REPUBBLICA DI ARMENIA RESISTANCE THROUGH ART
6 novembre 2005
Exibart
By David Kareyan - Curator
[...]
Participating artists of “Resistance Through Art” have had very active role in all of the activities which have taken place in Armenia in the nineties, outside the sphere of institutions inherited from the Soviet era.
The Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (“NPAK” in Armenian acronym) became the venue where artists gathered and freely exhibited the hidden, unconformable, and oppressed layers of socio-cultural and psychological conflicts. In particular exhibitions entitled “Crisis”, “Collapse of Illusions”, “Civic Commotion”, “Anoush”, and their culmination: “Politics Under 180 Degree” should be noted, where the hysteric and crazed outbursts of “revolutionary reconstruction” of farmer-breeder culture, and industrial modernization were acutely displayed. These are conflicts which we witness when the ideology tending towards the singular center collides with reality.
[...] Is it possible to live without violence? Which is the natural environment of man? Why is it that culture, which is supposed to be the mechanism of sublimation, is unable to manifest the boundaries within which we would feel in our natural environment? Why is man trying to escape from the world of his own creation? Why does he think that his natural environment is the sea and the jungle?
Diana Hagopian in her “Logic of Power” triptych video, by displaying the roles assigned to women together with statistics of opinion polls is directly asking the question of whether it is possible to reconcile with the violence prevalent in the world? Is it possible to create a society, where self-admiration and authority do not appear as “desirable play”?
[...]
Sona Abgarian's “Tomorrow at the Same Time” video-installation is another example of inhibition of woman's identity and her ability of free expression in society. It seems like the woman, by manipulating a monster's mask is studying her past face, which she was wearing during some unknown festivity. Lonely and abandoned by guests she tries to show her today's face to her yesterday's mask. [...].
[...]
Tigran Khachatrian's video of “Todis” as the artist puts it belongs to his “Corner of the Room Productions” or “Garage Films” series. Beginning from 2000 Tigran Khachatrian has produced a series of video-films: “Color of Eggplant”, “Stalker”, “Romeo”, “J-L Godard”, etc. Under the name of “Corner of the Room Productions” the artist adopts a unique method of re-mixes, whereby internationally famed, basically “left” cinematographers' famous films are re-valued. As the artist insists this reenactment returns the original humanity and simplicity to the idolized films. [...].
[...]
Vahram Aghassian in his “Factories in the Sky” double screen video-installation presents a dilapidated factory from the era of “the glorious industrial achievement” of the one-time Soviet Armenia. He tries to break free from the prejudiced stare of the viewer who in post-soviet artists' works searches for documentary description of financial cataclysms. In the passage between very closely placed projection screens the artist spreads artificial “stage smoke” which is the only tangible reality. More precisely it is the only reality encompassing us. If the history was first written and later tried to make what was written to happen, then the world has been turned into smoke.
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Exibart
By David Kareyan - Curator
[...]
Participating artists of “Resistance Through Art” have had very active role in all of the activities which have taken place in Armenia in the nineties, outside the sphere of institutions inherited from the Soviet era.
The Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (“NPAK” in Armenian acronym) became the venue where artists gathered and freely exhibited the hidden, unconformable, and oppressed layers of socio-cultural and psychological conflicts. In particular exhibitions entitled “Crisis”, “Collapse of Illusions”, “Civic Commotion”, “Anoush”, and their culmination: “Politics Under 180 Degree” should be noted, where the hysteric and crazed outbursts of “revolutionary reconstruction” of farmer-breeder culture, and industrial modernization were acutely displayed. These are conflicts which we witness when the ideology tending towards the singular center collides with reality.
[...] Is it possible to live without violence? Which is the natural environment of man? Why is it that culture, which is supposed to be the mechanism of sublimation, is unable to manifest the boundaries within which we would feel in our natural environment? Why is man trying to escape from the world of his own creation? Why does he think that his natural environment is the sea and the jungle?
Diana Hagopian in her “Logic of Power” triptych video, by displaying the roles assigned to women together with statistics of opinion polls is directly asking the question of whether it is possible to reconcile with the violence prevalent in the world? Is it possible to create a society, where self-admiration and authority do not appear as “desirable play”?
[...]
Sona Abgarian's “Tomorrow at the Same Time” video-installation is another example of inhibition of woman's identity and her ability of free expression in society. It seems like the woman, by manipulating a monster's mask is studying her past face, which she was wearing during some unknown festivity. Lonely and abandoned by guests she tries to show her today's face to her yesterday's mask. [...].
[...]
Tigran Khachatrian's video of “Todis” as the artist puts it belongs to his “Corner of the Room Productions” or “Garage Films” series. Beginning from 2000 Tigran Khachatrian has produced a series of video-films: “Color of Eggplant”, “Stalker”, “Romeo”, “J-L Godard”, etc. Under the name of “Corner of the Room Productions” the artist adopts a unique method of re-mixes, whereby internationally famed, basically “left” cinematographers' famous films are re-valued. As the artist insists this reenactment returns the original humanity and simplicity to the idolized films. [...].
[...]
Vahram Aghassian in his “Factories in the Sky” double screen video-installation presents a dilapidated factory from the era of “the glorious industrial achievement” of the one-time Soviet Armenia. He tries to break free from the prejudiced stare of the viewer who in post-soviet artists' works searches for documentary description of financial cataclysms. In the passage between very closely placed projection screens the artist spreads artificial “stage smoke” which is the only tangible reality. More precisely it is the only reality encompassing us. If the history was first written and later tried to make what was written to happen, then the world has been turned into smoke.
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 5:13 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home