MAY 9—NOVEMBER 22, 2026
THE ATTENTION
Curated by Gwendolyn Collaço
The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Azerbaijan Pavilion
Venice, Italy
The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Azerbaijan Pavilion
Venice, Italy
THE ATTENTION
Gwendolyn Collaço
Organized by Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, Embassy of the Republic in collaboration with of Azerbaijan to the Italian Republic, Centro Culturale dell’Azerbaigian
Are art and science so disparate?
At first glance, these fields appear contradictory. Yet we are living in a historical moment when these two domains have developed into vast systems with their own institutions, structures, and centers of knowledge. In this growth, they have become remarkably close. Science and art meet at their boundaries and, in many cases, have already begun to cross them. The transgressions echo a medieval conception of knowledge that mapped a shared diagram to the cosmos. In the celebrated verses of the Azerbaijani poet Nasimi (d. c. 1417), alphabetical letters and numbers function as the fundamental building blocks to humanity and the universe. This deep understanding of human consciousness in relation to the cosmos parallels the discoveries of modern science, particularly in quantum physics. Each uses alphanumeric expressions to reveal phenomena that are not immediately apparent and often contradict intuitive logic, as physicists themselves acknowledge. The inner world and the creative process function similarly—through uncertainty, open questions, and states that remain unfixed until the moment they manifest. The process resembles a probabilistic wave of the unconscious, collapsing into conscious ideas and meanings—sometimes as poetry, experience, or even pain.
The pavilion unfolds as a journey guided by a carpet, unbound by form or predictability. As viewers move through these spaces, the carpet beneath their feet transforms into a dark wave suspended above them. The same carpet, in another space, becomes a knot, a particle, a concentration of knowledge in memory, thought, and identity. This work accompanies the viewer throughout their path within the pavilion. The form changes in an open field of entropy, but the whole remains constant and universal. The carpet does not resolve this tension; it powerfully sustains it.
Are art and science so disparate?
At first glance, these fields appear contradictory. Yet we are living in a historical moment when these two domains have developed into vast systems with their own institutions, structures, and centers of knowledge. In this growth, they have become remarkably close. Science and art meet at their boundaries and, in many cases, have already begun to cross them. The transgressions echo a medieval conception of knowledge that mapped a shared diagram to the cosmos. In the celebrated verses of the Azerbaijani poet Nasimi (d. c. 1417), alphabetical letters and numbers function as the fundamental building blocks to humanity and the universe. This deep understanding of human consciousness in relation to the cosmos parallels the discoveries of modern science, particularly in quantum physics. Each uses alphanumeric expressions to reveal phenomena that are not immediately apparent and often contradict intuitive logic, as physicists themselves acknowledge. The inner world and the creative process function similarly—through uncertainty, open questions, and states that remain unfixed until the moment they manifest. The process resembles a probabilistic wave of the unconscious, collapsing into conscious ideas and meanings—sometimes as poetry, experience, or even pain.
The pavilion unfolds as a journey guided by a carpet, unbound by form or predictability. As viewers move through these spaces, the carpet beneath their feet transforms into a dark wave suspended above them. The same carpet, in another space, becomes a knot, a particle, a concentration of knowledge in memory, thought, and identity. This work accompanies the viewer throughout their path within the pavilion. The form changes in an open field of entropy, but the whole remains constant and universal. The carpet does not resolve this tension; it powerfully sustains it.
The historical forms of Azerbaijani carpets become otherworldly under blacklight and begin to dissolve into viscous formations of color. At the outer portions of the work, garden imagery appears distinct as a stylized pattern. Yet as the gaze moves inward, once-defined patterns melt into a shape akin to a human face formed by streams of color.
The transformation of this synthetic rug reveals a reminder of the earlier individuals who produced and used such textiles, always silently present behind surviving historical patterns. This vacillation between technological rebellion and reverence of craft tradition is the hallmark of Ahmed’s artistic practice.
This obstacle must be confronted to continue the journey. The monumentality of darkened carpet becomes overwhelming as the textile buckles and folds under its own weight. The work deftly activates two definitions of the word “pile” in its profuse physicality and in the surface materiality of carpets formed by knotted threads that provide density and volume in looped or cut varieties. The mirrored wall doubles the effect to create an elephantine enclosure of crushing darkness encircling the viewer, as oppressive and insurmountable as the deepest grief. The blockage compels viewers to turn around and seek alternative forms of artistic expression.
Not all gardens emphasize plants. Here, Ahmed cultivates a soundscape from Nasimi’s poetry recited in many languages, making the complexity of language palpable. Azerbaijan’s rich linguistic heritage has traversed numerous forms in major script changes over the twentieth century. However, by instead realizing linguistic diversity through the sonic experience of translation, Ahmed accomplishes what scripts alone cannot. Translations of verse inhabit the space simultaneously, both referencing the historical aural reception of Nasimi’s text and the permanence of meanings behind it. Only in a strategic seat at the heart of the courtyard can viewers hear one language that makes the cacophony intelligible.
The interlocking layers of The Knot seemingly echo the earliest historical uses of such carpet motifs for talismanic protection in the Near East during the fifth century. Here, a knot design indeed acts as a safe, internalized space, akin to a seed planted by the Garden of Awakening, from which new understandings of the self and universe can grow. Its complex layering encourages us to acknowledge the relation between interacting elements, such as soul and matter, particle and wave, image and information, or information and experience. That dynamic is not of dichotomy but of implicit relation.
The interlocking layers of The Knot seemingly echo the earliest historical uses of such carpet motifs for talismanic protection in the Near East during the fifth century. Here, a knot design indeed acts as a safe, internalized space, akin to a seed planted by the Garden of Awakening, from which new understandings of the self and universe can grow. Its complex layering encourages us to acknowledge the relation between interacting elements, such as soul and matter, particle and wave, image and information, or information and experience. That dynamic is not of dichotomy but of implicit relation.
The great mathematical physicist Chris Isham (b. 1944) studied mysticism with such seriousness that he trained himself to carry long calculations into a dream state—dissolving the boundary between rational formalism and contemplative vision. Ahmed’s Golden Limit enacts precisely this dissolution in art.
The title derives from the golden ratio, or the rate at which the brain functions at peak complexity and adaptability as it balances on the edge of chaos. Lines drawn from Ahmed’s own EEG readings during meditation transform into a landscape against a gold-leaf sun, visualizing the threshold where scientific pattern and contemplative experience converge.
During pre-modern times, lavish landscapes divided by canals became known as chahār bāgh (four-part gardens) in Central and South Asia. They acted as a place of meditation and contemplation in a microcosm of the wider world. So too does this sculptural version. Much like its landscape counterparts, this earthen microcosm teems with invisible life that responds to every movement of viewers. Human presence becomes the means of enacting close observation. Watch as the shifting audience around the soil generates static energy that transforms the data of engagement into variable abstractions and sounds relayed throughout the room.
Entropy Altar celebrates the poetic nature of contemporary technologies in physics. Its machinations directly link quantum events unfolding in the present to the viewer, much like ancient altars once connected our ancestors to higher realms. Whether the connection is measurable or remains elusive, such uncertainty drives the research conducted alongside this pavilion. Each viewer receives an individualized thread of seven words, which emerges in the moment of encounter and meditation with a system powered by a Quantum Random Number Generator. With its help, the entropy from each viewer becomes the unrepeatable source of “verse” from the infinite cosmos, like threads in a universal loom.
Explore the electronic version of the pavilion catalogue