The irresistible rituals of dust

We started our time in Georgia with a visit to Mamuka Japharidze. Mamuka is an artist and teacher at The Center of Contemporary Art – Tbilisi (Artistic Practice in Relation with Organic Agriculture). His house and studio is based just outside Tbilisi overlooking the town from the hill. It was a wonderful start to our visit. Part of Mamuka’s practice is concentrated on the process of preparation of high quality organic foods, foraging and using traditional techniques of cooking and preserving. We’ve tasted his wines with home made cheeses, smoked paprika and bread, with additions of herbs and relishes. It was glorious. Accompanied byhis story telling about the history of Caucasus in connection to Greek mythology, gold and silk traces.

Following his advice we visited the Georgian National Museum http://museum.ge/?lang_id=ENGGEO&sec_id=1 and then Tbilisi State Silk Museum http://silkmuseum.ge/for-visitors/#1545323163281-25e16c49-17c6.

I’ve included a few items from these collections in my painted notes shown at the no format gallery in November.

The National Museum holds a collection of artefacts, from jewellery, through icon paintings to traditional clothing. The silk museum was really interesting for me. I come from Milanowek – a small town just outside Warsaw in Poland with a long tradition of silk painting and production. My mother paints on silk, and I was doing it for a while before starting my MFA at WarsawAcademy of Fine Arts in 1999. Seeing the history of different processes was very inspiring and made me think about this connection. The director of the museum is an artist and curator Nino Kuprava, she welcomes contemporary art projects and has a  vision for expanding the modern art part of the collection. There is definitely a place for future collaboration and I’m hoping to be back there at some point.

Another place worth mentioning is Villa Garikula. art residency complex, with studios, gallery space and open landscape. The landscape surrounding the place is breath taking, the whole site is magical. It has a history of visiting artists and creatives, so each centimetre feels very special.

The generous location allows for experiments with larger scale projects and a variety of mediums. Garikula is placed around 80kmaway from Tbilisi, close to the ancient city Kaspi. We met with the director Karaman Kutateladze, at his studio in Tbilisi. We spoke briefly about the possibility of a residency exchange programme and his work at Garikula.

I’m also attaching a few pictures from Stalin’s museum at Gori. This is more like an amusement house, presenting a glorified version of the life of the most famous son of Georgia. There is no mention there of his crimes, so it is a very unnerving place to visit.

I feel like I didn’t have enough time in Georgia and I’m planning to go back there, without rushing from meeting to meeting, or to see another museum or church. Just to be.

We took an overnight train from Tbilisi to Baku. Entering Azerbaijan wasn’t entirely pleasant due to the political regime and us having visited Armenia earlier. That is a story for the next entry.

We came across many people engaged in creating new structures for dialogue within the Armenian art scene. We had the pleasure to meet a few strong, female curators like Susanna Gyulamiryan, Anna Kamay and briefly Eva Khachatryan – independent curator.

Susanna Gyulamiryan is an art curator and critic, co-founder and president of “Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory” (ACSL) NGO. A member of AICA – Armenia. She has held courses in Cultural and Gender Studies at the Fine Arts Department of the Armenian Open University (2004-2014), as well as has implemented a course of Gender Studies for MA students at the Yerevan State University, Department of Culturology. Her critical articles are about the problems contemporary art faces in the context of market relations. Her recent interests lie in feminist and gender problems in the art practices of Armenian women artists.

Anna Kamay was translating our presentation and Q&A at the ArtLab Yerevan. She is an art journalist for the Caucasus ArtMag, managing director of ARTsakh Fest. Closely involved with ICA as a curator.

From these meetings we concluded that there is a need for a gender /discourse and female inclusion in the art world there. This could become one of the leading themes in future collaborative practice. There was strong emphasis on how the old structures are dominated by man, slightly conservative in thier old fashion ways of running things (not just here then).

During our short stay, we spent some time visiting proper tourist attractions. Some places took my breath away and I would love to visit them again. We took a few guided road trips, a good way to visit as many places as possible in within a restricted time. Starting with Tatev Monastery – 9th century Apostolic monastery located on a large basalt plateau near the Tatev village in Syunik Province in south-eastern Armenia. I’m including some photos to show the spectacular views and the character of the place. We also visited the Temple of Garni – an iconic Pagan temple. It is the best known symbol of pre – Christian Armenia, built probably by king Tiridates I in the first century AD as a temple to the sun god Mihr. There are ruins of a Christian church built next to it in the 7th century.

The most fascinating place for me was Geghard Monastery – the Monastery of the Cave or the Monastery of the Spear (originates from the spear which had wounded Jesus at the Crucifixion, allegedly brought to Armenia by Apostle Jude, called here Thaddeus, and stored amongst many other relics).The complex was founded in the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator at the site of a sacred spring inside a cave, the main chapel was built in 1215. The site is included in World Heritage Site listing. During our visit there we come across a choir practice (which I included in my video work) A group of people in long robes, moving gently, while the ancient walls echoing their beautiful voices, so anyone witnessing it need to stop.

Outside the complex there is a magical place beside the Azat River with many wishing trees (also included in my video). In Armenia, this tradition of tying pieces of fabric to the tree to make wishes come true is very old. The trees are absolutely wrapped in sometimes very random scraps of material. It creates slightly haunting image.

We drove from Yerevan to Tbilisi, using this time to see more places and allowing the landscape to sink in. From our guide we learnt more about the history of the country but also some fascinating stories – like the one about “the nail of Satan” – obsidian of volcanic origin also known as volcanic glass. On the slopes of Satan’s hill, Satan-Dar, were found such implements as hand knife-blades, drawing-knives, sharp-pointed tools, and discs. This archaeological material is beyond any precise explanation and can be submitted to various possible interpretations.

Close to the Georgian border, we came across a beautiful valley with Berqaber water reservoir, which is partly in Azerbaijan. We stopped there to look around, take few pictures and say goodbye to the Armenian soil. Standing on the hill, looking down we spotted a cluster of sticks and tyres, realizing that we are looking at an empty sniper post. We don’t hear much of this conflict on BBC News, but the issues around Nagorno – Karabakh aren’t resolved yet. There is no possibility of crossing the border in between these two countries, and Armenian stamps in our passports where highly frowned upon by Azerbaijani border control.

We arrived in Georgia.

We started our trip through Caucasus with a visit to Armenia. We only had four days there and it was Easter Holiday so some galleries and museums were closed, also lots of people we wanted to meet were to busy with t family engagements. More reason to go back there I guess.

We stayed at the Institute for Contemporary Art. They offer residencies and the location is very central. ICA Yerevan is an open hub for cultural and contemporary art projects and development. ICA is involved in most of the art activities in Yerevan, from developing and implementing art collections, exhibitions, through archives and research projects, they also organize teaching programs in the field of curatorial practices, theory, and art education.

Structured as an open cross-functional network of people and ideas/concepts, the ICA School, Project and Research Labs provide a comprehensive set of resources, facilities and tools for understanding and operating in the contemporary art scene in Armenia and in the wider global art context.

The idea of the ICA Yerevan emerged through the educational and research projects of the National Association of Art Critics – Armenia. They have held a Summer School for Art Curators since 2006, which later transformed into a seminar format. This expanded into four semester long study programs. The structural-functional cohesion of Research and Project Labs, as well as the experience in the educational program, eventually led to the establishment of the Institute for Contemporary Art in 2012.

Re-Lab is the research center of the Institute for Contemporary Art. The studies carried out within this framework address the economic, legal, cultural-political, sociological, socio-psychological and other aspects of the Armenian and international context of contemporary art.

Identifying issues that arise in front of public and local governing bodies, as well as between them both, pursue one goal: identify the tasks and create conditions for the development and implementation of projects contributing to the contextual development of art.

Pro-Lab – (Project laboratory) aims at developing mechanisms (collection, maintenance, display, publication and dissemination) and practices (curatorship, criticism, cultural mediation etc.) to promote art production. It is also oriented towards developing an institutional sphere of art, as well as a market in Armenia.

The laboratory also serves as a platform for curator training and practices. Simple projects of art publicity and outreach (exhibitions, publishing, seminar, etc.) and complex projects of development of regional, territorial and segmental art economy (museum economy, galleries and art centers, the art market and private sector, governing bodies and legislative environment) both are designed and implemented in the laboratory.

Karoyan Gallery and Nest artist’s residency are also part of ICA Yerevan.

Featuring contemporary art by emerging and established regional, national and international artists, Karoyan Gallery exhibits works in a variety of mediums and is often at the forefront of challenging gallery norms.

The gallery was founded on the principle of putting on exhibitions, performances, and events with an emphasis on borrowed space and a nomadic lifestyle while fostering relationships with collectors and institutions.

We were welcomed by Nazareth Karoyan, and had several meetings with him. Talking about his work at ICA, as well as organising meeting with local artists and art professionals. He and Marine Karoyan (who is responsible for Nest residencies) helped us to navigate through Yerevan’s art scene.

Another interesting organisation we come across in Armenia was ArtLab Yerevan. An artist collective and political art group. We had a presentation followed by discussion which turned into a rather lovely party in their new studio. (more details here: https://www.artlabyerevan.org/en/1523097675) Hovhannes Margaryan, Vardan Jaloyan, Olya Azatyan, Artur Petrosyan and Ara Petrosyan are the artists involved. They mention on their website the group was created after the split of an earlier incarnation “Art laboratory”.

I think the best way to describe their activities is to quote their own words:

“Our goal is to continue activist art practice, support activist groups, organize seminars and discussions about political contemporary art, participate in the social and political movement, innovative social and cultural initiatives, develop strategies with political-social groups to find a way out of the current situation.

“Artlabyerevan” aims to combine political and art research, explore and discover the hidden mechanisms that contribute to the formation of authoritarian, exploitative and corrupt systems.

In art practices our group is oriented towards relational and participatory aesthetics denying the illusive function of art.

We are for the Event considering it a creative action of the multitudes. We are ready to collaborate with all the people and non-governmental organizations whose activities don’t contradict with the principles mentioned above”.

I talked about my recent and older paintings. I also introduced “Inland Project” – my collaboration with artist Flora Bradwell. I’m hoping to engage a few artists I’ve met there in future incarnations of it.

I would like to mention couple of artists from Armenia – painter Edgar Amroyan (one of the founders of Art Laboratory). He raises the topics of isolation and alienation, through rethinking of the Soviet and post-Soviet era often manifested through abandoned and forgotten objects. I especially love his series “Vikings” – small, oil paintings https://www.instagram.com/p/BfXu-6cA7PR/ This series was part of exhibition “Power Nap” in the Museum of Modern Art in Yerevan earlier this year, curated by Sona Stepanyan whom we also meet. Sona is also involved in Armenia Art Foundation ((AAF) an independent non-profit organization aiming to support the development of contemporary art in Armenia, established in 2016.

The mission of the Foundation is to support professionals working in Armenia in the field of contemporary art, and to unlock their creative potential both in the country and abroad.)

Another artist who’s studio we visited was Vahram Aghasyan. Visual artist, theorist and curator. A member of “Komuna” social-cultural platform. His website is definitely worth looking through: https://www.vahramaghasyan.net/en

That’s all for today. I will follow tomorrow with introductions to more people involved in Armenian art scene. I will also need to mention  few places we visited that made a mark on me.

The irresistible rituals of dust is inspired by my experience of visiting the Caucasus region. The practices and ceremonial aspects of religion are key influences on my work. While visiting Geghard Monastery in Armenia I’ve witnessed a hauntingly beautiful choir practice which I documented in part of the video. Fire, dust and ashes have religious connotations. My work has been heavily influenced and inspired by ecclesiastical iconography, rituals and traditions. Religious beliefs vary throughout the Caucasus and residents tend to be Sunni Muslims, Eastern Orthodox Christians or Armenian Christians. In producing this work, I took inspiration from the diverse range of historical faiths and spiritual influences.

You can watch the video here:

https://youtu.be/o39mYypCTyc