CARPET WEAVER’S DAY
Azerbaijani carpets, representing one of the apexes of world culture, are kept in museums and private collections all around the world. The leadership of Azerbaijan shows tireless concern for this sphere that is an important part of culture and economy. Thanks to the efforts of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva on November 10, 2010, Azerbaijani carpet art was included within the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
To develop carpet weaving in the country, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, adopted the Law on the Preservation and Development of Azerbaijani Carpet Art, approved the State Program for the Preservation and Development of Carpet Art in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2018–2022, and signed an order on the establishment of the professional holiday Carpet Weaver’s Day – May 5.
As part of the celebration, on May 3, a solemn ceremony of cutting the pile carpet Good and Evil (based on Latif Karimov’s sketch and woven by the museum weavers) from the loom was held at the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum.
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Creating a carpet is a long process that requires intellectual, creative, and physical effort. The joint work of carpet artists and weavers, whose creativity relies on the centuries-old traditions of native carpet weaving art, unites in it. It is impossible to preserve the vast base of artistic and technical canons, the unity of which represents Azerbaijani carpet, without observing the succession of traditions.
On the occasion of this professional holiday, we would like to introduce you to people, thanks to whom the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum is not only a repository of the greatest achievements in this field, but also a center for studying and promoting the country’s carpet weaving art. These are employees of the museum’s Traditional Technology Department. Many of them are originally from Ismailli region, where the traditions of carpet weaving are strong even today.
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Gunay Ahmadova
Gunay Ahmadova graduated from the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts. She is a member of the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan, a participant of many Baku exhibitions, carpet artist, Head of the Traditional Technologies Department of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. The young specialist Gunay Ahmadova creates ornamental compositions using the glass painting technique along with the carpet sketches on graph paper.
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Zemfira Ismailova
Zemfira Ismailova graduated from the Carpet Weaving Department of the Azerbaijan College of Applied Sciences and has been working at the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum for twenty-one years. While creating her own sketches, she relies on the traditions of different carpet groups of the country, still preferring Guba-Shirvan group, since being originally from Lahij.
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Zahra Aliyeva
It is known that the carpet artist will not be able to acquire the necessary qualifications if he/she does not fully master the carpet weaving art. Zahra Aliyeva, the Honored Cultural Worker of Azerbaijan, is an irreplaceable person who has advanced the talent of many prospective carpet artists. Being the Senior Carpet Restorer of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, she is engaged not only in creating carpets but also in researching their traditions. Knowing all techniques of pile and flat weaving, she taught them a number of museum weavers. She has also been working in the Production Department of the Azerbaijan Academy of Arts for many years, where she teaches practical principles of her profession.
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Sheker Aleskerova
She is one of the most experienced museum carpet weavers and Zahra Aliyeva’s student. Sheker Aleskerova has been working in the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum for seven years, but her experience in this field is much broader. She tirelessly studies traditional techniques of this craft. She examined the differences in flat woven techniques, designed and weaved exhibits for the museum’s pilot project Touching History and Traditions, launched in February and focused on visitors with visual disabilities.
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Rena Suleymanova
The experience of this weaver is impressive. She has worked in Azerhalcha for thirty years. Her further career was connected with the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. She was among the Azerbaijani delegation at the industrial exhibition in Germany in 2000, and during the I European Games in Baku in 2015 had been weaving a carpet on the loom in the Athletes Village, causing great interest among foreign athletes. Over the years, Rena Suleymanova also taught a number of students, including foreigners.
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Gulhar Soltanova
Gulhar Soltanova is originally from Ismailli, where many girls, like in the old days, are accustomed to carpet weaving from their childhood. She has been weaving in front of the loom, working along with adult women, since the age of twelve. After marrying and moving to the capital, she has worked in private carpet shops in Baku for many years. She has been working in the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum since 2012. Gulhar Soltanova is the weaver of the carpet Good and Evil.
