Araks - UN WEEK-END À L’EST

Araks Sahakyan

Born in Hrazdan, Armenia, in 1990, Araks Sahakyan has lived in Spain and currently lives and works in Paris. A transdisciplinary artist and performer, she articulates her research around issues such as memory, uprooting, and migration; exploring both individual and collective history in its possible translations. Her aesthetic repertoire draws from the popular culture of the 1990s and the legacy of her own experiences shared between multiple countries.
Graduating with honors from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy in 2018, she recently completed a Year of Research in Research-Creation in Arts & Sciences at the École Normale Supérieure de Paris-Saclay. As part of her research and for a science fiction project, she collaborates with researchers from the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences CNRS-CEA-UVSQ.
She has exhibited in Italy, France, Spain, Poland, South Korea, the Netherlands, Armenia, the United States, and Belgium. Notably, she has showcased her work at Giudecca Art District in Venice, New Wight Gallery at UCLA in Los Angeles, and Fiminco Foundation. With the FoRTE grant from Île-de-France, she presented her first solo exhibition in 2021 at the Ygrec art center in Aubervilliers.
Araks has been awarded the residence grant from the TAMAT Museum of Tapestry of the Walloon-Brussels Federation, the Transverse grant, and the Creation Aid from the DRAC. She has been an artist-in-residence in Paris at the Drawing Factory CNAP x Drawing Lab and at the Abbey of Maubuisson. Recently, she co-curated with Irena Popiashvili the exhibition "Borderline Ornaments" at the Folk Arts Museum in Yerevan, Armenia.
Currently, she is exhibiting at Chosun Gallery in Seoul, at the Contemporary Textile Art Biennale Etoffes in Verviers, Belgium, and, as a finalist for the Carré sur Seine Prize, at the 30s Museum in Boulogne.
She will also participate in the Nuit Blanche of the City of Paris 2024 with her project “Archaeologies of a Frozen Memory” : an exhibition of drawings, video installation, and performances designed for the Saint-Louis Chapel of La Salpêtrière.

festival special guest

André Manoukian

André Manoukian, born from Armenian parents, learned the piano and the violin before studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1977. A classically trained pianist, he developed an interest in jazz and formed a big band. In 1983, he discovered singer Liane Foly, for whom he became an (…)

festival special guest

Rima Pipoyan

Rima Pipoyan is s one of the pioneers of modern ballet and contemporary dance in Armenia. She is a choreographer, director, and dancer. Her choreographic works have been presented in various cities of Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Belarus, (…)