On July 28, the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan opened the II All-Russian Shamail Art festival. This year, the event marks the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria.
The festival was opened with speeches by the exhibition organizers and artists who presented their works and projects. The opening ceremony was concluded with munajats (Tatar spiritual chants), which were performed against the background of a specially prepared multimedia on the wall of the hall.
Rozaliya Nurgaleeva, Director of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, noted that despite the international situation, the organizers managed to create a decent exhibition with unique and inspiring works.
“It took three months to select works. It was difficult for us, as all the works we received were interesting. You could only show one or two works by one artist, but if we were proposed a set of five canvases for example, we tried to implement this idea at our exhibition. As a result, in my opinion, the project has turned out to be certainly interesting,” Rozaliya Nurgaleeva said.
Thirty-two artists from Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and other cities and regions of the Russian Federation participated in the festival.
The three floors of the Museum of Fine Arts displayed shamails dating from the late XIX century to the present day. In one of the halls, visitors viewed printed shamails from the Marjani Foundation and shamails made by unknown artists of the people.
Of particular interest were the works by folk master Gabdelkhak Bikmuratov, who created shamails in the well-known traditional way – out of glass and foil, which shines through in right places of the picture, giving brightness and brilliance to the work.
Rozaliya Nurgaleeva, Director of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, told the media that today not only Muslims were interested in Arabic calligraphy: “Vladimir Aleksandrovich Popv is a Russian person and he is considered to be the maestro of calligraphy. He was personally present at the last festival and approved of the initiative. Calligraphy attracts young people to0, regardless of their nationality or confession”.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Shamail Art festival, Rustem Shamsutov, curator of the project and Honored Art Worker of Tatarstan, said that artists of the past continued to inspire contemporary calligraphers. He highlighted the video art project “Letters to God” by Igor Pankov, a renowned scholar of anthropology, Director of the Al Maqam Foundation for the Development of Scientific and Cultural Projects, Candidate of Historical Sciences (St Petersburg), which was also presented at the festival.
On the ground floor of the gallery, space was arranged for a project by Rinat Minnibayev, Honored Artist of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan. His works were inspired by Ibn Fadlan’s journey and the adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria. His works are imbued with Turkic motifs, and in a minimalist style they tell about the life of the Turks, their traditions and customs.
The Director of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan said that part of the exhibition was planned to be shown in St Petersburg. This definitely refers to the Tale of Maryam multimedia park created by Alfiya Sargin, member of the Union of Artists of Russia and Tatarstan, recipient of the TURKSOY International Honorary Badge, Honored Art Worker of the Republic of Tatarstan. Her works are kept at the museums in Tatarstan, Russia, Europe and Asia.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
