BUTA Festival Of Azerbaijani Arts

For the first time Azerbaijan’s most celebrated artists will have their work showcased during a new London festival encompassing jazz, classical music, photography, poetry, film, art and food. The Buta Festival of Azerbaijani Arts takes place from 25 November until 7 March and is organised by BUTA Art Centre (www.buta.ru), a foundation dedicated to promoting Azeri culture to the wider world. The festival includes world-famous musicians, artists, poets and photographers including renowned violinist Gidon Kremer; artist Tair Salakhov; award-winning jazz musicians Shahin Novrasli, and Isfar Sarabski; and photographers Alexandra Kremer and Rena Effendi. The festival will provide Londoners with a fantastic opportunity to discover Azerbaijan’s rich cultural offering and learn more about a country still unfamiliar to many.

Known as “Land of Fire” for its position as one of the world’s most important sources of oil, Azerbaijan is a young country with ancient traditions and a rich cultural heritage. At the beginning of the 20th century Azerbaijan was producing half the world’s oil turning Baku, its capital into a dynamic boomtown. Twenty years after the fall of the USSR, Baku is once again thriving and its musicians and artists are revelling in their newfound freedom of cultural expression. Mugham, Azerbaijan’s native musical style blends east with west and has been adapted and combined with music of all kinds from jazz to hip hop. The country is also one of the few ex-Soviet states with a long heritage of classical music of its own, perhaps only Russia can rival it for quality. The country’s visual art is now being recognised as internationally significant - artist Tair Salakhov’s work was given a major retrospective in Moscow earlier this year and award-winning photographer Rena Effendi recently showed work at the Istanbul Biennial.


   http://butafestival.com