Have you ever felt uneasy when your thoughts began to wander, when attention slipped and the mind drifted elsewhere? In an era of relentless information flow, moments of reflective reveries are often regarded as unproductive pauses. Neuroscience suggests otherwise. Even without a fixed task, the brain remains intensely active, building complex networks that support memory and imagination.
These processes are governed by the default mode network (DMN) - a network of brain regions that are active when attention is not fixed on an external task, such as when your mind wanders, daydreams, revisits memories, or envisions the future. In today’s always-on world, such states resemble procrastination, but even at rest, our brains use about 20% of the body’s energy, supporting processes that link experiences, project possibilities, and structure thought. A wandering mind is conducting essential behind-the-scenes work that fuels our creativity, planning, and meaning.
Art externalizes the movements of the mind. What the brain rehearses in reverie finds material form in marks, gestures, and textures. Turning inward is fundamental to creative practice, forging new visual vocabularies and alternate modes of perception. Surrealism and Dada, and later conceptual art, pursued such states through automatic writing, chance operations, and dream states to bypass rational control and reach deeper truths. Abstract Expressionism extended these ideas through action, spill, stain, and the trace of the body, prioritizing process over fixed design. Art Informel similarly explored non-geometric, intuitive marks that reward careful, meditative observation. Each of these movements affirmed mind-wandering as a mode of creation.
Amid today’s pressures, contemporary art offers to slow down and rediscover significance in the subtle and overlooked. In this setting, artists navigate through intuitive spaces, where understanding emerges through mood, symbol, and pause.
‘Wandering minds’ brings together works by Shahnaz Aghayeva, Javid Ilham, Huseyn Jalil, Nazrin Mammadova, and Regina Rzaeva, each exploring unfocused thought as a conceptual field. Across the exhibition, paper becomes the central medium: a surface responsive to energy and gesture, a site of attention and introspection.