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Azerbaijan : Shirin Neshat at Yarat Contemporary Art Space

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The opening exhibition of Yarat Contemporary Art Space in Baku is The Home of My Eyes by Shirin Neshat, through June 23rd, 2015. The exhibition’s focus is a new commission, produced following the artist’s time in Azerbaijan.

Shirin Neshat’s work has explored the complexities of cultural identity, gender and power to express a vision that embraces Persian traditions and contemporary concepts of individuality. In her recent photographic work, Neshat has focused on the portrait as a prism to reveal the cultural dynamics and personal histories of her subjects, exploring the narratives that can be ‘read’ in an individual.
 
This new commission, The Home of My Eyes (2015), builds on Neshat’s growing interest in portraiture. During time spent in Azerbaijan in 2014, Neshat photographed over 50 individuals who came from communities across the country, of ages ranging from two to eighty years old. While making the photographs Neshat asked participants a series of questions regarding their cultural identity and their concept of home. The resulting responses are written in calligraphy that overlays the portraits. The assembled images make up a monumental installation which fills two entire walls of one of the 11 metre-high exhibition galleries of YARAT Contemporary Art Space – a converted Soviet-era naval building.

As Shirin Neshat explains; “I consider the new series of images a portrait of a country that has for so long been a crossroads for many different ethnicities, religions, and languages.  This series combines 55 portraits of men and women from different generations to create a tapestry of human faces which pays tribute to the rich cultural history of Azerbaijan and its diversity.”   

YARAT Contemporary Art Space is the first permanent space for YARAT, the not-for-profit organisation which has commissioned over 80 projects since it was created in 2011 by Founder and Creative Director Aida Mahmudova and a group of artists.

The 2,000m2 centre, converted from a Soviet-era naval building, overlooks the Caspian Sea and is a dedicated hub for contemporary art and art education in the region. Education is at the core of YARAT’s activities and a study centre, with a library and auditorium, will house YARAT’s comprehensive education programme featuring talks, screenings and workshops for diverse audiences from student artists to families. 

EXHIBITION
The Home of My Eyes by Shirin Neshat
23 March – 23 June 2015
YARAT Contemporary Art Space
Sabail District
Baku,
Azerbaijan, AZ 1000

www.yarat.az
 

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