Curated by: Zahra Mammadova

“Objects should not touch because they are not alive. You use them, put them back in place, you live among them: they are useful, nothing more. But they touch me, it is unbearable. I am afraid of being in contact with them as though they were living beasts!”
Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

YAY Gallery presents a first solo exhibition "Go Slowly" by young artist Mouk (Ali Israfilov). Exhibition creates a space of deceleration, where painted portraits and intimate objects draw us into a sustained encounter with the mysterious bareness of existence.

The show presents the completion of artist’s new works, produced during a two-month residency at YARAT Contemporary Art Space, and reveals a world reminiscent of a half-forgotten motel inhabited by noir-like characters. His figures seem both connected and disconnected – performing private rituals, repetitive gestures, and nourishing habits that define the rhythm of solitude. Through objects, we encounter people; through people, we rediscover objects.

This dialogue is based on Sartre’s existentialist principle that “existence precedes essence” and defines the philosophical foundation of the exhibition. The comforting “visuals” of taste, colour, and appearance are revealed not as inherent qualities, but illusions created by the observer. Looking closely, the unembellished, pure existence of the images reveals itself, allowing one to perceive the very essence of human existence.

Drawing from the philosophies of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, the exhibition contemplates both anguish and relief – the simultaneous pain and peace in recognizing the arbitrariness of being.
Ali Israfilov’s works encourage a slowness of gaze, a meditation that resists the “clip culture” of rapid images. Perhaps our craving for speed masks a deeper fear: that stillness and repetition confront us with our fragile, contingent existence.

Through these works, which explore personal rituals, desires, and social relations within familiar spaces, the artist reinterprets time, thought, and existence.

About artist:

Mouk (Ali Israfilov) (b. 2004, Azerbaijan) is an artist primarily working in oil painting. He is currently studying at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts.

His creative process is based on intense observation and built around continuous work and reinterpreting. This approach allows forms to emerge and disappear on the canvas, creating a sense of a living, constantly changing surface.

His works were presented at the ArtVilnius’24 International Contemporary Art Fair (Lithuania, 2024) within the framework of collaboration with Galleria 89 Cento. In addition, his first solo presentation was held at Amres Art Gallery. He is a participant of the group exhibition “Spring Flow” (2025) at Gazelli Art House in Baku, and his works have also been exhibited in several group shows in Latvia and Azerbaijan.

Additionally, Mouk has participated in art symposiums held in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia.