MURAD MAMMADOV, THE UNLIMITED PROGRAMME PARTICIPANT, SHARES HIS STORY ABOUT HOW HE WILL USE HIS EXPERIENCE TO BRING CHANGE TO THE LIVES OF FELLOW DISABLED ARTISTS IN AZERBAIJAN.
Unlimited really opened the world’s doors for my creative work and social activities. The Unlimited took me to Ukraine, my first international trip as an artist and an advocate for the inclusion of disability arts into the mainstream. I was able to connect to the fellow disabled artists from around the world, and found new ways to make our voices heard globally and locally in Azerbaijan.
The most wonderful opportunity was for me to tell my life story through a piece of Forum Theatre called ‘A Place in the Sun’ with an audience of more than a hundred people watching me and my fellow artists.
Thanks to Unlimited, I also got in touch with many new local organisations that support disabled artists – they are doing great work to bring us into the mainstream of the performing arts scene. My own small initiative was to run a small collective online shop called Hands Art – where disabled artists can sell their handicraft, visual art, tools, and more. My dream is to grow this community and help more disabled artists like me build their income through arts.
The next step is to get my book - ‘Map to Success’ - translated to English and hopefully reach an international audience. I wrote my book during the period of my participation in Unlimited, and I really hope that it can give the motivation to disabled artists, (and disabled people in general) allowing them to reach and demonstrate their potential.
When opportunities present themselves, I try to share what I learnt from the Unlimited coaches, peers and artists during the many seminars, workshops and discussions we shared together. In the future, I am thinking of setting up our very own Forum Theatre in Baku involving abled and disabled artists.