Farhad Farzaliyev:
Mugham-Karaoke

Mugham-Karaoke, DVD-Player with Karaoke function, microphone, LCD/LED-screen, 2016

Mugham-Karaoke is a project, which brings together a style of music with a centuries-old tradition – mugham, or in Azerbaijani: muğam – and a new technology, namely karaoke. From the 1930s until the 1970s, mugham, just like the whole of the traditional and music culture of the Soviet peoples, came under greater state control and was qualified as "primitive" art. Nowadays, mugham is traditional Azerbaijani folk music, the development and preservation of which is supported by the state. Karaoke, made up of the Japanese words „Kara“ (空, Eng. "empty") and “oke” an abbreviation of "orchestra" became a cult in Asia, but also became widespread across other continents. On my travels across the globe and in particular in Europe, I haven't seen as many karaoke clubs anywhere as there are in the post-Soviet world. The outcome of this combination is purely utopian, because mugham – despite there being specific rules – is a kind of improvisation. Besides, it is delivered in Azerbaijani, which makes the whole process more complicated and singing for non-natives almost impossible. The video Mugham-Karaoke loops an instrumental track. It is possible to see beautiful natural landscapes on the screen, in the foreground a text with a mugham composition appears a regular intervals.  (Farhad Farzaliyev, attenuated version)

Farhad Farzaliyev
born 1989 in Baku, Azerbaijan

Farhad works predominantly in the medium of installations, but also paintings, graphics, video and sound. Farhad completed an MFA with distinction at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts in Baku in 2012. He has participated a large number of group exhibitions around the world. He is represented in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Baku and Yarat Contemporary
Art Space. He lives and works in Baku