Suay Aksoy: Azerbaijan helps establishing international cultural communication

Azerbaijan has done a great job in order to integrate itself into the global museum system, and the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum has an important role in this work, bringing together members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) at two scientific conferences, ICOM President Suay Aksoy said, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza.

"This is a very specific conference of our international committee on decoration and historic houses. From that point it may look very niche. But of course from the point of carpets it is more than niche, because Azerbaijan pays a lot of attention, a lot of importance to carpets. And once to exist as a carpet making authority in the world of carpet countries Azerbaijan was not so much in the scene before this museum really came to being. So of course it has a kind of purpose for Azerbaijan to underline that this is a carpet country and authority in this. In addition, it also tells the stories of these historic houses and the stories that you may see on some of these carpets to social role of carpet making as well as of the country with different symbols and so on," she said.

One of the significant tasks of the Azerbaijan conference of the ICOM committees is the association of museum workers and art historians from around the world, Suay Aksoy noted. "The purpose is really trying to have an intercultural communication, dialogue between all these people coming from Europe or Asia, I’ve just met someone from India, so it’s quite international conference, which aims at an establishing intercultural dialogue among them through decorative arts and historic houses," the President of the International Council of Museums said.

Suay Aksoy highly appreciated the museum activity in Azerbaijan, which holds many worthy exhibitions. "In different ways, I see a big accomplishment on the country. Because the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum has been catching for so many international conferences. They actually brought Azerbaijan in to the community of museums which is something very important, because human resources is quite important in communicating," she said.

According to the ICOM president, Azerbaijan is at the forefront of global museum trends, as the main trend is the social role of museums. "It is the social role of museums that integrating community into what the museum does and how they really serve the community that they come from. I think that this is the most important thing," Suay Aksoy concluded.

Today, Baku is hosting the conferences ICOM's two committees - the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Decorative Arts and Design (ICDAD) and the International Committee for Historic House Museums (DEMHIST). The event is attended by art critics and museum personnel from 14 countries.