The festival will be held from September 28 to October 1.

World-renowned researchers of Nasimi, poets, scholars and philosophers will deliver lectures at the festival. Moreover, books of German scholar and renowned Nasimi researcher Michael Hess and an Azerbaijani researcher living in the UK, Orkhan Mirgasimov on Nasimi and hurufism will be presented within the framework of this festival.

Films winning globally known SIGNIS awards on interreligious dialogue in film making will also be demonstrated at this year’s festival. Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki’s film “The Other Side of Hope” highlights the understanding and friendship between people who belong to different religions, cultures and life styles.

The 1st Baku International Festival of Traditional Crafts-“Folk art” organized by the Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve Department and the Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) will also start as part of the series of events.

The socio-cultural project called Creation of Hope will also be implemented with participation of residents and graduates of orphanages and boarding schools within the framework of the Nasimi festival this year. A total of 30 participants in this project, who were involved in design courses, expressed their dreams by painting, and then their handiworks were copied onto shirts. These shirts will be demonstrated and sold within the framework of the festival. The project aims to develop the creative abilities of residents of orphanages and boarding schools and create job opportunities for them.

Baku and Shamakhi will also host a number of exhibitions on the days of the festival.

The 4th international symposium of sculpture, Song of Stone, will be held at the Qala Archaeological Ethnographic Museum Complex and the 8th International Exhibition, From Waste to Art, will be held at the Qala State Archaeological Ethnographic Reserve on 30 September.

The art project called Talking Walls, which consists of paintings on the walls of the unused industrial warehouse in Qala settlement, will be publicly presented. Works of urban and street arts by artists from Azerbaijan, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, the Netherlands and France and wall pictures of paintings of creative children from Buzovna and Mardakan settlements will be demonstrated.

An exhibition of renowned Turkish artist Ahmet Gunestekin will be launched at the Heydar Aliyev Center on the sidelines of the exhibition from 1 October to 31 March 2020.

An exhibition on the Shamakhi anthology (1468, the British Museum, London) will open in Shamakhi District.

Shamakhi will also host a modern art installation dedicated to Imadaddin Nasimi.

The results of a number of competitions announced within the Nasimi festival will also be disclosed: the final exhibition of the carpet drawing competition, which the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum dedicated to the great poet, will open. Moreover, the results of the best poetic works in the spirit of Nasimi or in the form of imitative poems for his poetry, announced within the framework of the SOZ (Word) project of the Ministry of Culture, will also be disclosed.

Music programs and plays performed by people of art and groups from different countries to glorify morality searches and interreligious and intercultural dialogue will also be presented as part of the festival.

The Horizonte ensemble from Germany, the Zahra orchestra from Afghanistan, the Clara Furey dancing group from Canada, the Candoco and Lost Dog dancing groups from the UK, the Tallinn Boys Chorus from Estonia and the Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis group from Israel will present interesting programs.

People’s artist Nazakat Teymurova will perform in a program of Mugham songs on the basis of Nasimi’s poetry in Meysari village of Shamakhi district on 29 September.

On the same day, renowned jazz musician of Azerbaijan Salman Gambarov will perform together with Michel Godard (serpent player) from France, Margriet Buchberger (a singer with baroque repertoire) from Germany and Wu Wei (sheng player) from China at the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Theater as part of the project called “Sincere dialogues”.

A staged poetry evening will take place in the Creativity Center named after Magsud Ibrahimbayov on 30 September as part of this festival.

On the same day, a play, “Grievous Heart” by the Hui Chin Theater of Anhui region of China, will be staged at the Opera and Ballet Theater.

The closing ceremony of the festival will take place at the Heydar Aliyev Center on 1 October. People of art from Azerbaijan and performers of traditional music from the US, Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Morocco will take part in the ceremony.

The festival aims to study and promote the activities of genius Azerbaijani poet and thinker Imadaddin Nasimi (1369-1417) and follow the reflection of his thoughts and ideas in the modern world. The first such festival was organized in 2018.

This year’s festival also coincides with the 650th jubilee of the poet. 2019 was declared the Year of Nasimi under the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in connection with the 650th birth anniversary of Azerbaijani poet and thinker Imadaddin Nasimi.

The program of the Nasimi festival is available at:  https://nasimifestival.live/az/program/ .

More about: Nasimi-Festival   Heydar-Aliyev-Foundation