Faig Ahmed, the Baku-based artist known for transforming traditional Azerbaijani carpets into melting, glitching textile sculptures, has opened a solo presentation at the 61st Venice Biennale, where he represents Azerbaijan. Titled 'The Attention,' the sprawling, maze-like installation curated by Gwendolyn Collaço explores science, alchemy, spirituality, and self-perception, weaving together digital processes with handcrafted techniques. Works include monumental machine-woven carpets like 'I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One,' a handwoven piece called 'Ancestors' that glows under black light, and 'Entropy Altar,' which uses a quantum random number generator to respond to visitors. The exhibition bridges 15th-century Hurufi mysticism with modern information theory, reflecting Ahmed's interest in consciousness, quantum physics, and the dialectic between measurable science and subjective experience.
This presentation matters because it positions a contemporary artist from Azerbaijan at one of the world's most prestigious art events, the Venice Biennale, while pushing the boundaries of traditional craft into conceptual and technological realms. By merging ancient weaving techniques with digital interfaces and quantum concepts, Ahmed challenges the divide between handmade and digital, spiritual and scientific, offering a timely meditation on information overload and collective grief. The work also highlights how non-Western artistic traditions can engage with global contemporary discourse, making a case for craft as a vehicle for complex philosophical inquiry.