CONTINUITY OF TRADITIONS

Kichik QalArt Gallery in Baku hosts the exhibition named Kelaghai: Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow, which is quite a success among the visitors, causing their genuine interest. Here they can receive information about the technology used in the production of this legendary headscarf for women. This is a truly unique exhibition in that it ensures interactive immersion into the history of transformation of kelaghai from an element of national clothing to a symbol of the Soviet propaganda to a fashion accessory to subject of national pride. Thanks to its art of making and symbolism, on November 26, 2014 kelaghai was included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. This is a result of efforts of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and personally Mehriban Aliyeva aimed for promoting kelaghai as a national treasure and cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage

What does heritage mean? Layers of cultural artefacts piled up throughout the ages? Is it a legacy of our ancestors? How do we use this heritage? What are we doing to ensure that the next generations inherit this wealth?

At the beginning of the 90s, Rena Ibrahimbayova and Jalil Tariverdiyev launched an enormous scientific and practical effort to save the kelaghai as a form of applied art dating back the times of the Silk Road. They have managed to bring together various artists and artisans to form a group, which has later become known as the Research Centre for Technological Processes of Manufacturing Silk Threads designed to create kelaghai and its ornaments. Kelaghai is not just a woman’s headscarf. This is a coded language of symbols, signs of philosophical significance. Kelaghai is truly a science holding the secrets of many generations.

But there is another, glamorous, side of the issue, which is closely associated with commercial interests. Nothing is wrong with that as long as Azerbaijani kelaghai becomes increasingly popular among the European women and occupies one of the important places in the wardrobe of fashionistas.

The third aspect of the issue is informational support through various interactive actions, lectures and master classes. Kelaghai: Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow was organized by Asli Samedova. The goal is to promote kelaghai among residents and visitors of Baku.

Yesterday

The art of ancient Azerbaijan has its roots and traditions. The exhibition explains in simple terms the idea of ​​how the art of batik reached us and where it came from. What are the peculiarities of making Azerbaijani batik and what are its technological differences from the batik of other countries, where this art also has ancient roots (Malaysia, India, Uzbekistan).

Having been known since the times of the Silk Road, the art of batik became firmly established in the daily life of the Azerbaijani people. It has since become not only a type of handcraft, but also a powerful and well-developed industry. Kelghai manufacturing has gone through various historical periods of Azerbaijan, including antiquity, Russian Empire (silk production plant in Tiflis), the Sovietisation of Azerbaijan (silk factory in Sheki, which is a well-known plant in the country).

Incidentally, kelaghai has been used not only in Azerbaijan, but also in Daghestan. The exhibition provides comprehensive information about the characteristics of kelaghai used by Azerbaijani women. For example, different regions of Azerbaijan had their own ornamental style and tradition of draping and wearing the headscarf. This period of kelaghai manufacturing is available through online presentation made at the exhibition. Standing in front of the monitor, one can repeat what a guide demonstrates as the kelaghai tying technique.

Here you will know that there were several types of women headscarf in Azerbaijan, as indicated below:

Örpek is a square shape decorated with white, coloured, gold or silver threads and silk fringe;

Shawl has the same characteristics of örpek, but is made of wool or other fabric;

Charshab and chadra are rectangular shaped headscarves with limited colours made of any cloth, including thick silk, and prescribed by religious traditions of Islam.

Unfortunately, during the Soviet times, the meaning of kelaghai has been reduced to a primitive level. Citizens have gradually stopped wearing kelaghai as a headdress, treating it as a relic of the past. However, the Sheki plant continued the manufacture of kelaghai as a souvenir sold at various stores. During these decades, the spirit of continuity transmitted from one generation to another and bearing a reverent faith in the power of ornament was blurred and destroyed. Nevertheless, kelaghai was still part of the dowry presented at engagement and wedding ceremonies. When the groom's father or the groom himself wore a wedding ring on the finger of his beloved, the girl had to cover her head or shoulders with a kelaghai presented by her mother-in-law. This tradition has reached our days as well.

With the collapse of the USSR, industrial production of silk and silk products including kelaghai was almost extinct. However, thanks to the efforts of many people who are not indifferent to the national heritage, such as Rena Ibrahimbayova and Jalil Tariverdiyev, this did not happen. They created a centre in Baskal village aimed for the revival of handicrafts used in kelaghai manufacturing, searching for old printed ornamental forms, developing new ones, etc.

Today

Today, the art of hot and cold batik  is quite developed in Azerbaijan, but there was a pause in silk production in Azerbaijan. On February 1, 2018, the production activity of the Sheki Silk Mill was temporarily suspended - the company began to experience problems with the sale of finished products, namely the raw silk fabric. Part of products was sold to Iran and Turkmenistan, but most of it has accumulated in warehouses due to a sharp decline in consumer demand.

Nevertheless, the art of kelaghai lives its own life, revealing new names of artists who engage in batik professionally. On the other hand, many different commercial associations add modern ornamental rhythms to kelaghai while preserving national traditions.

What about the modern kelaghai? It is demanded. It is interesting. It has become an expressive detail of the wardrobe of many European women, who wear it with pleasure in everyday life, using it as an accessory to their evening dresses.

The art of wearing kelaghai today is different from the age-old traditions that are on display at the exhibition. If a modern woman has a delicate aesthetic taste, artistic flair and understanding of the compositional characteristics of clothing, then she will certainly look attractive, beautiful, and intriguing, like, for example, the national artist of Azerbaijan, the actress of the National Academic Drama Theatre Shukufa Yusupova. She knows how to combine the details of a European modern costume with elements of traditional clothes of Azerbaijani women in such a way that it is impossible to take your eyes off her! Without pretentiousness, she looks like a modern woman should look like: feminine, beautiful, original, attractive. Kelaghai in her wardrobe is not just a beautiful piece. This is an appraisal of national tradition. This is a dialogue between her and the women of her kind. This is a genetic memory of the concepts of beauty that have been passed down to generations for many centuries. But the main thing is she knows how to wear it! And each time, looking at her, you understand that she is a real artist.

Tomorrow

Being an intangible cultural heritage, kelaghai regains its lost position, replenishing the wardrobes of not only Azerbaijani women. The artistic value of kelaghai becomes a link between East and West. Headscarf of Azerbaijanis gains international status. Behind this is the interest in the shawl, made in the batik technique, as a beautiful, practical, hygienic, convenient thing. But the Azerbaijani kelaghai can reveal to the world its other virtues, which have not yet been fully disclosed. This requires not only time, but also our general attention to the scientific research that returns us ourselves. More precisely, the time lost in memory of the fact that kelaghai is not just a piece of painted fabric. And not only the history of the culture of the ancient people with its unique traditions.