November in Yerevan

Besides my hosts at Armenian Open University, department of Fine Arts (AOU FA) and Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (ACSL), I was warmly welcomed in the institutions I visited: the Museum of Modern Art (MAM), Armenian Center of Experimental Art Alternative space (NPAK), International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Armenia, Utopiana Association, Mkhitar Sebastatsi Educational Complex... My interlocutors were very generous in sharing with me their research and very curious in listening to my own impressions. I was not used to such a compliancy, such a quality of listening. I presented my own work in the frame of “Afterclass Meetings” at AOU FA and could interact with the students during my whole stay.

At first, I got annoyed by the fatherly, authoritarian attitude of some men I could cross out of the context of work. Therefore, after experimenting myself small vexations, I decided to fully consider the “gender issues” in my research, which was basically oriented on the exhibition strategies. Soon, I had seen this topic did not make sense here and that artists would rather evoke the necessity of their taking position – as social, political actors – and using their freedom of speech.

The meetings would unsettle me, being always spontaneous and informally planned. But the people I met listened to my complains with a true pleasure and great sense of humor. Besides a very sharp involvement in the political and social life of the country, these cultural actors would never forget self-derision, tangible as well in the artworks. All of them are involved in social networks: this way, we are still in touch now and I can refine with them the interviews I edit step by step on my blog, aiming to render the fragmented approach I had from this lively, exciting and powerful art scene.

bit.ly/novemberyer