Baku ART Weekend celebrates creativity and cultural heritage

For three days in a row, Baku is hosting a series of art events that bring together art enthusiasts from around the world. The Baku ART Weekend festival officially opened on Friday for the first time, with a mission to celebrate creativity and cultural heritage.

The event in the Azerbaijani capital has gathered artists, cultural figures, and curators from several countries. Its aim is to create a platform where art can be experienced, shared, and remembered — open to audiences of all ages and welcoming to international guests.

Throughout the festival, exhibitions, meetings, and performances are taking place at various exhibition halls, museums, educational institutions, and historic and cultural sites across the city.

Through exhibitions, performances, concerts, and public art projects, ART Weekend invites people to imagine the future through creativity while embracing Azerbaijan’s cultural identity as a bridge between history and tomorrow.

The festival opened with The Triumph of Form exhibition, featuring works by renowned Colombian artist and sculptor Fernando Botero, celebrated for his distinctive style, often referred to as Boterismo, which depicts figures and objects in exaggerated, rounded volumes.

In addition to Botero, the cultural program features internationally recognised artists such as Italian painter and sculptor Giuseppe Carta, contemporary Italian visual artist Giovanni Ozzola, and American-British visual artist and researcher Michael Takeo Magruder.

Until November 2, Baku hosts a constellation of exhibitions, performances, concerts, talks, workshops, and public art projects — with a total of 40 events planned as part of the festival. The ART Weekend is organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the IDEA Public Association, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan.

The initiator of the “Art Weekend” project, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, founder and head of the IDEA Public Union, Leyla Aliyeva, as well as Arzu Aliyeva and Alena Aliyeva, attended the event.