Works by Azerbaijani artist Aida Mahmudova exhibited in Italy
Baku, April 21, AZERTAC
Works by Azerbaijani artist Aida Mahmudova are currently on display at the 5VIE Design Week in Milan, Italy.
The showcase, which will run until April 26, centers on the Elysium Series (2024–25), a body of handwoven carpets created in collaboration with female artisans in Nardaran, Shamkir, and Guba, Azerbaijan. The presentation is complemented by the ceramic series Beyond Utility (2024–2026), extending the artist’s research across material, memory, and form.
Azerbaijan holds a distinguished and centuries-old tradition of carpet weaving, internationally recognized for its refined craftsmanship and distinctive aesthetic language. Azerbaijani carpets are defined by their flat, pictorial compositions, where the measured rhythm of ornamentation, the balance between central field and border, and the clarity of geometric motifs generate visual harmony. Despite their technical complexity, these works maintain a deliberately planar quality, privileging surface and pattern over illusionistic depth.
Mahmudova’s sustained engagement with material experimentation introduces a sculptural sensibility into this historic practice. By exploring layering, texture, and spatial intervention, she expands the formal and conceptual boundaries of textile art. In her hands, the carpet transcends its conventional function, emerging as a sculptural object — tactile, spatially responsive, and conceptually charged.
The ceramic works from Beyond Utility (2024–2026) mark the culmination of the artist’s ongoing experimental research in ceramic and glass processes. These ceramic jugs, rooted in traditional craft, originate as domestic household vessels, which the artist transforms into distinctive and refined designer pieces. The pieces are finished with handmade glazes formulated from locally sourced Azerbaijani materials, including oil, ash, sand, clay, and stone. This materially grounded approach embeds the works within the physical landscape while producing surfaces that are singular and unpredictable.
Engaging both materiality and narrative, the series establishes a poetic dialogue between tradition and contemporary expression. Drawing upon her photographic archive of Azerbaijani landscapes, Mahmudova incorporates decal techniques to inscribe personal memories and stories onto the ceramic surfaces through photographs made by the artist. Through this process, ritualistic vessel forms are reimagined as intimate containers of memory. These vernacular structures embody the passage of time, functioning as symbolic markers that chart a deeply personal and reflective terrain.
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