"TENDER GOLD"

Margarita Kerimova-Sokolova is an Azerbaijani artist who has been living in Cologne for a while. She recently presented in Baku's Museum Centre a new series of her paintings - "Carnaval Venice" - which was influenced by a trip she made to the Venice annual festival. She realised an old dream of hers - to visit the Venice carnival. The characters who appear at the Venice carnival are local professional actors playing pantomime scenes on all the city's squares and streets. 

The actors sew the costumes themselves. The scenarios and the costume traditions have been honed over centuries - only the technology changes.  Such costumes cost from tens to hundreds of thousands of euro depending on the material. A review of the carnival costumes is held on St Marc's Square on the last day of the carnival and the best ones are awarded very, very good prizes. Naturally, for Margarita hanim, as an artist, the costumes were the most important thing at the carnival. 

When silence amazes…

"When I got to the Venice carnival last year I was shocked (in the best sense of that word) and I still can't get over it," the artist recalls. "The first thing that struck me was the silence. Only a silent whisper all around punctuated by exclamations from tourists pointing their lenses at the actors. The actors reply if you talk to them but few of the guests do so - everybody is in a hurry to take a photo. Incidentally, I am sure that not a single tourist has yet spoiled a single shot - so professionally do the carnival participants move. There is another surprise - all the masked figures are very tall. Of course that's how it seems because of the height of the headdresses but maybe also because the actors are wearing buskins. And the third amazing thing is of course Venice itself - a city which it seems has been left untouched by the hand of time. It was influenced by all of this that I ventured to have my say about such a popular topic as the Venice carnaval which is loved by all. I recently exhibited this series of paintings in Baku. It was the first time it was shown in public and I wanted this first exhibition to take place here, in my homeland. I was delighted by the concerted work of the Museum Centre's collective headed by Liana Vezirova. They courageously set up the exhibition in the heat - the centre's gallery isn't meant for summer meetings - there aren't any air conditioners there so as to preserve the exhibits. It was a heroic feat! And I was very glad by how many people, including very famous people, came to my opening day. My "Venetian Carnaval" will travel to Cologne later and to Wesseling. And it will keep on growing for I plan to continue the series. But I will change my material. I will work in oils now instead of pastels."

Masks as images

The idea of a "portrait gallery", the most secret part of Margarita Kerimova-Sokolova's new series, was born at the carnival itself. "I happened to see an actress in the wonderful costume of 'Spring'. Suddenly and unexpectedly I saw quite clearly an acquaintance of mine in this 'Spring', a very beautiful woman (I'll tell you who - Lala Kyazimova).  And I suddenly realised that I had to embody this thought in my series of works on Venice. And so things went on from there… I have now collected  portraits of my friends and relatives in this 'gallery'. At the same time, I didn't intend to paint a portraiture series, that is to say, simply to dress people up in costumes. I intuitively selected an appropriate image for every one, revealing that person as far as possible. For instance, 'The Little Prince' is my grandson, and 'The Little Fairy' is my second cousin. 'Signorina' is her mama. She turned out looking a bit older than she really is but I set her mind a rest by saying what Picasso had said. Do you remember that? When Gertrude Stein saw herself in the portrait he had painted, she exclaimed: 'But I don't look like that!' meaning the somewhat advanced years he gave her. Picasso replied reasonably: 'Madame, you will become like this…' 'The Pearl of Venice' is the sister of my daughter-in-law and 'Capuletti' is my daughter-in-law. The only 'Mephistopheles-like' male portrait so far - it is called 'Secret of Desires' - looks just like its prototype, a creative, multi-talented and vigorous man."  

This portrait is, moreover, still the least "carnival" of all - a specific individual is seen very graphically. Another exception is "Dedication to Rene Margit". This painting is as it were by itself. It clearly falls outside the profoundly "Venetian" series both in topic and in style. Not just "literary" costumes, such as the characters from "Romeo and Juliette", for instance, or "The Decameron", are seen frequently at the Venice carnival. There are also masks evoking images of the fine arts. And Margarita hanim saw a lady with an umbrella in Venice who had a bunch of violets instead of a face - as in the painting of that great surrealist. She saw in that image the mother of her daughter-in-law but in her work she moved the bouquet away from her face like a mask…

Our compatriots in Cologne 

There are many Azerbaijanis in Germany and especially in Cologne. There are around a thousand Azerbaijanis living there. Speaking of professions, Margarita hanim said that our diaspora was brought fame by its doctors. The Germans very highly valued these splendid specialists. After all, there are very high demands on medical specialists in Europe. That is the first thing. And our specialists went there mostly already at an age when it is difficult to make radical changes in one's life. That's the second thing. Nevertheless, they fitted in marvellously - how many of them already have a successful practice of their own! Isn't that proof of their professionalism? "I would like to note, in particular, the successes of Latafat Zeynalova, Xanum Azimova, Gafur Imanov. And representatives of culture are up there at the top. There is the activist Ildirim Sultanov in Cologne. He is an architect by profession but he runs a gallery and also paints himself. He often organises exhibitions of the works of our Azerbaijani artists there. We celebrate two holidays widely every year - Novruz bayram and New Year. The first one is an Azerbaijani tradition and the second is probably nostalgically Soviet. National customs are felt in this event, too - in the meals prepared for this holiday, and in many other things. Singers and musicians from Azerbaijan and many guests are invited without fail to the Novruz celebrations."

In 2001 Margarita Kerimova-Sokolova held her exhibition in the Kopelev Centre. It was named after the renowned dissident held in high esteem by Germans (he was a writer and a friend of Heinrich Boll's). After Kopelev died in Germany, a foundation was set up in his name. The Kopelev Centre has become a club where those in the arts and science can meet. She timed her exhibition there to coincide with 28 May with the support of other members of the diaspora. But it turned into an event which was broader than the personal exhibition of a single artist. The exhibition became the centre of The Days of Culture of Azerbaijan which were organised by our diaspora. Our embassy in Germany and also the Azerbaijani diaspora in another town - Bochum - took part in organising them.  They brought the Azerbaijani film "Anecdote" from there and showed it. Germans visited the exhibition, watched the film, listened to lectures by Rafiga Sadixova, the wife of our ambassador, on the history of German-Azerbaijani ties over the three-day event. The president of the public television channel, ARD, Fritz Pleitgen, opened our Days of Culture. This was very flattering for Margarita Kerimova-Sokolova and an honour for her, too - he is very popular in his country.  

She also had a book project and although work on it was not carried out directly under the aegis of the diaspora, nonetheless it had a direct bearing on Azerbaijan. The poet Dmitriy Dadasidze, born in Baku, and now living in Hannover in Germany, has dedicated his whole life to translation work and to translating in the first instance Azerbaijani poets, including poets from southern Azerbaijan. He recently published at his own expense a book of translations of our poets and Margarita hanim was the illustrator.

"I stress without fail at my exhibitions that I am an Azerbaijani artist. I also noted it in my exhibition in the USA in 1993 and was pleased to hear that people were not puzzled but said: 'Yes, Azerbaijan! Oh, the Caspian Sea!' and so forth. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans, as far as showing an interest in other countries goes, are far from being the first in the world - and that is a known fact. Needless to say, the Germans are open to everything new. The strongest period of interest in our country began for them after a documentary on Azerbaijan was shown on ARD which was ordered and shot by the Germans in our country when Geydar Aliyevich was still alive. This film was called 'The Fires of Baku'. It told in detail not just about oil but also about leading personalities, German by origin, who won renown by serving Azerbaijan, and it was about the historical ties between our countries in general. And now, seeing the word 'Azerbaijan' on a poster or invitation, Germans say 'Oh Azerbaijan! We know that country well!'", Kerimova-Sokolova reminisced. 

Well, it's nice that we are known in Germany not just because of our "black gold" - oil - but also because of our "tender gold" - art. Including fine art…