Heydar Aliyev Center hosts official opening of "Art Weekend"
Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Founder of IDEA Public Union, together with Alena Aliyeva, attend the event
Baku, October 31, AZERTAC
The official opening of the Fly to Baku. Art Weekend. Sense the Future NOW festival was held at the Heydar Aliyev Center on October 30.
Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Founder of IDEA Public Union, together with Alena Aliyeva, attended the opening ceremony of the festival.
The Heydar Aliyev Center presented several exhibitions as part of the "Art Weekend" opening.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Founder of IDEA Public Union, said that renowned artists from various countries joined the event. “And over the next few days, you will discover many paintings, installations, sculptures, and performances. All to show the beauty of nature and also its strength and its rigidity.
In 2012, we have established a Caucasus "Big Five" that include endangered species of animals, which are the brown bear, grey wolf, the Caucasian leopard, the imperial eagle, and the gazelle. And since then, we have worked together with local departments and international organizations to preserve these endangered species of animals and to reintroduce them into the wild and also to increase their habitat. And it has been quite successful.
In order to understand nature and to love it, the best way is to spend more time in the nature. Then you can really connect to it. And also, we want to make sure that everybody remembers that they can make a huge difference by themselves, even with very small actions. So, this is what the Sense the Future NOW festival means to us,” Leyla Aliyeva added.
The event also featured the national dances performed by Azerbaijan State Children's Philharmonic
Expressing his gratitude to Leyla Aliyeva on behalf of international art representatives, who have come to Baku to participate in the festival Fly to Baku. Art Weekend. Sense the Future NOW, Art curator Simon de Pury said: “Back in 2012, I had the great pleasure to meet you there in London. And I remember you said there are two things that I'm really very, very interested in. One is, I really want the artists from Azerbaijan to get a wide acknowledgement, to get widely seen around the world and to get a lot of international exposure. And so we discussed and did do an exhibition in 2012, Fly to Baku, which incorporated some of the greatest and most interesting living artists of Azerbaijan.
We did the first exhibition in London. It was a huge success and subsequently, that exhibition travelled to many cities. It went to Paris, it went to Moscow, it went to several cities around the world.
Then, in 2016, we did a great retrospective dedicated to the American artist George Condo. And that exhibition was a big success here in the Heydar Aliyev Centre. And that is when I discovered this incredible building Zaha Hadid was one of the greatest architects of our time. And I think that the building in which we are now is her magnus opus. In my view, it's her best work in a brilliant career.”
The event featured the immersive theatrical performance authored and directed by Parviz Mammadrzayev, with the visual atmosphere created for "Art Weekend" by Laman Yusifli. Through choreography, music, and visual storytelling, the play embodies a poetic journey that explores the fragile relationship between humanity and nature.
Following the ceremony, the Azerbaijan State Dance Ensemble performed "Jangi" and "Yalli," dances showcasing the country’s ancient dance traditions.
Held for the second consecutive year at the initiative of Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Head of the IDEA Public Union, the festival's exhibition program brings together diverse artistic approaches, generations, and geographies, offering audiences an opportunity to reflect on themes such as memory, cultural heritage, nature, biodiversity, identity, and the future.
The “Big Five of the Caucasus” is one of the key themes of this year’s “Art Weekend,” exploring the region’s biodiversity and the role of animals in cultural memory, mythology and collective identity.
Another project presented in the Heydar Aliyev Center is “Legendary Creatures: An Azerbaijani Bestiary”. Connecting the “Big Five” with mythological creatures from Azerbaijani folklore, it highlights the importance of preserving wildlife and cultural heritage.
The exhibition features six works by six artists, including carpet art, sculpture, photography, metalwork and mixed media.
All the works are presented to the public for the first time as part of “Art Weekend.”
A contemporary art exhibition “When Nature Speaks. Heirs” features the Caucasian leopard, brown bear, grey wolf, golden eagle and goitered gazelle, exploring the relationship between humanity and nature, highlighting heritage, responsibility and the natural world we leave to future generations. It brings together artists working in installation, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and mixed media.
Attendees then toured an exhibition titled “The Skin of Truth” by Chinese artist Zhang Ji feature works from the artist’s “The Skin of Truth” and “Ultima” series, blending architectural motifs from different religious and cultural traditions with contemporary painting. Inspired by landmarks such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba and the Alhambra Palace, Zhang Ji uses a syringe instead of a brush to create raised surfaces reminiscent of bas-relief sculpture. His works have been exhibited in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, China, France, Spain, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and other countries, and included in collections worldwide.
The Heydar Aliyev Center also presents “What If Women Ruled the World?” by renowned American artist Judy Chicago and Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Mirror of Eternity.
Since 2022, the What If Women Ruled the World?” project has developed a global archive spanning several countries. Visitors in Baku will be able to contribute to its next chapter by answering questions in an interactive recording booth.
Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Mirror of Eternity project employs artificial intelligence to combine human portraits, generating new faces that have never existed before. Participants upload their portraits to the system, which then merges them with another person’s portrait to create a new image. Each portrait thus exists not as a fixed record of memory, but as an evolving digital entity transformed through successive encounters. The project explores the relationship between humanity, memory, technology, and the ever-changing nature of life.
The Fly to Baku. Art Weekend. Sense the Future NOW festival will run until November 1.
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