Culture of Dagestan in Moscow

 

Author: VK

 

The Moscow House of Nationalities is hosting an exhibition of the Dagestani graphic artist Marat Hajiyev. He has no professional art education, drawing simply brightens up his main job. Hajiyev is a journalist by profession, working for a weekly "Youth of Dagestan" and for the Caucasian Literary newspaper "Highlanders."

 

"When I was drawing in the studio, I could not suppose that the waters of my Nile would throw me somewhere in Moscow. For two years I drew pastel graphics. The work itself has been associated with the search.
A year ago, in Makhachkala, the exhibition was presented to a Dagestani audience and someone there said to me: "Maybe your Nile will bisect, and you will appear somewhere else with this exhibition."

And so it happened: I was surprised when I received two invitations - one to the Moscow House of Nationalities and the second to a private gallery. On December 18 there will be an exhibition in a private gallery on Gogol Boulevard. This is the first exhibition in Moscow. In fact, I did not hope to have a big personal exhibition, but I was offered a separate exposition, for which I am very grateful.My trip to the art world is connected with an interesting situation in life: twenty years ago, I was invited to the newspaper "Youth of Dagestan" as a designer. I drew graphic compositions, drawing to illustrate the paper. Then it turned into a political news weekly, and an artist was no longer necessary. I joined the profession, became the executive secretary of "Youth of Dagestan". For many years I was combining both, and when I was asked  "Are you an artist or a journalist?" I said, "I am a poet."

Working on the newspaper "Youth of Dagestan" I faced the fact that young writers today do not have a platform on which to publish their stories and poems. And my idea was born to create a Caucasian literary and artistic newspaper "Highlanders." "Highlanders", strictly speaking, is not limited to the region of residence of these people. For me it refers to some spirit of the mountains that we inherited from our ancestors, and I worry that today there is no particular appreciation in the words "mountain people".
 It appeared that this literary newspaper was in demand not only in Dagestan and the Caucasus. I have authors from all over Russia and from abroad. It is sent out to all regions. I am very grateful to these people, our Russians, our authors, who have supported me for four years. Last year we celebrated three years of our literary newspaper.
This year, I think there will also be a holiday in February, and there will be many new discoveries for me, for Dagestan.
I want the Caucasus and Dagestan to be seen from another point of view, to show how rich our world, our traditions, so that Moscow sees not only coarseness and dancing the lezginka on the streets, but something else, unique, that  is created in the workshop. I'm not just talking about Kubachi and Untsukulsky notches. I am talking about porcelain painting, wood carving, forging metal. It is very difficult to mention everything. These people are creative, they are cooked in their own juice, and for me this is a way out, a kind of opportunity not only to show themselves, but also to show that there are different people in Dagestan.
It is clear that Moscow every day sees a lot. But the artists came here, supported me, said that, maybe it's good - when saturated Moscow can see something naive, some romantic view of my work. I stay romantic, I believe that good will will triumph after all, and we will live in a nice, great country."

Arsene Huseynov, President of the Moscow Center of Culture "Dagestan", under whose auspices the exhibition was organized, said that "the main objective of the Fund is the preservation and development of the culture and traditions of the peoples of Dagestan, the promotion of culture, the support of young artists, young gifted, painters, singers and musicians. This is a big deal for Dagestan, because culture still unites people. If a business, the economy, the money separate, then culture always brings together. Therefore the government needs to support culture, but there is not sufficient support everywhere, including Dagestan. I would like to see these events taking place in Dagestan, with the participation of our management of the Dagestan Ministry of Culture, the President of Dagestan, our permanent establishment. But it is not always possible. Therefore, our community has always supported these activities, and we are taking part. "

 

The Moscow Museum of Education also promotes bringing people together. As a senior researcher at the museum, Elena Naydenova, told VK, "the museum was opened in 2005 near Paveletskaya metro station, at 12 Veshnyakovsky Lane. One of the rooms is called "Moscow streets calling for the road: an ethno-cultural journey." In the Russian capital we have streets with geographical names that invite us on a tour around our great country. Using these names, we have made the exposition, which represents Russia in 15 minutes. In particular, in the Southern District of Moscow we have these street names such as Caucasian Boulevard, Caspian Street, Black Sea Boulevard so we go on a journey from the Caucasus Boulevard to the Caucasus region. We made an exhibition about the Caucasus. In Moscow we have a Russian-Dagestan Cultural Centre for children "Namuz", which became our partner in the organization of this exhibition. We have shown in this piece  several clusters, which are shown in the other blocks, to which we also invite our visitors."