Statue of Komitas to be unveiled in Canada
By Hovhannes Yeranian
Yerkir/Arm
24 June 05
Yerkir informed in one of its previous issues that the Pan-Armenian
Educational and Cultural Union had announced a competition for
preparation of a bronze statue of Komitas to be set up in the public
park in Quebec.
The competition was truly international – 36 participants from Lebanon,
Italy, Georgia, Canada and Armenia participated in it. 12 works were
short listed and the selection committee members in Yerevan, Montreal
and Quebec made their final decision.
Sculptor Samvel Ghazarian’s work was announced the winner in the
competition. On this occasion, we interviewed sculptor Samvel Ghazarian
and director of Pan-Armenian Educational and Cultural Union Armenian
office Lilit Galstian.
Samvel Ghazarian is one of the most talented and unique sculptors
in Armenia Only one of his works, a tuff-stone statue of Adam and
Eve, is located in Yerevan while many of his works are in Bishkek,
Tashkent, Samarqand and Moscow.
These are all monumental works. His small works are exhibited in many
galleries including the Armenian National Arts Gallery and Tretyakov
Gallery in Russia. His works have won prizes at the international
biennale in Ravenna. Samvel Ghazarian does not speak much about his
own works and this is by no means false modesty. Lilit Galstian who
chaired the jury committee spoke about the winning sculpture.
“I should say that I am very happy that the opinions of selection
committee members in Yerevan, Quebec and Montreal coincided. There
were no disagreements regarding the winner. Samvel fully deserves this
success. His Komitas statue combines all the features of the Armenian
spiritual person, great artist and true patriot,” Galstian says.
Since Samvel Ghazarian was not much eager to speak about his
own work, our conversation mainly touched on the Armenian art and
culture in general. When asked what his preferred working materials
were, Ghazarian answered, “I have two favorite materials ‘stone and
bronze. Marble is of course the king of stones’. Ghazarian has taught
at the Institute of Fine Arts in Yerevan for 12 years. We asked him
to share his opinion on the recent changes in Yerevan.
“Criticizing has become a very easy and convenient approach. However,
making mistakes is equally easy. In Yerevan we do not have lack of
something; rather we have some things in excessive quantities. Our
city is not too big and so many architectural efforts are simply
tasteless in this context.” I don’t think we need new statues.
I could easily refuse any of my statues if I knew that it would be
set up at the expense of cutting down trees. If you ask me which is
the statue that is needed most in Yerevan, I will say it’s the Diary
of Nzhdeh. This is an architectural complex that is devoted not to
one person but to his ideology. The scripture of King Argishti was
thrown out. Maybe we need to have Nzhdeh’s words in our city.”