Baku (Azerbaijan)
1991 born in Ganja (Azerbaijan), the photograper and publisher Ilkin Huseynov currently lives in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Two years he studied in the United States at the Taxes A&M University, Corpus Christi. He got his bachelor degree in the film and TV school at the academy of performing arts in Prague, 2012 and a master degree in the School of Photography EFTI Madrid, 2014. Between 2009 and 2017 his work was shown in numerous international exhibitions - in Georgia, Turkey, the Netherlands, England, Spain, Austria, Belgium, India, Greece and Italy. From 2013 to 2015 he held photographic workshops in Georgia, France and Portugal.
Predominantly he used to work on prevailing social issues of modern Azerbaijan. His first project “MUHIT” 2013 won several prizes, including London Photography, Invisible Photographer Asia award and PowerHouse Books competition. In 2014 Huseynov co-founded Riot Books, an independent publishing house, specialized in handmade limited edition artist’s books and published “Muhit”, his first photo book. Huseynov received Open Society Foundations grant for his project “Remembering the colors”. Currently, Ilkin Huseynov’s photographic cityscapes develop a portrait of rapidly changing Baku. Published by Rally In The Streets, under the title “We apologize for the inconvenience".
We Apologize for the Temporary Inconvenience
"Fancy on the surface, bullshit inside" (Azerbaijani proverb)
Baku is the largest city in the Caucasus region. Being a city founded upon oil, it went through several oil booms accompanied by massive growth and construction. City Hall’s will to reconstruct the post-Soviet city using its own understanding of aesthetics led to a forced demolition of “outdated” buildings, to the detriment of those wishing to preserve cultural heritage and ancestral homes. In a short period, downtown Baku started to resemble a huge construction site temporary fenced by banners depicting Baku’s landmarks and utopian landscapes. Fetish of banners with low-quality photos became so widespread that it began to replace the real image of the city. The photo-book represents a view on current city policies within anthropological aspects of beauty. Banners with the future “perfect” city became an integral part of Baku. The curious viewer can only guess what is hidden behind this imposed. beauty which causes temporary inconvenience. And - as it is known - nothing is more permanent than the temporary.
(Ilkin Huseynov)
Human Impact on Landscape and Living Spaces
"I used to work on the prevailing social issues of modern Azerbaijan. My upbringing was undoubtedly one of the essential elements in my formation as an artist. But if my early works were more direct in articulating my discontent about the political situation, lately I am looking at my surroundings in a different way. If previously I was interested in what was hidden, these days I have developed an interest in how things are hidden. I search for these constructs within the contemporary Azerbaijani landscape. Since the last oil boom, the country has turned into a big construction site. Many of those projects are heavily disputed within society, as they are often disturbing heritage buildings and ancestral homes, accompanied with money laundry, propaganda architecture and poor urban planning. Besides documenting architectural changes that gripped Azerbaijan for the last 100 years, I want to question it too. Unique elements are consisted in the contemporary Bakuvian architecture: walls that cover the poor neighbourhoods, facades are being placed on old buildings - without actual renovation, but also reconstruction of public spaces. The current city planning is based on the ideology of appearance. Not only the designs, but also the material that is being used is interesting to analyse. I have captured in a series of photographs, banners used to close off construction sites of governmental projects in Baku. To hide the process of de-facing a city, the banner offers an alternative façade depicting Baku's landmarks and utopian landscapes. Over time this alternative façade falls victim to vandalism by other adverts put on top of it and later partially removed or becomes discoloured unevenly revealing a remarkable break from the suggested reality."
(Ilkin Huseynov)
During his AIR Residency in Krems once again Huseynov wants to deal with these issues by pictures he will take in Krems and/or the Danube region. Discursively reffering to each other both photo-series will be shown in an exhibition in Traismauer in the FINE ART Gallery.
Website Ilkin Huseynov - publishing company Rally In The Streets
The Artist in Residence is an interdisciplinary program for foreign architects, artists, musicians, and writers that was brought to life by the administration of Lower Austria with the intention of stimulating international cultural exchange and intercultural dialogue. Each year, different artists are chosen to receive scholarships.
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