water presents a historical and
cultural superimposition of Baku and Venice as seen through the eyes of two
artists, Almagul Menlibayeva and Rashad Alakbarov. The exhibition brings
together site-specific video work, sculpture and installation to explore the
interrelation between Venice and Baku. The Union of Fire and Water is based in
the previously private Palazzo Barbaro, the former residence of Giosafat
Barbaro, a Venetian ambassador who traveled to and wrote extensively on
Azerbaijani cities and the court of Shah Uzun Hassan in the late 1400s.
Commissioned by YARAT, a not-for-profit contemporary art organization based in
Baku, the exhibition is curated by Suad Garayeva,
Above. Rashad Alakbarov – Lion of Fuzuli – 2015 – found bricks, stone,
lazer-cut metal.
Palazzo Barbaro – The Union of Fire and Water. The internationally
renowned Kazakhstani-born contemporary artist Almagul Menlibayeva works with a
range of media including painting, graphics, performance, installation, video
and fine art in order to expose shared cultural experiences across time and
place. Menlibayeva’s acclaimed practice references non-verbal dialogues across
worlds, cultures and eras, with particular attention given to the role of women
in pre-Soviet, pre-Islamic and Shamanistic and dervish cultures. Rashad
Alakbarov is one of the key Azerbaijani artists to come to international
attention in recent years. His
installation-based works explore the distortion of sensory perception; using
various media, Alakbarov arranges objects and fragments before a light-source
to cast shadows. The duality between installation and creation, light and
shadow, reality and perception is central to his art.
Above. Almagul Menlibayeva – Fire
Talks to Me – 2015 – transition – 6 mins. – 1 screen.
Video artist Almagul Menlibayeva and artist Rashad Alakbarov
Palazzo
Barbaro – The Union of Fire and Water – Rashad Alakbarov – Do Not Fear – 2015 –
daggers, swords, plexiglas, metal, light source
Palazzo
Barbaro – The Union of Fire and Water – Almagul Menlibayeva – Fire Talks to Me
– 2015 – Main, continued – 2 Screens
Palazzo
Barbaro – The Union of Fire and Water – Rashad Alakbarov – Untitled (Omnes Viae
Ducunt Venetias) – 2015 – wood, metal base