YARAT Contemporary Art Space is pleased to invite you to the group show of local and international YARAT residents “How does it feel?” at the ARTIM Project Space. YARAT Contemporary Art Space in the frames of Artim Project features the group show “How does it feel?” of the local YARAT residents Vusala Agaraziyeva and Erkin Alekberli and the international residents Gökcen Dilek Acay, Timo Herbst and Merzedes Sturm-Lie.

“How does it feel?” describes the perspective of an observer, someone who is interested in his surroundings and tries to feel their way into the different subjects. It is an observer, who is eventually overwhelmed of the different stimuli that are enclosing him and fails to find simple explanation. What happens if the foreigner suddenly turns out to be the familiar or the familiar suddenly appears strange? If clear ideas evolve to be empty or the other way, if the unknown takes a clear shape? The exhibition combining works of three international and two local YARAT residents is a journey through the artists eyes constructed and at the same time penetrating each other perspectives.

Gökçen Dilek Acays video “Anatomical Positions” and the installation “Shaping DNA” tames parts of the human body in geometrical forms which seems disconcerting at first. The installation shows a hair installation and kaleidoscopic records of the interior of the artist’s body commenting on the change of the body awareness in the 21st century, the fear of foreignness of the own body as well as exposure to exterior control through genetic modification. Using circles and holes as the connection point between the two works the artist plays with the tension between the body as the axis of perception and as object of voyeurism.

The main focus of the installation “Absurd” by Vusala Agarazyieva is an air balloon that symbolizes pseudo-values and empty ideas and goals. The artist questions the people’s absurd behavior, the attitude to each other and to life while trying to reach the imaginary goals and what they call their truth. “I think we, the people, have turned blind and do not see that the only thing a man has is his path - the path from the beginning to the end of life, which bears no lie, envy, hypocrisy, as the nature does. Only the path built on love brings love, respect and recognition.”

With the work “Lost Generation” Erkin Alekberli aims to name the countless children lives lost in terrors of war, forgotten and stayed in the dark. The installation stands for the vanished hopes and unfinished dreams affected by the injustice of war. However, it not only accuses the unlearned lessons from bloody conflicts world wide in which children as defenseless victims suffer the most but also tries to create a symbolic protective fence with the barbered wire forming the central part of the installation. 

Timo Herbsts drawings and video works that he started during the residency attempt to capture the choreography of Baku everyday life. In the film “Baku/Baki – Ana Dili” the artist steps into the shoes of a silent observer tracing the different living realities he was faced with allowing contradictory and complex moments to evolve. Thus he creates a differentiated and sensitive image of the society that is more complicated than just a conflict between tradition and modernization, economical prosperity and crisis. The strategy of overlapping multiple realities he also applies in his drawings “Same procedure” that depict the bodily conflicts of political disputes around the world as well as the text works from the series “How does it feel” that play with the different alphabets used in the last two centuries in Azerbaijan.

Merzedes Sturm-Lie researched during her residency the first Azeri movie “In the Kingdom of Oil and Millions” of the year 1916 directed by Boris Svetlov, which vanished during the Bolshevik occupation in 1920. The exhibition features a documentation of her four day workshop with young art and film students related to the movie and a video with the movie sites and an interview of the film historian Ayd?n Kaz?mzad?. The works explore the artists interest in the stories and the personal relationships of people related to oil and millions as well as the broader geopolitical impact that these concepts have on everyday life in Azerbaijan. The project is an extension concerns on the topic of oil that she started in Belgium with the work “Black Gold”. It consists of an oil barrel with oil at the bottom and the upper edge covered with gold leaf. Looking into the barrel it creates the feeling of looking into the dark well. The work is inspired by Friedrich Nietzsches quote: “And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee”. 

Born in Istanbul, in 1983, Gökçen Dilek Acay, studied music major violin at the Y?ld?z Technical University Istanbul (2009) and attended master program in fine arts, at the Bauhaus University Weimar (2012). She worked with the dancers, musicians, visual artists and participated several group exhibitions and has had solo and group exhibitions in Turkey, Europe, Asia and US. She is selected artist who represents Turkey for 17th International Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean in Milan 2015. She was represented at Art Fair Brussels and Contemporary Istanbul by NEV Gallery Istanbul. 

Vusala Agaraziyeva was born in 1990 in Baku. She has obtained her bachelors and masters degrees in Fine Arts from The Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts. She has participated in “Sirga olsun” (MOMA, Baku), “Sirga olsun” (MIM gallery), “Duyme” (Kichik Qala gallery, Baku), “Khojaly Genocid” (Galerie Berlin-Baku, Berlin), “Germany seen by Azerbaijani artists” (Art Academy, Baku), “Half Truths” (ARTIM, Baku), “History” (Etnographical Museum, Tibilisi). She is a Young Member of the Azerbaijan Union of Artists from 2013.

Erkin Alekberli was born in 1992 in Baku. He obtained his Masters degree in fine arts from the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts. Alekberli has participated in the exhibitions Contract of century, R.Mustafayev National Museum of Arts, Baku, Art Festival Semeni HeydarAliyev Cultural Center, Baku, Xojaly, Berlin Gallery, Berlin, Memory/Retrospective project in frame of Aluminium Biennale of Contemporary Art, Absheron Gallery, Baku. He is the Second place winner of ?nternational Art Competition ARTWEEK, Moscow. Alekberli is a Young Member of the Azerbaijan Union of Artists.

Merzedes Sturm-Lie, born 1991, is a SWEDISH/BELGIAN/NORWEGIAN multimedia artist and curator who lives and works in Stockholm and Brussels. She holds a Master of Fine Art from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm (SE). Her work has been shown in Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Japan, Russia, Brazil and the US.

Timo Herbst received his diploma at the University of Arts in Bremen and Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig (Germany) 2013. His work was shown at Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz Berlin, Museum for Visual Arts Leipzig, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Haus der Kunst Munich and Centre d`Art Passerelle Brest (France). He was fellow of Artist Quarter Budapest (Hungary), Goethe Institut Villa Kamogawa Kyoto (Japan) and is currently comissioned of the interdisciplinary project and research group “Arts and Science in Motion” of Volkswagen Foundation connected to FU Berlin and HBK Braunschweik.

About ARTIM 
ARTIM is directed at young Azerbaijani artists with an intention to support and encourage emergent talent to grow. The programme has a designated exhibition space in Icheri Sheher that was conceived as a platform for experimenting and professionally showcasing art. Artworks resulting from the programme are exhibited at the ARTIM Project Space, Baku. 

Exhibition dates: 2 December – 16 December 2016
Working hours: Thursday – Sunday, 2pm – 8pm
For more information: www.yarat.az; 0125051414