Armenia Now
Oct 29, 2004

Through the Brushes of Futurists: Children’s paintings reveal an ideal Armenia
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

When the think-tank Armenia 2020 released a book of “scenarios” with
political scientists, journalists, and others speculating on Armenia’s
future, its publication also included paintings, done by children who have
already seen the future, and put it on canvas.

>>From 130 paintings submitted by three different painting clubs, 24 pieces
were selected.

“Very many serious people and mighty organizations often turn to children,
expecting a fresh look, a frank or an imaginary answer the grown-ups usually
lose the ability to find,” said Artashes Ghazakhetyan, Armenia 2020 program
manager. “Besides, the creators of the paintings are themselves the carriers
of that future and it was necessary to know also their opinion and, why not,
to reckon with them, too.”

At first the children were offered several topics: “Myself in the Future”,
“My Future President”, “My Thoughts in the Future,” “My Feelings in the
Future”, “My Country in the Future” and “Armenia in 2020”. The topics were
discussed in all of the clubs but as Sona Banoyan, head of the Gobelin and
Painting Club of the National Aesthetic Center, points it out, the children
were not guided by grown-ups; they have expressed only their own thoughts
and ideas.

During a number of lessons these ideas found their expression in color and
image. Children’s boundless imagination with unique manifestations was
possible to perceive only through the prism of their interpretation.

“I thought long what I would like to see in future, and I found out that the
most indispensable thing is a tree curing of all diseases,” says 13 year old
Aramazd Khababyan.

Aramazd’s picture portrays a magnificent tree burdened with fancy fruits,
each of which, according to the painter, cures a specific disease.
“This flower with red fruits is the most important one – it cures cancer,
and these are like thermometers, so they are fight colds, high temperature.
The main sense of my idea is that the curing fruits of my tree will be
distributed absolutely for free and only to kind people,” interprets
Aramazd.

Along with the optimistic ideas of this boy’s dream tree, Anush Ayvazyan,
14, has raised another global issue that touches her greatly. By her
painting, she says she expresses her protest against human cloning.

“You shouldn’t think I watch the ‘Clone’ soap opera and have chosen this
topic under its influence. No, I’ve been concerned with this problem for a
long time and I don’t want people to be cloned in the future,” sys Anush.
Anushik has built several grounds for her painting. In the first one she has
painted a woman carrying a kid in her arms in the traditional position of
Blessed Virgin. Behind her there are numerous lilac silhouettes, and the
farthest of them are crooked and deformed.

“I portrayed the clones in lilac as it is a kind of mad color for myself.
For instance, if one happens to live in a room painted lilac, one may one
day go crazy. The same will happen to people if every day they see copied
faces that are not born in a normal, divine way but are produced as a result
of some experiments,” says Anushik.

She interprets that the last row of cloned peopled is crooked and
disfigured, which symbolizes the idea of cloning doomed to failure.
In the second ground, Anush portrays another four cloned people who, she
says, look into water and see their distorted reflection. In the final
ground of the picture the teenage girl has touched upon another important
problem by painting the ozone layer with numerous darns that hardly bear the
pressure of the earth pollution.

Nine year old Hayk Hovsepyan has found a very beautiful reply to his older
friend Anushik’s concerns and has portrayed his future Armenia outside the
planet Earth and its problems, on another planet. Hayk’s “New Planet”
pictures a beautiful city with tall buildings, blooming and blossoming
gardens and broad streets. And the planet Earth heaves on the sight.

“I imagine that in 2020 there will be so many of us we’ll grow so mighty
that we’ll create a new Armenia on another more beautiful and wealthy
planet,” the little artist explains. “See, the technology has developed so
much that the cars move without petrol and can fly in the air so that there
is no traffic jam. They fly to the planet Earth any time they like and come
back.”

Emma Ter-Avetisyan’s “President of the Future” is well appropriate for the
new Armenia created by Hayk.

“I painted documents, a computer in the head of my dream president, so that
I can show how smart he should be,” says 12-year old Emma. “I painted the
map of Armenia in one of the eyes, and the world map in the other. That is
to say, he should see Armenia as a part of the world and cooperate with all.
And, the most important, I placed not only people in his heart but also the
flora and fauna so that he takes care of nature, too.”

At age eight, Emma made up her mind to become an architect. But she says her
greater dream is that these children’s paintings become a reality, so that
the flying cars, the curing tree and many other wonderful ideas do not
simply remain on canvas.

To see all the works and read the scenarios, visit