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Luxury shops and bank ads: Armenia has found capitalism. But cultural life in the capital still clings to old Soviet structures. The young and independent-minded art scene is looking for alternatives.
Graffiti by the Art Laboratory group in Yerevan
"Gold shimmers even in the dark," according to an Armenian proverb. And if it's true, the city of Yerevan will keep glowing for a long time. The concentration of bank advertisements is as high as in Frankfurt, London and New York combined, and more and more exclusive buildings are making themselves at home there. Many of the newly built structures remain empty, but that's not stopping developers.
But then, just where one least expects it, there's a bit of art in Yerevan - in a cultural center called Suburb, a private initiative by artists and curators. Eva Khachatryan is among them; she has organized a three-day meeting there with colleagues from Armenia, Georgia and Germany. The workshop is part of a program developed by Germany's Goethe-Institut and supported by cultural managers from throughout eastern Europe and central Asia.
A monster of a museum: the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan
Hungry for information
The goal is to create networks in an industry that is by definition border-crossing.
"It's important to have an international scene here," stressed Khachatryan. "We have a young generation of artists that are hungry for any information about contemporary art."
But access to the thriving art world is lacking in Armenia, given that the education system is still rooted in old Soviet structures. Those who want to learn about contemporary artists and their work have to rely on private initiatives organized by artists, critics and curators, often with little financial backing.
The state of art education offers material for the workshop in Suburb. Most of the creative initiatives that came about during the optimism of the post-Soviet period now face major financial problems, or have since disappeared completely. Turning to the state for help leads nowhere, but perhaps that's not such a bad thing.
Armenian curator Susanna Gyulamiryan sees good reasons to keep some distance from the government. "Even though there is now opposition and artistic streams that run completely counter to traditional institutions, we still bear much of the Soviet past with us," she said.
The official understanding of art, she added, is still very bound up with state interests, and dissenting positions don't have much of a place.
Eva Khachatryan stands in fron of Berlin's NGBK office, a source of inspiration for her
"I find that nationalistic!" she protested.
A different vision
Practically the entire art scene sees itself in the role of political opposition. As such, alternatives to institutions sponsored by the Armenian government are welcome, and creative networks with other countries offer just what many artists are looking for.
The group in Suburb aims to address those interests by establishing a cooperation with Germany. The Goethe-Institut program in which Eva Khachatryan participates includes a residency in Berlin.
Many of Armenia's artists share a sensibility with Berlin, from the city's street art to its internationally acclaimed galleries. In one courtyard at Suburb, an artist duo exhibits a bourgeois kitchen and musty old bedroom. The installation plays with traditional ideas about gender and sexuality.
Bombastic battle scenes
But that's not to say that all Armenian art is ready to tackle tradition. One example comes by way of the Cafesjian Center, a museum complex that was established a few years ago in a bombastic Sovieta-era building. It's over 100 meters (328 feet) high, topped with a national monument.
Soviet-style monuments still dot the skyline in Yerevan
An American-Armenian media mogul is presenting his collection there, including decorative works in glass and wall-sized battle paintings - more or less the opposite of everything that interests the young generation of artists.
But Eva Khachatryan chose this site consciously for part of her workshop with high-ranking guests from the Goethe-Institutm. A representative from the Armenian Ministry of Culture was in attendance, signifying the new level of attention Khachatryan's initiative has garnered.
A free-spirited discussion developed at the museum, and artists who want nothing to do with state-controlled art spoke their minds.
Possible worlds
Sometimes there are moments where the group's meetings take on utopian dimensions, and that's no coincidence. Khachatryan has connected with a global art initiative known as Other Possible Worlds, which she found out about at the Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (New Society for Visual Arts) in Berlin.
The project consists of self-organized academies, creative laboratories and other art locations - spaces that stand in opposition to every day life as it is defined by economics. The nodes of Other Possible Worlds can be found in global hot spots from Israel to Nigeria, China to Mexico - and now also in Armenia.
Creating knowledge and developing new perspectives is part of the project, said Berit Fischer, one of the curators in the global network.
"It really enriches me personally to see how these Other Possible Worlds take place in their very early phases," she said.
One photo in a series by Vahram Aghasyan titled "Ghost City" shows buildings left empty
No thoughts of leaving
The group has a number of concrete plans and ideas, including creating an archive for contemporary art and an accompanying library in Yerevan - a means of combating the dramatic lack of information in the city. Eva Khachatryan has had the idea in mind for years, but now it can finally be realized with help from Berlin.
"We could organize it together with the [New Society for Visual Arts]. There's also a bookstore next door - perhaps they could help us as well," she said.
Khachatryan also hopes to take a further step. Despite her concerns, she has decided to seek support for the initiative from the Ministry of Culture, as promised by the representative who attended her workshop.
"I don't know if we can build up the civil society in our country with such a seminar," she reflected after the three-day event. "But we've been working for at least 10 years - and we're fighting exactly for that! We're not going to leave our country because we want to improve it. This project is a major source of help for us because we believe that we can do something meaningful through it."
Author: Aya Bach / gsw
Editor: Kate Bowen
