Art cruise to be held in Baku within Art Weekend

From October 31 to November 2, Baku will be the venue for the major Art Festival "Fly to Baku. Art Weekend. Sense the Future NOW," an event that combines art, culture, and environmental awareness, Azernews reports.

The project is organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the IDEA Public Union, in cooperation with the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry. The author and initiator of the project is Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and founder of the IDEA Public Union.

This immersive initiative will turn Baku into a dynamic hub for modern creativity, conversation, and exploration. The festival will place a strong focus on the ecological challenges facing oceans and seas, addressing these issues through the medium of art.

The central theme of the festival is water as a symbol of life, renewal, and sustainable development. Water, representing resilience, renewal, and collective memory, has been chosen as the key element of the Art Weekend, facilitating a meaningful dialogue between Azerbaijan and the international art community.

One of the most exciting initiatives developed for the Art Weekend is "Four Seas of Parathetis," led by Firuza Sultanzade, the head of the Republican Center for the Development of Children and Youth and the Social-Ecological Center "Ecosphere." This immersive program, designed for both children and their parents, spans multiple locations and themes. Firuza Sultanzade highlighted that the program’s aim is to merge creativity, education, and ecological awareness, helping the younger generation grasp the significance of culture and nature while also nurturing their artistic skills. Children will be engaged not just as viewers but as active participants.

Participants of the program will embark on an art cruise through four ports of art, navigating waves of music, visual arts, science, and research. At each stop, guests will experience an exciting new program.

The first port will be the Republican Center for the Development of Children and Youth, where participants will receive special art cruise passports. These passports will list the four stops they need to visit.

"Here, guests will find themselves in an atmosphere of science and various workshops, where they will be able to create alongside professionals, artists, sculptors, landscape designers, and researchers, conducting different experiments. For example, they will create theatrical masks, paint, listen to the sounds of the sea, learn about whales and dolphins, and explore water-related issues."

The second port will be the National Museum of Arts of Azerbaijan, located near the Republican Center for the Development of Children and Youth.

"In the museum, children will meet with artists, and a tour will be organized. All of this will be interactive and immersive. The children will be taught how artists depict water and how it can be conveyed through artistic expression. In addition, there will be workshops on watercolor painting, based on the theme of water. Monotype – a form of graphic art and printmaking technique that is not engraving – will also be presented. In this technique, the artist applies oil or lithographic paint with a brush to a flat metal plate, which is then used to make prints on dampened paper under pressure on an etching press. In the spacious hall, various animated and documentary films about water, nature protection, and animals living by the sea will be shown."

The third stop will be the Azerbaijan State Academic Philharmonic Hall, located near the Azerbaijan National Art Museum.

"At the Philharmonic Hall, there will be a performance by the State Chamber Orchestra, conducted by People's Artist Ayyub Guliyev, who will present short works by world and national classical composers, as well as contemporary authors, dedicated to water. Children will be involved in the musical works, interacting and even conducting the orchestra. The creative team will answer the children's questions about the pieces, musical instruments, and the creative aspects of the compositions. This will be an immersive theater experience."

Finally, the fourth port will be the open area with a fountain in front of School No. 6, located near the State Philharmonic Hall.

"For the final stage, we have even purchased inflatable pools and special cushions. There will be huge cubes where children can try their hand at street art, creating drawings with water-based paints and washable markers. The children will draw images related to the sea, rivers, and other water features. Here, together with the State Puppet Theatre, a special immersive performance will be created. The children, along with the puppets they made during our workshops, will actively participate and tell a story. And most importantly, attention will be given to the four seas—the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Azov Sea, and Aral Sea, each with its own character, history, and ecological problem. All of this will be presented in an associative manner. I'm sure that this program will stay in the children’s memory for a long time, and they will always associate the world around them, talented people, music, creativity, and the unifying power of art and ecology as helping this world to survive."

Entrance is free. For registration, please visit: https://bakuartweekend.az/az/register/