Photos from the first day of the Nasimi Festival
Nasimi – Poetry, Art and Morality Festival - to be held first time in Azerbaijan - started. Dedicated to the creativity of Imadeddin Nasimi (1369-1417), one of the great poets and thinkers of the Orient, with the objective of immortalizing poetry and art, the Festival is being realized with the organizational support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Culture Ministry. To be held in the course 27 to 30th September, the Festival has been organized under the slogans of “From personality to heavens” and “I am a grain I am the Sun...” taken from his words, reflecting Nasimi’s philosophical views.
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The Festival was launched in Shamakhy town, where the poet was born. Here, a visit was undertaken to the Shakhaddin cemetery, where Imadeddin Nasimi’s brother Shakhandan and eminent poet Seid Azim Shirvani were buried. A poetry and music assembly took place before the statue of Nasimi in Shamakhy, and musical performance by People’s Artist Alim Gasymov was presented.
There took also place inauguration of a new exposition of the Shamakhy Ethnography Museum. Prepared on the basis of world museum standards, this informative exposition is presented in historical sequence, using electronic means, in the Azerbaijani and English languages. Currently, the museum boasts of over seven thousand exhibits, where samples of historical and archaeological findings, tangible and cultural monuments covering the period ranging from the most ancient times of Shamakhy to recent days, as well as ethnographic, epigraphic and numismatic samples are displayed in the exposition. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation has donated three engravings depicting Shamakhy, related to the 17th century, which is valued as essential for the museum. They have been acquired in European countries and brought to Azerbaijan. The engravings belonged to renowned German traveller and geographer Adam O’Leary (1603-1671), Dutch traveller Jan Jensen Strays (1630-1694), and Dutch book publisher Olfert Dapper.
Then, an event with participation of the finalists of a literary contest dedicated to Imadeddin Nasimi in the framework of the literary project “Word” of the Culture Ministry took place in Meysari village of Shamakhy. The contest is being held with the objective of discovering young and talented poets, and introducing them to the public. Some 90 young poets had presented their works they wrote having been inspired by the genius of Nasimi. 17 out of them remained for the finals by a decision of the jury.
Inauguration of the International Ethical Design Station under the name of “Delicate Fashion” also took place in Meysari village. Set up on the basis of materials consistently published by the magazine “Baku” for the last few years under the title “Eco. Fashion Itinerary”, this place embraces the functions of a salon for enlightening on ecological sensitivity in the production of clothing and interior items, recycling, restoration of forgotten and obsolete traditional production methods and technologies, as well as a demonstration and sales room. Works by Azerbaijani and foreign designers are displayed here. Clothing styles that had been in fashion for hundreds of years in Azerbaijan, as well as garments decorated with different colours and national ornaments are displayed at the exhibition. Le Gardiens du Silance Group has presented music pieces calling to morality and self-consciousness at the exhibition. Spiritual and meditative music involving various cultures were performed on national and foreign music instruments.
On September 27, an evening of acoustic and electronic music took place in the framework of Nasimi - Poetry, Art and morality Festival. Ambient, Sufi, ancient and new ethnic music pieces were performed at the concert. Music pieces that made people think, called to moral perfection, brought spiritual comfort and tranquillity left deep impression on the guests.
