Davit - UN WEEK-END À L’EST

Davit Kochunts

Davit Kochunts is an artist living in Yerevan. From painting to graphic art, from carpet design to editorial illustration, and more recently, scenography, Kochunts has been building a pluralistic and engaged body of work for over a decade.
The Bold Khndzoresk carpet collection emerged from a fruitful dialogue between artist Davit Kochunts and curator Nairi Khatchadourian, founder of the artistic organization AHA collective, which published the nine unique pieces of the collection. The collection was woven from small sketches by Davit Kochunts and translated into cardboard at the scale of the carpets under the artistic direction of Nairi Khatchadourian. Open to collaborative practices and valuing the exceptional craftsmanship of artisans, Davit and Nairi collaborated with the Goris Handmade workshop in the border village of Verishen in the Syunik region of southern Armenia, where the carpets were woven by women over six months in 2023.
Two carpets from this collection are presented during Week-end à l’Est. The sketches for the carpets were created by Kochunts during the lockdown, and later after the 2020 Artsakh war, in which he participated as an artillery soldier. Inspired by the cave landscape of Khndzoresk, the artist’s family hometown, the sculpted caves in the cliff rocks became the central design of the carpets. Created in a context marked by a rupture in our relationships with the outside world and nature, the Bold Khndzoresk carpet collection questions our relationship to territory and the environment and invites us to weave once again tangible and profound connections with the nature that surrounds us.
Khndzoresk was an important center for Armenian carpet weaving until the early 20th century. The “Bold Khndzoresk” collection reflects a desire to revive traditional crafts while introducing a contemporary Armenian visual language that resonates with today’s issues.

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, (…)