The opening of the exhibition Seven Beauties was held at the All-Russian Decorative Art Museum on November 20.

The project was organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Russian Federation.

Leyla Aliyeva, Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Polad Bulbuloglu, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Russian Federation, Elena Titova, Director of the All-Russian Decorative Art Museum, as well as directors and staff of Russian museums, intelligentsia, representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and diplomatic corps participated at the opening ceremony.

The exposition displays exhibits from the collections of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, and the Azerbaijan State Museum of Musical Culture.

The exposition’s concept is created on the basis of the Seven Beauties poem by the 12th-century Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi and the same ballet by the world-famous composer Gara Garayev. The project comprehensively presents Azerbaijani culture in the synthesis of carpet art, jewelry, miniature, national classical music, classical dance, and modern art.

The exhibition space immerses the viewer into the legend of Shah Bahram and seven beauties. The philosophical world of this important literary work for the Azerbaijani culture was recreated using carpets, projections of book miniatures, objects of decorative and applied arts, and installations.

The installation Miniature was created by the Azerbaijani artist Rashad Alekperov on the basis of the 16th-century Tabriz miniature Reading Youth. The composition idea is based on the creation of an illusions portal that takes the viewer into the world of fairy tales and legends. Here Nizami’s poem comes to life before their very eyes. It is known that the miniature Reading Youth was created by Sultan Mohammed, whose oeuvre is considered the apex of the fine arts of the epoch of Shah Tahmasib I. This work is kept in the collection of V. Wever in Paris.

The exposition also includes scenes from the Seven Beauties ballet by Gara Garayev, written on the basis of the same poem, as well as archival materials related to the play. Here the viewer finds himself in the ballet: he is surrounded by ballerinas – Nizami’s heroines.

The exhibition is on till February 3, 2019.