02/10/15
The Union of Fire and Water
Commissioned by YARAT
Collateral Event of the 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Palazzo Barbaro, San Marco, 2840 Venice
9 May – 22 November 2015
The Union of Fire and
Water presents a historical and cultural superimposition of Baku and Venice as
seen through the eyes of two artists, Rashad Alakbarov and Almagul Menlibayeva.
Studio International speaks to the artists, alongside the curator Suad
Garayeva, to hear more about the intertwined histories of the two cities.
In the 1400s, the Venetian
ambassador Giosafat Barbaro travelled to and wrote extensively on Azerbaijani cities
and the court of Shah Uzun Hassan. By complete coincidence, the Azerbaijani
not-for-profit arts organisation YARAT – which means ‘create’ in Azeri – chose
to locate their collateral event for the 56th Venice Biennale in Palazzo
Barbaro, the ambassador’s former residence. The connections were only uncovered
later, with the help of one of the two exhibiting artists, Rashad Alakbarov,
and the curator, Suad Garayeva.
The exhibition, which comprises
site-specific installations, is set to take visitors on a journey through time
and space, bringing to the fore centuries of exchange and conflict between East
and West and Baku and Venice. Alakbarov is showing some of his typical architectural
and sculptural interventions, where meticulously placed metal structures stand
before light sources and cast hidden messages on to the walls and floors
nearby. He has also filled one room with a series of bridge-like staircases,
which visitors must traverse to reach the remainder of the exhibition.
Kazakhstani-born artist Almagul Menlibayeva’s
multi-screen film installations tell the story of Mukhtarov’s Palace, a
beautiful Venetian Gothic building in Baku, which was erected by the oil
magnate Murtuza Mukhtarov for his beloved wife, Lisa, in 1912. Following the
Soviet invasion eight years later, Mukhtarov took his life.
Ironically, the building now houses
the main marriage registry office in the city and is informally known as the
Palace of Happiness.
As Garayeva explains, the
exhibition seeks to present a historical and cultural superimposition of Baku
and Venice, with Palazzo Barbaro as the third artist.
Watch the film interview here