Hey­dar Ali­yev Cen­ter hosts exhib­i­tion Super­her­oes of Wild­life

Published 6 February 2026

On Feb­ru­ary 4, the grand open­ing of the exhib­i­tion "The Super­her­oes of Wild­life" by renowned Brit­ish and Aus­tralian sculptors Gil­lie and Marc Schattner took place at the Hey­dar Ali­yev Cen­ter in Baku.

The Baku project is the largest exhib­i­tion ever presen­ted by the artists. Known as devoted advoc­ates for wild­life con­ser­va­tion, Gil­lie and Marc have turned their art into a vital plat­form for nature pro­tec­tion. The exhib­i­tion not only brings atten­tion to the press­ing issues facing the nat­ural world but also offers view­ers a per­spect­ive filled with cour­age and hope.

Sculptor Gil­lie Schattner shared that the primary mis­sion of the exhib­i­tion is to pro­mote wild­life con­ser­va­tion and spread mes­sages of love through art.

"Our goal is to inspire the audi­ence to pro­tect endangered anim­als, based on our exper­i­ences from trav­el­ing around the world. We study, observe, draw, and depict anim­als. All the sculp­tures dis­played in the exhib­i­tion are based on real anim­als we have encountered in nature," Schattner explained.

Mark Schattner, the other half of the artistic duo, also spoke about the sig­ni­fic­ance of nature pre­ser­va­tion in Baku and Azerbaijan as a whole.

"Through our con­ver­sa­tions, we learned about the valu­able ini­ti­at­ives Azerbaijan is under­tak­ing in wild­life con­ser­va­tion and envir­on­mental pro­tec­tion. This was one of the key reas­ons that drew us to the coun­try, as there is a deep and sin­cere con­nec­tion to nature here,"he said.

In his open­ing speech, Anar Alak­barov, Dir­ector of the Hey­dar Ali­yev Cen­ter, men­tioned that nearly 100 works by Gil­lie and Marc Schattner are being show­cased in the exhib­i­tion. He noted that the artists' works have been dis­played in many coun­tries around the world.

Anar Alak­barov high­lighted the unique­ness of the project, which under­scores the sig­ni­fic­ant role of the artists' efforts in nature con­ser­va­tion. He also expressed his grat­it­ude to every­one who con­trib­uted to the real­iz­a­tion of the project at the Hey­dar Ali­yev Cen­ter and exten­ded spe­cial thanks to Mehriban Ali­yeva, the Pres­id­ent of the Hey­darAli­yev Found­a­tion, for her sub­stan­tial sup­port in bring­ing the project to life.

The exhib­i­tion "The Super­her­oes of Wild­life" addresses the future fate of endangered spe­cies. It intro­duces two insep­ar­able her­oes, a rab­bit-woman (Rab­bit Woman) and a dog-man (Dog Man), whose adven­tures embody the idea that "we may be dif­fer­ent, but by cre­at­ing har­mony with one another, we can care for nature."

The exhib­i­tion fea­tures a com­bin­a­tion of paint­ings and both small and large-scale sculp­tures, invit­ing the audi­ence to reflect on our col­lect­ive respons­ib­il­ity in pro­tect­ing nature. Through this, the artists call upon the world to embrace wild­life with love and fight for its pre­ser­va­tion.

The Baku exhib­i­tion is not just a story about pro­tect­ing the liv­ing world; it also speaks to com­pas­sion, cour­age, and unity.

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