On March 1, the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum (ANCM) will host a solo exhibition “The History of One People – For the Whole World” by Rami Meir, an Israeli artist, born in Baku in a family of Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan.
According to the museum, the exhibition displays more than 30 paintings by Rami Meir from his Mountain Jews series: works in the technique of metal engraving, wooden sculptures, neon sign paintings, and decorative coins made of precious metals, created based on the artist’s paintings. Especially for the exhibition opening, the Baku weavers of Azerkhalcha OJSC wove the carpet Guba Carpet Weavers from Girmizi Gasaba based on the artist’s same-name painting. The weavers have been given the difficult task: to create a portrait multi-figure carpet in the traditional weaving technique, which will become one of the central objects of the exhibition.
All Rami Meir’s works are united by one topic – the history, culture, traditions, and customs of Mountain Jews – a minority with a distinctive culture and their own Juhuri language.
Furthermore, the ANCM’s permanent exhibition will display the old postcards and the 19th-20th-century objects of decorative and applied art of Mountain Jews from the artist’s private collection: traditional textiles, jewelry, and household items.
Mountain Jews work series were created by the artist over the years as a separate project dedicated to his people. Rami Meir, serving as a documentary historian, literally bit by bit restored the history of Mountain Jews. Through folk images, he authentically conveyed not only the external side of the people’s lives but also their aesthetics, embedded in the texture and ornaments of fabrics, the architecture of synagogues, the decoration of dwellings, and shops of artisans. Being a part of his culture and knowing it from within, Rami reflects the inner spiritual life of his people, their wisdom, and philosophy.
“I set myself the task of creating reliable, documentary images of my people. Therefore, to create canvases I examined books, pre-revolutionary postcards, old newspapers, archival documents, discovered more about Mountain Jews’ life from stories of my elders, studied materials to create ritual utensils, jewelry, daggers, pocket watches. I reviewed the fabrics of that time, their textures, and colors, and transferred all this knowledge to my paintings. The language of painting seemed to be the most expressive to save authentic images of ethnicity and its culture,” the artist expresses.
The exhibition will also feauture a documentary film narrating the history of Mountain Jews.
“It is important to understand that it was in Azerbaijan that Mountain Jews got the opportunity to live in peace, engage in agriculture, crafts, and trade. Our people call Guba the land of our mothers because it was here that our mothers gave birth to their sons and daughters for many centuries,” the artist explains.
In this context, hosting Rami Meir’s solo exhibition in the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, one of the leading museums of the country with the best samples of carpet weaving by Azerbaijani masters acquires additional meanings.
The exhibition will run until April 1.
Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency