29 October-04 November 2015 THE EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Azerbaijan attends International Pilaf Baku Museum of Azerbaijan joins Oslo World Music Festival due in Modern Art to International Festival for the first Azerbaijan exhibit Georgian Book Fair in time Page 2 artist s works Turkey ’ Page 4 Page 3 Page 6
CULTURAL N E W S D I G E S T
"Bloody January" to be screened in Brazil for the third time
29.10.2015
Azerbaijani filmmaker Vahid Mustafayev will have his "Bloody January" movie shown in Brazil for the third time when it will be screened at the 39th Mostra - São Paulo International Film Festival in Sao-Paolo.
The film tells the story of the events during the night of January 19 to 20, 1990. This sad page of the struggle of the Azerbaijani people for independence is seen through the eyes of two brothers: Najaf Narimanov, Communist and KGB officer, and Mehdi Narimanov, former officer of the Soviet army in Afghanistan, converted into revolutionary democrat.
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International Pilaf Festival due in Azerbaijan
03.11.2015
Azerbaijan will host the Second International Pilaf Festival. The Festival will be organized by the National Cuisine Centre and Azerbaijan’s National Culinary Association in December. It will highlight a variety of Azerbaijani cuisine and its crown dish pilaf, as well as similar rice dishes of different countries.
Pilaf is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth. In some cases, the rice may also attain its brown color by being stirred with pieces of cooked onion, as well as a mix of spices. Depending on the local cuisine, it may also contain meat, fish, vegetables, pasta, and dried fruits. It is also known as pilav, pilau, pilafi, pulao, palaw, palavu, plov, polov, polo, and polu. Pilaf and similar dishes are common to Balkan, Middle Eastern, Caucasian, Central and South Asian, East African, Latin American and Caribbean cuisines. It is a staple food and a national dish in Azerbaijani, Bangladeshi, Balochi, Bukharan Jewish, Cretan, Kyrgyz, Kurdish, Iranian, Pakistani, Swahili (Kenyan, and Tanzanian-Zanzibari), Uyghur, Uzbek, Tajik and Turkis cuisines.
Azerbaijani cuisine includes more than 40 different pilaf recipes. One of the most reputed dishes is pilaf from saffron-covered rice, served with various herbs and greens, a combination totally distinctive from Uzbek plovs. Traditional Azerbaijani pilaf consists of three distinct components, served simultaneously but on separate platters: rice (warm, never hot), gara (fried meat, dried fruits, eggs, or fish prepared as an accompaniment to rice), and aromatic herbs. Rice is not mixed with the other components even when eating pilaf.
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Baku Museum of Modern Art to exhibit Georgian artist’s works
07.11.2015
On November 7, the Museum of Modern Art will host a solo exhibition “POSTCARD” by famous Georgian artist Mamuka Tsetskhladze.
Mamuka Tsetskhladze was born in 1960 in Tbilisi. He graduated from Art Academy of Georgia in 1986. Mamuka Tsetskhladze is very well known in Azerbaijan. He often exhibited his works in Baku. He has special relationship to the capital of Azerbaijan. He had been in Baku forty years ago, when he was thirteen year old boy and Mamuka fell in love with ancient city.
Today he is a famous artist not just in his motherland but, all over the world. His works are kept in the collections of most prominent museums. The exhibitions by him were held in Germany, Hungary, France, and Italy and in many other countries. The most loved series – “Cities”, which include 50 paintings.
The paintings of the artist like open window from modernity with its widely expressionist style to the calm past times. Original color contrasts, alternating fast strokes bring to the Mamuka Tsetskhladze’s picturesque urban landscapes the sense of " instantaneous ", as if the real presence of the artist, hurrying to capture a moment, this short transient state of the sky, buildings, factories…
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Azerbaijan joins international book fair in Turkey
03.11.2015
An Azerbaijani delegation will participate in the 34th international book fair in Istanbul, Turkey.
Organized by the Turkish Publishers Association, the 34th International Istanbul Book Fair will gather the exhibition attendees under the motto "Humor: Looking at Life with a Smile." The Fair prepares to host prominent foreign and Turkish writers as a guest around Europe.
A number of panel discussions and events will be held within the fair. Istanbul Book Fair will host international guests as Vassilis Papatheodorou, Yannis Kalpouzos, Manuel Vilas.
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Azerbaijan attends Oslo World Music Festival for the first time
04.11.2015
Azerbaijan attended the Oslo World Music Festival for the first time in the capital of Norway. According to the State Committee for Work with Diaspora, 300 artists from all corners of the world play different concert venues at the six-day festival.
At the Festival, Azerbaijan`s mugham singer, People's Artist Alim Gasimov and his daughter Fargana Gasimova gave a solo concert in Jacob's Church, one of the most prominent venues in Oslo. Norwegian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Bard Ivar Svendsen, local musicians, arts and cultural figures, representatives of Diaspora and Azerbaijani students studying there attended the concert organized in collaboration with Norwegian Azerbaijanis Youth Organization (NAYO), House of Oslo-Azerbaijan and the organizing committee of the festival.
Speaking at the event, the head of Oslo-Azerbaijan House Ramil Aliyev expressed confidence in future promotion of Azerbaijani music at international events
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