P
olythene strips suspended in space like vapours; a video of a hot summer’s day at the beach playing on a loop; a room seemingly empty but charged with oxygen… The winter 2013 exhibition ‘Zavod’, from Baku contemporary art organization YARAT, tackled themes ranging from technical progress to the very air we breathe, inspired by its setting in a former airconditioning factory. YARAT often transforms edgy, alternative spaces into platforms for art. For ‘Zavod’, 29 emerging Azerbaijani artists were invited by curator Faig Ahmed to create artworks inspired by a visit to the disused Baku Air Conditioning Works, a victim of the economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The results are startling. There is a poignancy to those pieces which point to absence – silent reminders of the human face of the economic crash. Other installations employ humour, playing with our preconceptions of factory labour. Some look forward to the future, imagining a rebirth for this derelict place; others take a historic approach, seeking to reflect that nowobsolete way of life. All engage with and deconstruct their setting in surprising and often unsettling ways. Housing these new artworks, the old factory is once more imbued with a sense of purpose.
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72 Baku.