In the exhibition hall of the State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan, an exhibition-competition of jewelry called "Beauty originates from antiquity" was held, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan's independence. 65 zergers from all provinces of the country took part in it. Age, education and work experience did not matter. The main thing is the high artistic performance of the presented pieces of jewelry art.

It should be noted that this is the first exhibition-competition held independently from other arts. Its organizers - the Ministry of Culture and the State Academy of Arts of Turkmenistan - expect that it will become an initiative in the tradition of annual exhibitions of the best works of Turkmen zergers.

The competition was held in three nominations: women's national jewelry, decoration for horses, modern jewelry of various types. Each nomination has five winners: one for the first place and two for the second and third.

The exhibition itself was a magnificent sight. The exhibits were so good that it is almost impossible to choose which one is the best with the eyes of an ordinary visitor. Each set of jewelry was numbered to preserve anonymity and facilitate an impartial assessment by the jury.

The winner of the competition in the first nomination was the teacher of the Academy of Arts Aydzhemal Charyeva, the winner in the second nomination was Movlamberdy Annayev, the winner of the third nomination was Atamurat Hommadov, a zerger from Mary velayat. The winners of the second and third places received diplomas and valuable gifts.

Among the winners, the attention of visitors and media correspondents is especially focused on Aydzhemal Charyeva, whom we managed to interview for our newspaper:

- I was lucky to grow up in a creative family, my dad and mom are painters, and my uncle is a jeweler. From school age, I chose my uncle's workshop and watched for hours what he was working on. Over the years, my passion for jewelry has only grown. And now I am a teacher at the State Academy of Arts. At this exhibition I was awarded first place for the composition of five pieces of jewelry "Balsayat", named after the heroine of the destan "Sayat and Hemra".

I imagined to put on a guppa on Sayat - a headdress made with patterns from the outlines of horses and girls, while using elongated guppas, which now almost none of the jewelers makes. My goal is to preserve the lost look and bring newness to it.

It's my style to create decorations for heroines from epics and legends. I imagine the face of the heroine, it brings me inspiration, fantasies and ideas are born. Of course, this is the style of royal jewelry, or girls from very rich families. But the very idea of creating such a group came to me from a museum photograph of children with summen on their heads. After that, I looked at antiques with a new look.

At the international exhibition of folk art in the city of Kokand (Uzbekistan, 2019), I presented the Turkmen jewelry exposition and could not help but notice how people from different parts of the world admire the Turkmen jewelry art. Our jewelry has special distinctive shapes, laconicism and delicacy of processing. Therefore, we need to preserve our national wealth that has come down from antiquity.

After congratulating the winners of the competition, all visitors of the exhibition were invited to the assembly hall to participate in a creative conference with the same name as the exhibition-competition “Beauty originates from antiquity”.

Tamara Glazunova
Photo: Alexey Gimaletdinov