05/08/09
We spent the morning in Echmiadzin, the Armenian ‘Vatican’. Between 180 and 340 AD it was Armenia’s capital and is still the centre of Armenian religious activity. Aside from beautiful churches, one can see many relics including the Holy Lance and fragments of the Noah’s Ark which apparently grounded on mount Ararat.
Then we went back to Yerevan and met with David Karoyan, artist and curator, whose solo exhibition is currently on at NPAK. David also showed us as much as he could of NPAK’s massive archive of contemporary Armenian art and introduced us to video artist Diana Hakobian who showed us some of her painting, installation and video work. We spoke to Daniel Maier-Reimer, a German artist who found some time to talk to us while he was installing his work for an exhibition that opens on Friday. Our visit at NPAK finished with an opening of photography exhibition by Paris-based Sharis Garabedian.
Lastly we visited Ara and Artur Petrosyan to see their works and other pieces by members of Art Laboratory. Their work is intensely political and encompasses painting, sound, video, performance and installation based activity.
Most art in one day, ever.
