Azerbaijan Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
THE ATTENTION – FAIG AHMED
Curated by Gwendolyn Collaço
Venue: Campo della Tana, Castello 2124/A – 2125 Venice
Exhibition Period: May 9 – November 22 November 2026
Summer opening hours: 11 am - 7 pm (from May to September)
Autumn opening hours: 10 am - 6 pm (from October to 22 November)
Closed on Mondays (except 11 May, 1 June, 7 September, 16 November)
On the occasion of its national participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, the Republic of Azerbaijan presents The Attention, a solo presentation of new commissions by the Honored Artist of Azerbaijan, Faig Ahmed. Known for his surrealist textile installations that integrate distortion and technology into century-old traditional carpet-weaving techniques, Ahmed situates material tradition within broader inquiries into perception, cognition, and contemporary experience. Curated by Gwendolyn Collaço and realized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, with support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Italy, and the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, the exhibition will transform the historic 16th-century building of Campo della Tana in the Castello district, across from the main entrance to the Arsenale, into an immersive, sensory environment unfolding through a sequence of interconnected spaces.
The Attention pays homage to the late Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial framework, In Minor Keys,, which calls for a shift away from spectacle and speed toward perception, deep listening, and harmonies of care. In this spirit, the Azerbaijani Pavilion is conceived as a space where external noise and anxiety recede, with the convergence of sound, material presence, and rhythm inviting visitors into a meditative mode of perception, positioning contemporary art as a space for reflection and inner recalibration.
Conceptually, the project draws on the philosophical and poetic legacy of Imadaddin Nasimi (c.1369–1417), a seminal Azerbaijani poet and thinker, and one of the most powerful voices of the Hurufi mystic tradition. Emerging in the late medieval period, Hurufism envisioned a universe in which letters, signs, and forms carry meaning, where the universe itself acts as a coded structure, a text to be read attentively, and attention is a primary path to knowledge. In Nasimi’s deeply humanistic poetry, human beings reflect cosmic structures, embodying inner truth, dignity, and universal connection. Rejecting dogma and imposed hierarchies of meaning, his work positions attention and presence as ethical acts of care, awareness, and engagement with the world.
Departing from Nasimi’s poetic humanism and Hurufi metaphysics, Ahmed introduces elements of modernity by integrating quantum states and information-based models of reality in his work, creating a continuum that places mindfulness at the center of knowledge and anchors us amid the uncertainty and informational overload of contemporary life.
Central to The Attention is the carpet, a key and recurring element in Ahmed’s artistic practice. Traditionally associated with cultural memory and collective identity, the carpet transforms into a symbolic structure—a coded surface, an inscriptional field—where meaning is woven into form, and the act of reading becomes experiential, tactile, and spatial.
Ahmed’s site-specific commission, I Can Contain Both Worlds but I Do Not Fit Into This One (2026), guides visitors through the exhibition. This single continuous carpet spans all the rooms, forming a single, breathing body. It spills onto the street, darkens, crumples, knots, and climbs the walls, unifying perception across the space and tying all the works together. This heightened state of awareness is further enhanced by original soundtracks closely attuned to the emotional content of the works presented.
Alongside traditional techniques, Ahmed incorporates advanced technologies, including a quantum random number generator (QRNG), to make invisible inner processes visible. Using a special quantum chip (QUANTIS‑PCIe‑40M), the artwork Entropy Altar (2026) functions as a contemporary mystical altar, generating random numbers that transform into a stream of language born from pure chaos—or the source field of creation. This randomness introduces unpredictable patterns, allowing the exhibition to unfold through constant variation rather than fixed outcomes, while connecting viewers to the underlying structure of reality. Beyond the apparent chaos, this technology fosters the human drive to find meaning in data, using it as a coded language for artistic creation.
Hurufism frames the world as a meaningful code composed of letters and signs, while quantum physics describes reality as probabilistic, informational, and relational, rather than solid and deterministic. In both frameworks, reality does not represent a fixed entity, but it emerges through interpretation, interaction, and attention. In The Attention, Ahmed stages this parallel explicitly, positioning quantum information as the contemporary counterpart to the Hurufi conception of the universe.
Resonating across centuries, the exhibition reconfigures our ways of navigating contemporary conditions of fragmentation, information overload, and existential uncertainty. At the same time, it underscores both Azerbaijan’s commitment to supporting ambitious, conceptually driven artistic practices on the international stage and the country’s active engagement with pioneering discourses in global contemporary art. About Faig Ahmed Faig Ahmed (b.1982, Sumqayit) is an Azerbaijani contemporary artist living and working in Baku. A graduate of the Sculpture Department of the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts, he is an Honoured Artist of Azerbaijan, recognized for his conceptual practice that engages traditional carpet-weaving through contemporary sculpture and digital processes. Working across a wide range of media, including installation, video, technology-based works, and research-driven projects, Ahmed explores how the human body and mind perceive, process, and respond to art. In 2007, he represented Azerbaijan in the group exhibition at the country’s inaugural national pavilion at the 52nd International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. His works have been exhibited worldwide and are held in major museum and institutional collections across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. Faig Ahmed is represented by SAPAR Contemporary gallery, New York. About Gwendolyn Collaço Gwendolyn Collaço is the curator of the Azerbaijani National Pavilion. Collaço is the Anne S.K. Brown Curator for Military and Society at Brown University, and a former Assistant Curator of Art of the Middle East at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). She holds a PhD from Harvard University in the History of Art & Architecture and Middle Eastern Studies, and her research and curatorial practice focus on Islamic art, material culture, and cross-cultural exchange. Her extensive experience includes major museum exhibitions and permanent collection installations at institutions such as LACMA, MIT, and Brown University.
Visitor Information The Attention Commissioner: Rashad Aslanov Ambasciatore Repubblica dell'Azerbaigian Curator: Gwendolyn Collaço Exhibitor: Faig Ahmed Venue: Campo della Tana, Castello 2124/A, Castello 2125 - Venice, Italy May 9 – November 22, 2026
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