Events

Lusadaran’s third exhibition ‘Trouble in Paradise: Photography and constructions of femininity’ opens in Yerevan

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July 17-31
HayArt Cultural Centre,
7a, Mashtots Avenue
Monday-Saturday
Opening 7-9pm, July 17

Nvard Yerkanyan. From the installation 'Round Table' 2014

“The feminine is a troublemaker, truly situated on the margins of play… Just at the right moment, a shift. A flick of the finger, or the ‘fin mot’, the heart of the matter. Never the ‘mot de la fin’, the final word.” Julia Kristeva, 1998

The exhibition “Trouble in Paradise” looks at the current perceptions of femininity in contemporary Armenian photography, represented here by the works of Svetlana Antonyan (Okean), Anush Babajanyan, Anna Davtyan, Vehanush Topchyan, Nvard Yerkanian and Nazik Armenakyan. These are accompanied by examples of 19th and 20th century commercial photography, which give a partial overview of the historical as well as international developments in the visual constructions of the feminine.

Svetlana Antonyan (Oceana). Untitled 2. 2014

In post-feminist vision of society and power, the disquieting and ‘troublesome’ aspects of femininity are often oppressed or relegated to daytime soap operas. Mass medias continuously exploit normative, sexualised images of femininity as a vital part of the ‘consumer paradise’. In this regard, photography has always been the medium most responsible for both, the commodification and the subversion of femininity as an object of visual (masculine) pleasure.

Anna Davtyan. From the series 'The Book of the Fox', 2011-13

It is also the space that makes the dialogue between the participating artists possible. Coming from different professional backgrounds, these practitioners are interested in the tensions produced by disruptive, ambiguous and contradictory aspects of femininity. They view it not as an aesthetic or a critically devalued construct, but an activity which can become a constructive force. Employing this transgressive and contradictory power, the artists place hegemonies in a state of tension and anxiety by playing with ubiquitous imagery drawn from television, cinema, painting, mythology and commerce.

In their works, archetypes of domestic, public, political, and natural spaces are disturbed and transformed into arenas of imagination, poetry, desire and play. Photography itself is fragmented in the process. It takes different forms (documentary, conceptual, performative, commercial and archival) that slip and spill out from conventional frameworks, while enabling novel ways of seeing and representing the real.

Anush Babajanyan. Tamara. 2008

Collectively, the close to fifty works exhibited here enter into an open-ended discussion regarding the performance of femininity and how it might be relevant to current thinking (by predominantly women artists) about identity, desire, gender and beyond.

“Trouble in Paradise” is the third exhibition organised in Armenia by the ‘Lusadaran’ Armenian Photography Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to the collection, study and preservation of Armenian as well as other marginal photographic histories. It also seeks to promote the medium within the sphere of contemporary arts in Armenia.

Samvel Saghatelyan’s ‘Transromance’ takes on the domestic space in Yerevan

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Sex and pornography are not innocent, but can they at least pretend to be so? These and other everyday questions are addressed in Samvel Saghatelyan’s exhibition ‘Transromance’, curated by Vigen Galstyan and opened at a private apartment in Yerevan on September 12, 2013 as a one-day event.

Composed of 11 mixed media photo-collages and one photocopy-collage, the series depicts the birth and development of a supra-male sexual fantasy.

Regarding body, gender and sexual desire as a cultural and political phenomenon, Saghatelyan attempts to find a small platform of pleasure and enjoyment in the cross-section of these issues. At this ambigous, liminal point, the abscence of clear positions and answers itself becomes a kind of a solution.

In the carnavalesque space of ‘Transromance’ power relations and sexual politics become masks – at once laughable, mutating, in a sense naive and in this particular game, always equal.

Referring to the underground and private apartment exhibitionս of the 1970s-80s Soviet period, the one-day presentation of ‘Transromance’ took place in a two bedroom flat in downtown Yerevan. Utilising this living environment, the exhibition transforms an ordinary domestic habitat into a laboratory of sexual myths.

The evening developed into a ‘happening’ as the over 100 visitors flooded in an out of the appartment until four am in the morning. Arthur Manukyan performed his renditions of Sayat-Nova on the guitar, conceptual artists put on impromptu performances and intellectuals took on the floor to give talks while guests debated the questions and ideas provoked by the show.

Սեքսն ու պոռնոգրաֆիան անմեղ չեն, բայց կարող են դրանք գոնե այդպես ձևանալ? Այս և այլ առօրյա հարցերին է անդրադառնում Սամվել Սաղաթելյանի ‘Տրանսռոմանս’ ցուցահանդեսը: Համադրված Վիգեն Գալստյանի կողմից, այն ներկայացվեց որպես մեկօրյա իրադարձություն, 2013 թվականի, սեպտեմբերի 12-ին, Երևանյան մի մասնավոր բնակարանում:

Կազմված իննը խառը տեխնիկայով արված ֆոտոկոլաժներից, շարքը պատկերում է գերտղամարդկային սեքսուալ մի ֆանտազմի զարգացումը:

Դիտարկելով մարմինը, գենդերը և սեռական ցանկության ‘ծնունդը’ որպես մշակույթային և քաղաքական երևույթ, Սաղաթելյանը փորձում է տվյալ խնդիրների հատման կետում գտնել հաճույքի և ազատության մի փոքրիկ հարթակ: Այս անորոշ, ապակողմնորշված և միջանկյալ կետում, հստակ դիրքորոշումների և պատասխանների բացակայությունը ինքնին ներկայանում է որպես լուծում: ‘Տրանսռոմանսի’ կառնավալային տարածության մեջ ուժային հարաբերությունները և սեռական քաղականությունը վերածված են դիմակների` միաժամանակ ծիծաղելի, փոփոխվող, ինչ որ առումով միամիտ և տվյալ խաղում` ընդմիշտ հավասարազոր:

Ակնարկելով սովետական շրջանի 1970-80 ականների ‘բնակարանային’, ընդհատակյա ցուցահանդեսները, ‘Տրանսռոմանսի’ մեկ օրյա ներկայացումը տեղի ունեցավ մասնավոր բնակարանում: Գործածելով այս ‘ապրող’ միջավայրը, ցուցահանդեսը վերծանում է կենցաղային տարածքը որպես սեքսուալ միֆերի լաբորատորիա:

Anna Khachatryan’s exhibition-event at ACCEA (NPAK), Yerevan

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‘Find Yourself’ is a new exhibition/event held at the Armenian Centre of Contemporary and Experimental Arts (ACCEA) in Yerevan, which presents over 70 photographic works by the cross-disciplinary practitioner Anna Khachatryan (b. 1994). An emerging talent, Khachatryan is representative of a new generation of young Armenian artists that work between mediums, never firmly locating themselves within any specific framework. A graduate of the media, advertising and film department of the Slavonic University in Yerevan, Khachatryan often terms herself as a ‘stylist’. Her work blends in both fashion and performance art, often rendered through the aesthetics of advertising art, contemporary dance and punk fashion of the 1980s.

In her exhibition manifesto Khachatryan cites the surrealists and particularly Breton among her influences. In certain respects her images of figures clad in blackly comic make-up and costumes dwell on the fragmentation of identity and the fluidity of the subconscious that recall the poetic randomness and accidentality of the ‘Exquisite corpse’ method. However, the theoretical profundities of the early modernists are replaced here by Khachatryan’s more instinctive, purposefully superficial modus operandi that points as much to Leigh Bowery as it does to Sergei Paradjanov.

Khachatryan’s primary thematic concern seems to be the subject of the mask. And while her photographs lack fully developed or particularly interesting conceptual ideas, the images attract by their sincerity, kaleidoscopic eclecticism and willingness to indulge in the absurdity of meaningless play. As such, the tropes of her creativity parallel those of children’s dress up games, where identity and psychology are not given but are in the process of construction and transmutation – a point made clear by the title of the exhibition.

The artist’s involvement with photography is notable for its directorial, distanced approach. Khachatryan styles her performers, creates the mise en scene, establishes the frame but uses a professional photographer to light and take the image. In this way, Khachatryan positions herself alongside conceptual photographers such as Tracy Moffatt, Cindy Sherman and Sharon Lockhart, whose oeuvre blurs the line between cinema, theatre, documentation and photography. The images themselves were not printed, but projected within the space and in some cases are ‘enacted’ by performers.

‘Find Yourself’ was held at ACCEA, Yerevan on February 23rd. Khachatryan also plans a sequel to this event in April.

VG

Rocking Tehran: Karen Mirzoyan’s exhibition opens in New York

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karen-mirzoyan-bands-in-tehranNovember 29, 2011 – January 22, 2012

Artist’s reception: Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 7:30 p.m.

On November 29th an exhibition of Karen Mirzoyan’s photographs of basement rock bands in Tehran, Iran, will open at The Half King in New York city. Shot over the week commencing the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, Rock the Casbah – Basement Bands in Tehran, looks at young men and women trying to play music as loudly and secretly as possible.

Karen explained his motives for creating the series by stating that he “went to Tehran to look at the anniversary of the Revolution. When I found rock musicians practicing in soundproof basements, I found people who are waiting for a second Revolution.”

Karen and Sacha Lecca, senior photo editor at Rolling Stone magazine, will moderate a slideshow and discussion of Karen’s work on opening night.

“Karen’s images—of newspeak broadcasts, daily life, and the surreal, illegal undertaking that playing rock music in a theocracy entails—are a kaleidoscopic sampling of Tehran’s public and private realms as the Revolution is observed,” says curator Anna Van Lenten.

With seven million people, Tehran is Iran’s largest and culturally most sophisticated city. Iran’s Ministry of Islamic Guidance forbids rock music for its western (satanic) bent—a direct threat to cultural purity.

The Half King Photography Series is dedicated to showing exceptional photojournalism. In tandem with its reading series, The Half King fosters a dialog between photographers and writers that underscores the importance of their unique relationship. Co-curating its photography series are James Price, photo editor at Newsweek, and Anna Van Lenten, writer and editor.

Karen Mirzoyan (b. 1981) grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia and now lives in Armenia. In 2005, he worked at Panos Pictures and at The Independent in London. Primarily, his work is concerned with the culture and post-conflict societies of countries in the Caucuses. In 2010, he won Magnum Foundation’s Caucuses Award and a scholarship to the NYU/Magnum Human Rights Program.

Industrial Symphony

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‘Industrial Symphony: Photography and industry in a post-utopian age’ is a project jointly conceived by Hayas Cultural Organisation and ReArk Architectural Environmental Centre.