Curated by Claudio Libero Pisano
MACRO Testaccio
Padiglione 9A
Promoted by Roma Capitale - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, Ambasciata della Repubblica dell'Azerbaigian in Italy, and realized in collaboration with the galleria Montoro12 Contemporary Art of Rome
"Points of Perception" is Faig Ahmed's (b. 1982, lives and works in Baku, Azerbaijan) first solo exhibition in a museum. The artist created all works specifically for the space at MACRO Testaccio and carefully studied its architecture for their placement.
Sufism is the common thread that unites an ambitious project consisting of monumental installations, individual works and videos. Through the form of a mystical quest the artist creates a relationship between consciousness and all that exists outside of it.
Art is a tool to expand the senses and the artist is the vehicle for sharing it. Experimenting with different techniques and connecting them to mystical practices, Ahmed finds a unique answer to the question concerning the perception of truth. Art is a discipline without boundaries and is necessary to understand the history of human beings, of their paths climbed toward the narrow border between consciousness and perception. Between mysticism and reality.
Paradoxically, the artist uses Sufi asceticism to interpret reality in its most concrete aspects. His approach is markedly laic when he tampers with the traditional techniques of carpet production for art objects that seem to be projected into the future -- thanks to a daring and futuristic aesthetic. At the same time, their execution remains faithful to ancient methods.
According to Ahmed, art is an excellent passepartout to connect past and present, tradition and modernity. Art’s nature and techniques have no boundaries, and all that is within and outside of perception can be interpreted through its infinite languages.
The artist is an active explorer who, like a shaman, connects mind and body. His works share messages that raise questions and solicit wonder and awe. The aesthetic aspect plays an important role only if combined with the process that has developed it and made it possible.
The exhibition consists of numerous works and installations, including the carpets, which are a consolidated feature of the artist’s poetics, objects in which we tend to get lost, where the sign is continuously moved, pixellated, liquefied. At the center of the exhibition hall a monumental installation creates a kind of wave with the floor fabric of a mosque that defies the laws of physics and overwhelms the viewer. Several videos, placed throughout the exhibition, document the project and the poetics of Faig Ahmed.