The Nasimi Festival gets underway by an exhibition called “Irfani Secrets” in the Palace of Shirvanshahs

Held with the organizational support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Culture Ministry, the 2^nd Nasimi-Poetry, Art and Morality Festival started, September 28, in the Palace of Shirvanshahs with an exhibition called “Irfani Secrets”.

Video-art, graphics examples, installation and kinetic objects dedicated to spiritual life and evolution of spirit are presented at the exposition covering the palace’s territory.

Arriving at the Palace of Shirvanshahs, one can discover that this enigmatic place still holds secrets unveiled. Spacious rooms, narrow entrances to the basement hidden behind giant columns, narrow and extremely high corridors with steps - as if built for giants in fairy tales - make visitors have such imaginations.

The tomb of Seid Yahya Bakuvi, one of the central persons of the Khalvatiyyah Sect, is buried in this palace. Khalvatiyyah is a means of being isolated from this world, by which, one leaves this world for a long time so that the spirit joins the body, going through self-discovery and self-comprehension.

Works of the exhibition participants have been placed in this way in the rooms and corridors of the palace complex, as if inviting a visitor to find a hidden moral message. It is no accident that this cultural monument was chosen as a place for the exhibition, and the works explain stories of this place, interpreting memories contained in the ancient stones in an artistic way.

This exhibition has been created by drawing inspiration from the idea of the art project “Reincarnation”. The project aims at reviving Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage monuments through modern art.

Works by Aydan Mirzayeva, Aysel Amirova, Eldar Babazadeh, Elshan Garaja, Elshan Sarkhanoghlu, Samir Ramazanov, Tural Mukhtarzadeh from Azerbaijan, Habib Saher from Iran, Sayyora Muin from Uzbekistan and Yesim Aghaoghlu from Turkey were demonstrated at the exhibition.

50 couplets by Nasimi were displayed on the historical walls of Icherisheher using a QR Code, in the framework of the exhibition. Its author is Azerbaijani visual designer Timur Amirkhanov.

Held with the organizational support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Culture Ministry, the festival aims at studying and popularizing great Azerbaijani poet and thinker Imadeddin Nasimi (1369-1417), and tracing his thoughts in the contemporary world.

Nasimi’s poetry and philosophical ideas of the great thinker will be personified through various types of art and their harmony at the events to be held until October 1^st.