“AND THE BORDERS BECOME BRIDGES”
Curators: Alain Berland and Varduhi Kirakosyan
LIBRAIRIE GALERIE MÉTAMORPHOSES: Open every day from 10 am to 1 pm and
from 2:30 pm to 7 pm
"DYSTOPIA"
Photography
In Karén Khachaturov’s photographic works, everything seems improbable. The spaces, which appear imaginary, are colored in soft pastel tones like lavender, peach, mauve, turquoise, and yellow. The characters often lack faces, appearing as half-objects, half-humans in meticulously staged settings. Each image is the result of extensive preparation, with no digital manipulation involved. The blend of playfulness, strangeness, and underlying anxiety creates a unique, personal universe.
"SEVADA"
Sculpture, vidéo
Sevak Grigoryan, a graduate in sculpture from the Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts, further refined his techniques in Rome, where he explored alchemy as a parallel to his sculptural practice. Currently living in Paris and a member of the Union of Artists of Armenia, he presents Sevada, a terracotta sculpture representing his brother. A video of his brother’s face, created by David Baronian, is projected onto the sculpture, giving the impression that it is watching the viewer. Sevada recounts memories of a child born in Russia who moved to Armenia and witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union, unsettling the viewer by reversing the traditional observer-observed dynamic.
"UNTITLED"
Lithography
Tigran Sahakyan, a graduate of the Panos Terlemezyan Academy with a focus on painting, engraving, and ceramics, was an artist-in-residence at IDEM Paris’s art printing house in 2024. Supported by the Friends of IDEM and the French Institute of Armenia (IFA), he produced three works as part of the MENK project for Un Week-end à l’Est. These pieces were created using intaglio printing techniques such as etching, aquatint, and reserve. They depict crosses of varying shapes and sizes from an imaginary cemetery, symbolizing the soldiers who perished in Armenia’s wars of 1991 and 2020.
"UNTITLED"
Lithography
Arman Vahanyan, a graduate of the P. Terlemezyan Academy in Yerevan specializing in engraving, participated in a 2024 artist residency at IDEM Paris’s art printing house as part of the MENK project, supported by the Friends of IDEM and the French Institute of Armenia (IFA). For “Un Week-end à l’Est”, he created three etchings and aquatints. His visual concepts are born from a fusion of diverse influences and a deep internal filtering process. Vahanyan believes that no detail is secondary or insignificant, as nothing exists without leaving its mark.
« FRAGMENTS OF LIFE »
Painting
On canvas and paper, Teni Vardanyan portrays her inner world, populated by timeless and enigmatic figures of indeterminate gender. These truncated, elongated, and sometimes intertwined machine-like bodies are rendered in transparent washes of earthy browns and pinkish tones. Against monochromatic backgrounds, they engage in uncertain, introspective, and possibly transgressive actions, either alone or in groups. These figures evoke the ambiguity of desire while emphasizing the fragility of the human condition.