De-colonial approaches to nature
Suad Garayeva-Maleki, artistic director of the YARAT contemporary art centre, talks about the “Potential Worlds” project and about why 2020 for the centre is going to be a year of “de-colonialisation” of nature
22/01/20
Azerbaijan’s contemporary art centre YARAT constitutes a key point on the map of contemporary art in the Caucasus and Central Asian region. This private initiative and the new art space with its team was born in Baku in 2011. The centre announced itself with a series of projects linking together the most interesting artists from the “global pool” and local and regional authors. Belgian Bjorn Geldhof, who we met and spoke to in Riga, was YARAT’s artistic director until 2018, when Suad Garayeva-Maleki, who was the centre’s senior curator since 2014, replaced him. YARAT has announced an interesting programme for 2020, which is directly related to ecology and global, non-anthropocentric thinking (central to the Arterritory team also).
The project’s title is “Potential Worlds: Ruins of Today and Eco-Fictions of Tomorrow”. It is produced in collaboration with Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and co-curated by Heike Munder, artistic director of the Migros and Suad Garayeva-Maleki. It will be implemented in two parts / sections / phases and two different expositions associated with the central theme of the project will be presented to the audience. The curator’s introduction describes the tasks of the two expositions in the following way: “The starting point of both exhibitions is the current Earth Age of the Anthropocene, in which man is understood as a serious factor influencing biological, geological and atmospheric processes. The contemporary positions that have emerged over the past 10 years ask how the stories of the Anthropocene could be reflected upon and reimagined. At the same time, they cast a glance forward: What ideas of nature could emerge and how will we perceive nature in the future? What might alternatives beyond human-centered thought and action look like?”.
We invited Suad Garayeva-Maleki, the centre’s artistic director and co-curator of the project, to tell us how and in what manner will these tasks be implemented, what role in the ecological discourse debate in Azerbaijan does the art centre see for itself.
Potential Worlds 1: Planetary Memories at YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan, 10 July – 27 September 2020, yarat.az.
Kiluanji Kia Henda, Havemos de Voltar (We Shall Return), 2017, Single-channel video (color, sound), 17:30 min, Commissioned by Jahmek Contemporary Art, Luanda, Angola
Coexistence with forces of Nature is one of the most topical subjects not only in everyday life but also in art (worth mentioning here might be e.g. the exhibition “Coexistence. Human, Animal and Nature in Kiasma's Collections” going on right now in Helsinki, Finland).
How would you describe the innovativeness of YARAT’s two ecology exhibitions in 2020 “Potential Worlds 1: Planetary Memories” (10 July – 27 September 2020) and “Potential Worlds 2: Eco-Fictions” (6 November 2020 – 7 February 2021)? What perspectives will be brought into this huge narrative?
It is important to consider the local context and to work with it, especially for art spaces outside of the global centres. The topic of ecology, albeit omnipresent in international media, is still widely unexplored in the arts of the region and has not been at the forefront of the political agenda either, for various reasons. The show at YARAT aims to raise the much-needed awareness, but also to propose solutions for living with the changing environment. This project, conceived together with Heike Munder, director of Migros Museum für Gegenwarts Kunst, for both Zurich and Baku, aims to explore both de-colonial approaches to nature and forward-looking, technology-enhanced solutions for future existence.
Kiluanji Kia Henda, Havemos de Voltar (We Shall Return), 2017, Single-channel video (color, sound), 17:30 min, Commissioned by Jahmek Contemporary Art, Luanda, Angola
The artist list of YARAT’s first ecology exhibition “Potential Worlds 1: Planetary Memories” includes a quite international and inspiring team. What about the local art scene, will artists from the region also take part in the project?
YARAT has always strived to support not only the local talent, but also artists from the region and this exhibition is no exception. It is important to show views from across the board when preparing a thematic exhibition and especially those closest to “home” in our case, as we really inhabit a very particular geography. In both of the shows, we will have artists from Turkey (such as Ozan Atalan, a previous YARAT Resident, and Pinar Yoldas), Kazakhstan (Almagul Menlibayeva), as well as Middle Eastern (Monira Al Qadiri, Joana Hadkithomas and Khalil Joreige) and Eastern European voices (Dora Budor, Katja Novitskova).
Monira Al Qadiri, Divine Memory 2019, Video, 4 minutes. Image courtesy of artist
What will be the most intriguing new commissions to the show?
Some of the existing works will be produced with the local context in mind, in both Zurich and Baku - such as Maria Thereza Alves’ Seeds of Change and Adrian Villar Rojas’ work From the series The Theater of Disappearance (XII), and some will be outright new works. I am very excited about the deep research currently being carried out by Peter Fend on the Caspian Sea Basin and river dams on all water flowing into it. His work is aiming to propose actual policy change to reverse the harmful effects of desalination and damming. Another work inspired by the show which will be site-specific in Baku is Jimmie Durham’s There Are More Outside…
Reena Saini Kallat, Siamese Trees (Palmyra-phruek), 2018-19, electric wires, metal, circuit boards, fittings, 24 x 21 in. Courtesy Chemould Prescott Road and Reena Kallat Studio. Photo by Iris Dreams
The current art scene not only “speaks” about coexistence with nature but also tries to be as eco-friendly as possible in its production. Is the exhibition in YARAT also going this way?
We strive to produce as many of the artworks as possible locally and certainly all heavy construction and materials are locally sourced and produced. This helps to not only bring the local infrastructure up to speed but also to eliminate heavy shipping.
Almagul Menibayeva, Astana.Departure, 2016‐2019, Site specific multichannel video installation. 4k video, surround sound, 20 min. Courtesy American‐Eurasian Art Advisors LLC. Almagul Menlibayeva© All.Rights.Reserved
This exhibition will take a place in a country whose prosperity is rather related to taking resources from nature (oil, gas). Do you think it actually has the potential to change something in the people's minds, the way they look at Azerbaijan’s economy?
This situation makes the topic of ecology ever more pressing. The shrinking Caspian waters, among other issues, make it vital to think and act in an eco-friendlier manner. It is important to go beyond the exhibition; our programming throughout the year is set to highlight the topics raised by these two shows but also broader problems of ecology. We are planning a whole range of lectures, workshops, screenings and education programmes for both children and adults, including schools and universities. So, I am hopeful that such programming and our wide reach into the local community can make some positive shifts and address some very necessary questions.
