From Istanbul to Yerevan

Coming from Nice, on the French Riviera, the first surprise once in Istanbul, an other city situated around the mediterranean sea, was the total different views. No touristic beaches but the never-ending passage of cargo ships. There was not so much disorientation. Istanbul is a globalized capital. Only the mueslin song which gives the rythm of the day remind us how far we are from our native place. We were at one of the strongest cultural period in Turkey as the Istanbul Biennial was still open. By discovering the galleries around we noticed that the most of them were quite recent (opened since less than 5 years).

But once in Armenia, the disorientation was more tangible. The langage barrier first of all. The Russian is more common than English in daily life. So just tell the destination to a taxi driver is not an easy task. The contemporary art scene is not visible at the first glance, the places are in isolated locations, or just unlikely buildings. But they are all actives and we would say activists in a certain way, as everything is produced thanks to the energy, the consciousness and the belief of few. They invest a lot in pedagogy and transmission with a hight level of knowledge.

Out of the notion of distance, we also measured how plans exist to be flexible. Back from France, we are really satisfied about the way we managed the time. Our schedule was both enought flexible to move some encounters when it was requested, but also open for reactivity as we collected a maximum of informations both before our departure and once in Istanbul. The Armenian part was quite different as we were totally taken in charge by the Armenian Open University. These two rythms were also interesting for us to explore.

This travel helped us in retrospective analyze of our practice and the activity of la Maison. We realized that we mainly focused on exhibitions, closer to a gallery activity than an alternative space. We became aware that our contribution to contemporary art in our city and in an international level could be different than it was until now. Maybe because in some point, art practice are not so different than in Europe. We are now in a globalized world with a globalized art practice. It remembered us, what we wished when we opened our space, how students take benefit of it by the pleasure to meet and talk with artists, critics, professional of art.

As decision, we are agree to refine the ativity of la Maison, by stopping to plan exhibitions and focusing for the coming months on events (video programs, lectures), on the creation of an alternative library and former studio with computers, on the creation of residency for critic and artists. We would like to built bridges between the library and the residency. For example, we think about an specific invitation to BAS Editions for a focus for 3 months and make it work with an invitation to turkish artist or critic at the same period. We would like to develop in the future la Maison as a kind of “incubator”, an alive space.

All these decisions were the result of encounters and exchanges with people or inspired by spaces visited.
We specially thanks for their welcome

Istanbul: The Mavi guesthouse – Banu Cennetoglu for BAS Editions – Binnaz Tukin for BMSuma – Serra Ozhan for Apartment Project – The Outlet gallery - Volkan Kaya for Citizen Art Shop and City and Art project.

Yerevan: Ruben Arevshatyan, Samvel Baghdasaryan, and Marianna Hovhannisyan for the Armenian Open University - Susanna Gyulamiryan for Art Commune Residency program - Zara Airoumian for the Museum of Modern Art – The artists, Armine Hovhannisyan, Vahram Aghasyan, Mkrtich Tonoyan – the art critics, Nazareth Karoyan, Eva Khachataryan - Tsolak Topchyan for Utopiana - Grigor Khachataryan
for Yerevan Mkhitar Sebastatsi Educational Complex - Edward Malassanian and David Kareyan for Armenian Center of Experimental Art Alternative Space.

Gyumri : Arman Tadevosyan for “5th Floor”.