‘WHAT IS TO TAKE PLACE’: A CONTEMPORARY ART AFFAIR BY FEMALE ARTISTS ‘TOOK PLACE’

Tert
Oct 20 2009
Armenia

"What is to take place" was a contemporary art affair organized by
the Women-Oriented Women’s Collective which took place on Sunday,
October 18 at Zarubyan 34 in Yerevan.

The event included members of the collective as well as invited artists
and featured video and performance works, as well as photo series,
a collection of drawings, book art, and stencil art. The event took
place in the outside garden where a number of tables and chairs had
been arranged in small groupings. One could imagine that instead
of a contemporary art event, they were meeting friends at a local
cafe. The sun was shining (the weather unusually warm for an early
October evening), and the atmosphere was relaxed.

The organizers had prepared large quantities of popcorn and coffee,
and with a little bit of salt (for the popcorn) and a little bit of
sugar (for the coffee), the event began. Attendees were invited to
visit various "stations" where a number of laptops had been set up
to display the artists’ works. There was a video by Lusine Talalyan
loosely based on a survey on homosexuality called "Don’t Be Silent,"
a video by Lusine Vayachyan reading her emotionally moving text,
a music video edited by Arpi Adamyan which featured music by Tsomak
(who had created a song based on Violet Grigoryan’s poem "Tslik,"
roughly translated to "Cunt" in English).

"What is to take place" also featured Arpi Adamyan’s graphic art (seen
above), outlines of friends and acquaintances in various everyday
gatherings; a photo series by Adrineh Der-Boghossian, simply titled
"Her, sleeping"; and stencil art work and stickers by Tsomak ("Smash
patriarchy") . Invited artists included Eka Ketsbaia, an artist from
Georgia who presented her book art: a sequence of about 300 small
format ink on paper drawings (seen below); and Arax Nerkararyan
distributed slips of paper with her text on it.

Lucine Talalyan also presented an album of her photo series
"Arzni Retreat." Prior to the event, Angela Harutyunyan curated the
collective’s work in cyberspace and placed it on the blog; one of the
laptops at the event had the page up so attendees could read Angela’s
curated work.

After attendees had an opportunity to view the work, the performance
began. Lara Aharonian, Lusine Chergeshtyan, Adrineh Der-Boghossian,
Lusine Talalyan and Arpi Adamyan read a piece of work that was
comprised of various conversations they have had on various themes
(the full text, in Armenian, can be viewed on the Queering Yerevan
blog). Interspersed with the text were lines from Lara Aharonian’s
poem Hoqnel em ("I am tired") and excerpts from Zarubyani Kanayk
("The Women of Zarubyan"), a piece by WOW collective member Shushan
Avagyan, who was not in attendance. (Upon Shushan’s request, her work
was read by Gago).

The authors of the various works were not identified and no
descriptions of the works were presented. This was intentional.

Furthermore, the group did not receive any financial support in
organizing the event; they did, however, receive support from the
Women’s Resource Center in Armenia by way of providing the space for
the event.

Queering Yerevan is a collaborative project of Armenian queer artists,
writers and curators to be realized within the framework of the WOW
(Women-Oriented Women) collective. For more information, visit their
blog at http://queeringyerevan.blogspot. com.