First Lady of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva and French Minister of Culture and Communication Frederic Mitterrand took part in the opening ceremony of “the Pleasure of France” art exhibition in Baku

“Plaisirs de France” art exhibition was opened at Azerbaijan State Museum of Art with the intention and support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation  on March 10th.

The First Lady of the Republic of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Goodwill Ambassador of  UNESCO and ISESCO Mehriban Aliyeva, French Minister of Culture and Communication, currently on his visit to Azerbaijan Frédéric Mitterrand, social and political figures, art representatives, intellectuals, diplomatic corpus leaders accredited to our country took part in the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

This exhibition was a very important event in the cultural life of Baku and was organized by the support of.Mehriban Aliyeva, First Lady of Azerbaijan and the President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Frédéric  Mitterrand, French Minister of Culture and Communication.

The exhibition is organized with the participation of the State Museum of Art of Azerbaijan, French Union of National Museums, Grand Palace, Louvre and Orsay Museums, French National Library,  Palace of Versailles and other many French museums and art institutes and contains of up to 400 exponents which will stay in Baku for 2 months. Bringing this exhibition to Baku was decided by the President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva and French Minister of Culture and Communication Frédéric Mitterrand during Azerbaijan Culture Days in Paris last April. The main aim of the event is bringing rare and valuable French art to Azerbaijan.

In the opening ceremony it was noted that this exhibition is a new page in Azerbaijan-France cultural relations, which is developing day by day by the efforts of the President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva.

The President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva held a speech at the ceremony.

Later French Minister of Culture and Communication Frédéric Mitterand had a speech.

Minister Friderick Mitterrand’s speech:

-The President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva!

Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Transport, Mr.Abulfas Garayev, French Ambassador in Azerbaijan Mr.Gabriel Keller and Azerbaijani Ambassador in France Mr.Elchin Amirbeyov, Rector of the Art Academy Mr.Omar Eldarov, Director of State Art Museum Mr.Chingiz Farzaliyev, exhibition guide Mr.Phillippe Costamagna, dear friends, representatives of Cultural Institutes of France.

Dear First Lady, You already held a speech and gave a broad explanation about the purpose why we all are here today. Considering this, I decided not to have the speech I had prepared in advance. Not because it would not be interesting. But, I would like to express that, the staff You are leading, serves to the values which are very important to us, resembles the values close to our souls very professionally. When I say “your staff”, of course, I mean both the employees of the Foundation, Minister of Culture and Tourism, as well as all the rest. They are working on strengthening mutual respect and friendship ties between us.

Dear First Lady, in fact, You gave a very nice description here. This is about the cultural cooperation tying Azerbaijan to France and France to Azerbaijan. Actually, when holding this cultural cooperation contributions by Azerbaijan are very important and we have equal positive attitude towards everyone who puts effort in this cooperation.

You already mentioned some of the projects of Azerbaijan in France. For instance, you mentioned repairing the old church in Strasbourg among them. In general, you mentioned a number of projects implemented with Your effort and work. We, on behalf of French nation, express our deep gratitude to You.

After a few minutes we will get to see the works exhibited in “The Pearls of  France” . However I would call this exhibition not only “The Pearls of France”, but also “The Pearls of Azerbaijan”. This is because Azerbaijani side pays special attention towards events like this. In fact Your interest towards this exhibition is very valuable. Events like this are extremely popular in France, thus considering deep interest of Azerbaijan and its nation to this, we can say that the number of Azerbaijanis is increasing in France. Especially you can affect the existing public opinion and the opportunity of presenting your country through mass media is expanding.

Today we are presenting some pearls of French cultural heritage to the Azerbaijan society. Participation of so many Azerbaijani representatives in this ceremony will be highly appreciated by France and definitely will increase interest towards Azerbaijan. We are also aware of the fact that Azerbaijan also has rich culture – museums, poetry, art and ballet. I would like to specially emphasize your architectural heritage and as You already mentioned, they have put indelible traces through the centuries.

Mrs. Aliyeva, cultural exchange, strengthening existing relations between our nations of course, would not be possible without the kind support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation that You are leading.

I was honored to meet the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan yesterday. I especially mentioned Mr.Heydar Aliyev’s first visit to France. Those times were extremely important. The Republic of Azerbaijan had just gained its independence and was building its statehood. Heydar Aliyev’s first official visit to France was during the presidency of Francois Mitterrand II.

The exhibition opened today not only presents our devotion to the cultural values, but also represents general respect towards everyone who put efforts in organizing it. On this purpose, we deliver our special gratitude to the organization You lead, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

Dear Mrs. Aliyeva, I already mentioned when meeting Mr.Abulfas Garayev, we have come here with an important delegation. The staff of this delegation once more proves that French government pays special attention to the cultural relations and cooperation with Azerbaijan. I am sure that today’s event will create a new page in the history of our cultural cooperation.

At this moment, I would like to once more thank to Mr Kuzel, the director of the French Union of National Museums, Mrs.Labudette, Mr.Abarand, as well as other representatives – the directors of Pompidou center, Louvre museum, National Library of France and other cultural institutes of France. They have contributed a lot to this exhibition. They have worked so hard, because they know how important the warm and kind friendship between France and Azerbaijan is.

Once more, I would like to thank to Mr.Philippe Costamagna and all the staff he is leading. Exhibiting so many works here today was a lot of work. I thank to all our Azeri friends for helping out through the process. These all are the results of mutual understanding between our nations. Special thanks to Mr.Jean Paul Beyru for his hard work.

Dear Mrs.Aliyeva, I would also like to express my deep appreciation to You and Your daughter Mrs.Leyla Aliyeva and invite everyone to view the exhibition in a few minutes. I consider you all as members of our special family – Azerbaijan-French family living in peace and harmony.

Dear friends, our work is not done here. We intend to open more exhibitions, especially in movie industry. We know that French school is being built in Baku and Azerbaijan Culture House will be opened in Paris. These all serve to the strengthening the relations between us, in fact will be the Sun delivering heat and enlightening to our mutual cultural cooperation.

Dear Mrs. Aliyeva, without Your help this exhibition would not be possible. Thank you for Your special efforts, valuable time and energy.

I think we could verify your trust towards us to a certain degree.

Welcome to the “The Pearls of France”! We are pleased to see you here. Thank you for your attention.

X X X

Then guests were invited to view the “The Pearls of France” art exhibition.

Today exponents from the most beautiful museums of the world – Louvre and Orsay museums, the Palace of Versailles, Pompidou Center, Marseille, Lyon and Nice cities - are displayed in Baku. Visitors will get to see works by famous artists like Edgar Degas, August Roden, Anri Toulouse-Lautrec, Jean Batiste Simeon Shardin, Ejen Delakrua, August Renoir and others. They will also see works by famous French designers, as well as photos from different periods. The exhibition is fabulous, some works have never been demonstrated anywhere other than the museums they are kept at. Uniqueness of the exhibition is that a great period of French history is displayed here. Works from various years are posted in different rooms. These periods cover rare samples of French art starting from Renaissance until today.

This exhibition, aimed at developing Azerbaijan-France ties, will let its visitors see the French pleasure, ideas, creativity with their own eyes and value its beauty. Thus, the organizers of the event have done their best to create French atmosphere within this exhibition in Baku.