AT A CERAMICIST'S HOUSE

Right from childhood all of us have sentimental memories of certain trifles such as toys, experiences, sensations, smells, the taste of certain delicacies, fascinating pictures in adult books and an insuperable desire to perform certain feats. 

Mir Teymur Mammadov was born in Baku in the early post-war years and his childhood coincided with the period when the principle of "one for all and all for one" was a reflection of the ideological setting that created a person, made them into a personality with a tolerant attitude towards a variety multinational cultures and beliefs, shaping a particular mentality. But all this happened at school and at institutions of higher education. It was the home that possessed the isolating bases of one's own culture, of the experience of one's ancestors, of a solicitous attitude towards the traditions of one's own people and a respect for the cultures of other nations.

In accordance with the code of honour

The grandmother is the very foundation of any Azerbaijani family. She is the guardian of the sacred spirit of the family, of the family home, the friend, educator and mentor. She is a person whom we trust unreservedly and absolutely in our serene, happy childhood. Mir Teymur's grandmother Nargiz xanim [term of respect for a woman in Azerbaijan] hailed from the Hacinski family.

For many years before he was born, sensing that a little boy, her grandson, would come into this world, in keeping with the tradition of the seids, she made an offering, giving away to the state several houses in the Old Town as a charitable donation. For many years before he was born, she knew that he was definitely going to come. And she was not mistaken. His grandmother had a strong character, a principle-based view of ways of bringing the boy up, an understanding of the family code of honour and an infinite love for everything that formed the concept of her "native land". 

But she herself never spoke about this. She just lived, honouring and preserving the laws of her own ancestors. When Mir Teymur was six years old, one day he happened to come home, whining like a little puppy seeking protection. He was whimpering because he had been beaten up by a boy from their street. The grandmother opened the door, and, once she learned why he was crying, she refused to let the boy into the house. He had to go and sort this problem out for himself without any one else's help. So, the only thing that he could do was to go to the person who had offended him and sort things out with him. He returned home covered in blood. His grandmother glanced at him with silent approval and let him into the house. 

From that moment on, he understood that he had to resolve all his problems himself and not expect anyone else to do it for him. These were the lessons that helped him later on, when he grew up and graduated from the Azim Azimzada Art School, to insist on his desire to study at the Vera Mukhina High School of Art and Design in Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], although the family was opposed to it. It was mainly his uncle, a well-known army surgeon in Baku, later the neurosurgeon Haci Ali Hasanov, who wanted to stop him from doing that. He thought that for people who had grown up in the hot, southern sunshine, the climate in Leningrad would be fatal, because it was Azerbaijanis who were the most likely to go down with tuberculosis there. But Mir Teymur was adamant that he would only study in Leningrad!

"I collected stamps from the age of four. As it turned out, I had a lot stamps with views of Leningrad in my collection. All these views fascinated me, so this is why I felt sure that it was precisely there that I should study!" 

His grandmother's lessons in shaping a man's character had not been in vain. He manifested enviable persistence and steadfastness in resolving this issue. And then he easily got a place in the faculty of architectural design and decoration at the Mukhina school. Successful in his studies, he spent all his free time at the Saltykov-Shchedrin Library where he had exclusive right of access to archive documents (something that was unheard-of!) and was struck by yet another idea.

With his character and striving for constant achievement, it was not enough for him just to graduate from the Mukhina school. He did not know why the idea occurred to him of entering the Leningrad Nikolay Cherkasov Institute of Theatre and Cinema, but he perhaps thought that it would be helpful in finding a job relating to the artistic transformation of a given space, expressing ideas regarding imagery and staging through artistic depiction, and this was similar to conceptual art in the fine arts genre.

This may simply have been a natural interest in and love for the process of self-improvement. The arts and production faculty of the Leningrad Institute of Theatre and Cinema offered him that opportunity and was not located far from the Mukhina school either. Everything turned out for the best, so the flourishing graduate of one institution of higher education soon became a student at another one. 

Ancient ceramics' traditions

Ten years swiftly flew by in the northern capital, and then Mir Teymur Mammadov returned home. Baku, his family and the Old Town welcomed him. He had a burning desire to create things, to do make studies, to serve his native land by preserving and multiplying the glory of the Land of Fire. Now at 45 years of age, he is continuing to pursue this idea day in day out. 

He has become a member of the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan and the Union of Caricaturists of Azerbaijan, an honorary member of the Union of Artists of Georgia, a laureate of the International Symposium on Ceramics, a winner of the national "Humay" Arts Award, has been included in the International Catalogue of "World Ceramicists", exhibited his works in 56 group exhibitions and organized 19 solo exhibitions. He has written more than 1,500 articles on science and current affairs relating to history, art criticism, ethnography and study of local lore, history and economy. The artist was awarded the title of "World Ambassador" in 2006.

Mir Teymur's indomitable spirit, love for the ancient culture of his native land and his desire to tell the whole world about the unique peculiarities of the Land of Fire have sometimes led to his research articles, ignored by male scholars in his own country, cropping up in the information annals of the United States' Congress. Then they are frequently printed under other people's names. This state of affairs surprises the artist. It is understandable that cynicism has reached its peak in the 21st century and plagiarism has ceased to be something improper or shameful, but not everyone can manage to take this attitude to this state of affairs. But Mir Teymur thinks that, even though this is unethical, this method of circulating information about his native land is also good, because it allows accounts to be reported of the unique ethos in general and the development of applied art in Azerbaijan in particular, for Azerbaijani ceramics have ancient, historical roots.

The school of this type of applied art is truly unique. Therefore Mir Teymur and his apprentices are frequently invited abroad to take part in ceramics' symposiums. They are welcomed everywhere, in Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan and the USA. Interest is being taken in our school of ceramics everywhere else, but for some reason not much interest is being taken in it in our own country. This is incomprehensible and even strange, because we have such a variety of clays and such opportunities to hold international standard symposiums and master-classes here, just as much as in the other countries mentioned. 

"The world's palette of clays consists of 128 different types. The palette we have on our territory contains 98 types. The clay's colour depends on its ferrous oxide content. In our country the colours of the clay range from white to chocolate brown. Our clay has been an object of trade and export since ancient times and possesses unique medicinal properties. The white clay (bentonite) is relentlessly pumped into the cavities formed as a result of oil extraction. The process has already become irreversible," Mir Teymur says.  

The studies of [Norwegian anthropologist] Thor Heyedahl come to mind here. He proved that the territory of ancient Azerbaijan had always attracted both the inhabitants of the Lake Van area and the Persians, as well as other tribes, precisely because it was rich in a unique clay, and in iron and carpet-weaving. This is why the artist does not just sit and twiddle his thumbs, waiting for better times to come along.

The Hacinskies' (his mother's family line) great grandson cannot just sit about, doing nothing, either in his profession or in public life. Therefore, having gained backing for the idea from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the artist Mir Teymur Mammadov held a twin-countries' symposium, to which he invited Artem Gorislavets, a colleague from Kazakhstan, to work together with him. 

The exhibition was the outcome of practical cooperation between the two schools of ceramics, the Azerbaijani and the Kazakh one. The artists are recording their ongoing cooperation relating to the creation of new works in photo-reports on the Internet's Facebook page. At the moment, the ceramicist is already arranging for a second twin-countries' symposium based on an application from an Israeli artist. Both the artists from the first international twin-countries' symposium believe that it will not be the only one. The symposium is acquiring a different format, that of a big, practical forum.

"I became interested in Mir Teymur's works when I saw them on Facebook. So I wrote to him about it. We got to know each other and prepared to go to the [International Ceramic Art] symposium in Olkhon and take part in it. But we didn't manage to do it. Then Mir Teymur came to see me. In just two weeks we created 14 works that we subsequently exhibited. Ceramics, like art, is a very work-intensive occupation, so, believe me, that was record timing. Now I have come to visit him."

"The art of ceramics has been greatly developed in Azerbaijan, and has ancient roots. I cannot understand why he [Mit Teymur] is travelling around other countries and conducting symposiums there, teaching his counterparts his country's ancient craft, while only the occasional visitor comes to Azerbaijan on his own. Shouldn't it be exactly the opposite? I believe that a symposium like this would be very prestigious and important for Azerbaijan. I think that we have now started trail-blazing towards a future big-format symposium. It is just that we are the first ones to attempt it."

"I hope that the day will come when they will say of our work together: "They were the pioneers." I firmly believe that will happen," Gorislavets says.

Addenda

It is interesting that there are people in Moldova who have done everything in order to build special wood-fired kilns for firing ceramics in their country and have purchased everything they need for the project, in order to hold a ceramics' symposium in their country. This is not cheap either. Moldova is not a very rich country either. But patrons of the arts were found there who invested their money in a non-profit enterprise. People want to develop applied art, borrowing from the experience of Mir Teymur, which they don't have in their country. It's a bit hard to get the clay there too, unlike here where we still have plenty of clay in our country. 

We would very much like to believe that a Ceramics Centre of Azerbaijan will eventually be opened in Mir Teymur's house on Magomayev Street, the facade of which is decorated with different characters created from the artist's imagination. The house is therefore packed with personages of a historical and everyday character and also boasts many works of a conceptual nature.

People ought to come here and see these works, not just at exhibitions. The colourful figures of the inhabitants of the inner city do not simply make people look at them. They provoke concept-related associations, awakening in us a knowledge of the past and present. Here there is a whole collection of intricately decorated colourful teapots lending themselves to lengthy, friendly tea parties, leisurely get-togethers and pleasure in getting to know one another.

Another collection contains bells, possibly little bells of different sizes, different colours and shades. They have a natural colour which emerges amidst a fanciful gamma of interwoven colours solely resulting from the impact of the high temperatures in the firing kiln! This also displays the professionalism of the craftsman who knows the secrets of the productive material in this majestic clay. The artist speaks of it as if it were a living being, with respect, love and reverence.

He comes from a line of seids. They always came into this world with a knowledge of what is sacred. They always knew and were always able to detect in the times more than ordinary mortals did. Mir Teymur says that clay, like water, is endowed with the ability to retain information about the physical state of the Earth and then to pass on this information to people, but you just need to know how to access it. Therefore archaeologists who excavate kilns used for firing ceramics should not touch them with their fingers. This destroys the information about the state of the Earth's magnetic field that has gathered in the shards of pottery during the cooling of the oven. Special equipment and geophysicists are needed to ascertain this information and not people's hands and eyes.

Even these days people he knows and strangers, tourists and his fellow countrymen are coming to this house. You can't possibly walk past this intricately designed facade! You may even spend an hour or more staring at it without noticing how long you have been there. In glancing at the tiny images of the personages, you can decode the artist's secret messages coded in conceptual terms, getting pleasure from the stream of different colours. This is because the art of Mir Teymur is connected with the Old Town. This is the ambience of his creative dwelling. This is the territory of art, expressing the artist's boundless love for his native land...