Retro music to sound at YARAT

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

YARAT Contemporary Art Space will delight music lovers with a retro music concert on December 6. The event is organized as part of the YARAT Freestyle project.

The concert will feature talented young musicians Kamran Rzayev (soloist), Nijat Pashazade (bassist), Nijat  Aslanov (pianist), Tofig Jabbarov (drummer).

Music pieces by world-famous musicians Andy Williams, Elvis Presley, Muslim Magomayev, Rashid Behbudov will sound at the evening.

Admission is free.

YARAT is an artist-founded, not-for-profit art organization based in Baku, Azerbaijan, established by Aida Mahmudova in 2011. YARAT (which means "create" in Azerbaijani) is dedicated to contemporary art with a long-term commitment to creating a hub for artistic practice, research, thinking and education in the Caucasus, Central Asia and surrounding region.

It comprises YARAT Centre, ARTIM Project Space, YARAT Studios and an extended educational and public programme. YARAT Centre, a 2000m² converted Soviet-era naval building, opened in March 2015 and is the organization's main exhibition space.

The exhibition programme features new commissions by artists responding to the region.  It supports and provides access to artists from the region, while engaging and introducing established, international artists.

In October 2015, YARAT opened ARTIM, a central, accessible and dynamic space in Baku's Old City. ARTIM (meaning "progress" in Azerbaijani) shows experimental practices and new work by emerging Azeri art professionals (selected through open call) and the international artists from the residency programme. It features multiple small-scale projects each year and hosts ARTIM LAB, a programme enabling young artists to engage in workshops and daily studio practice to generate new ideas and works.

In 2016, YARAT launched a renewed residency programme. The project, aimed at developing young Azerbaijani voices and emerging international artists, it focuses on innovative practices and artists with an interest in the region.

The residency programme hosts 6 international and 4 local artists a year at YARAT Studios’ spaces.

Education has been at the heart of YARAT's activities since its creation. With a dedicated public programme that includes courses, workshops, lectures, screenings, festivals, literature and theatre clubs and family weekends, YARAT aims to give access to broad audiences of all ages.

The public programme invests proactively in building communities and nurturing a wider understanding of, and participation in, contemporary art.