YARAT celebrates Museum Day in Azerbaijani capital

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

The YARAT Contemporary Art Space celebrated Museum Day with a diverse program, Azernews reports.

For the whole day and till midnight, the premises of YARAT Center, the Museum of Azerbaijani Painting of the XX-XXI centuries, and the adjacent territory of the Baku Boulevard gathered art lovers, who enjoyed workshops, musical performances, lectures, yoga, and meditation lessons, as well as a fascinating open-air concert.

Everyone could spend the whole day with talented artists, musicians, artists, famous TV presenters, and experts in the field of science.

The program of Museum Day included a master class on ikebana, a beautiful flower arrangement. The master class was held by the well-known Azerbaijani florist Yashar Gasimli.

Next, Azerbaijani ambassador at the International Chocolate Academy (Switzerland) Rena Alkan shared the secrets of delicious chocolate with the participants of Museum Day.

The master class "Shadow Theater" aroused great interest among the little guests. The parents with pleasure helped their children to cut out figures of characters from paper and create the magic of shadow theater.

The program of Museum Day also included master classes in art meditation, master classes on graffiti and phosphorus art, relief sculpture as well as a panel discussion on photography, theatrical performances "Night at the Museum", etc. The event aroused great interest among visitors.

Founded in 2011 by Aida Mahmudova, YARAT Contemporary Art Space Public Union is a non-profit organization that aims at promoting contemporary art in Azerbaijan and providing a platform for local artists.

Since its official opening in 2015, YARAT has organized numerous individual and group exhibitions by both local contemporary artists such as Faig Ahmad, Rashad Alakbarov, Orkhan Huseynov, and Aida Mahmudova, and internationally renowned artists such as Shirin Neshat, Oscar Murillo, Shilpa Gupta, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Taus Makhacheva.

Over the ten years, YARAT has collected its own unique collection consisting of artworks.

YARAT's collection includes art pieces of Rashad Alakbarov, Rashad Babayev, Orkhan Huseynov, Aida Mahmudova, Sanan Alasgarov, Mahmud Rustamov, Zamir Suleymanov, and other leading contemporary artists. Collection also features the works by world-known foreign artists such as Oscar Murillo, Shirin Neshat, Idris Khan, Afruz Amigi, Taus Makhacheva, Koka Ramishvili, Nilbar Guresh.

Being the first and the only contemporary art collection in Azerbaijan, YARAT's Collection demonstrates the role the organization played in the development of contemporary art.