On 4 September 2026, the exhibition "Spirit of Time in Folk Art" will open at the National Central Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty. Drawn from the collection of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, the exhibition will present works of Azerbaijani decorative and applied art dating predominantly from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The exhibition is organised by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Foundation for Turkic Culture and Heritage, the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum and the National Central Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
At the heart of the exhibition is Azerbaijani carpet art, represented by carpets from Guba, Baku, Shirvan, Karabakh, Gazakh and Ganj. Together, these works reflect the distinctive regional traditions and remarkable artistic diversity of Azerbaijan’s carpet-weaving heritage. The display features pile carpets, including Pirabadil, Gabystan, Surakhani, Fakhraly, Salahli, Khanlyg and Mir, as well as flat-woven carpets such as kilim, shadda, varni and zili.
A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth of Latif Karimov, an outstanding scholar, carpet artist, founder of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum and People’s Artist of Azerbaijan. The section presents a selection of his graphic carpet designs alongside carpets created from his designs, including Second Spring and Khatai.
The diversity of Azerbaijani carpet culture is further reflected in a selection of traditional carpet products, including mafrash, khurjun and chul, complemented by examples of artistic embroidery, jewellery, decorative metalwork and traditional Azerbaijani women’s costume. Together, these objects demonstrate how the carpet and other forms of decorative art were deeply integrated into everyday life, customs and cultural traditions.
The exhibition will also feature items from the collection of the National Central Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, donated to the museum in the 1940s–1980s by members of Kazakhstan’s Azerbaijani community. These include a pile carpet entitled a woollen carpet, a gift from the Azerbaijani people to the Kazakh people marking the 25th anniversary of the Kazakh SSR; and an Azerbaijani women’s belt with a buckle, donated to the museum in 1989 by Shakhmani Mukhtarovich Aslanov from Talgar, Almaty Region.
Azerbaijani carpet weaving was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in recognition of its outstanding cultural significance and its value as part of the shared heritage of humanity.
Spirit of Time in Folk Art offers visitors an opportunity to discover the richness of Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage and to explore centuries-old traditions of folk art, their regional diversity and their enduring artistic legacy.
The exhibition will be on view until 4 October 2026.