
These are strange times we’re living in. As Israel expands its attacks deep inside the territories of its neighbours, destroying lives, infrastructure and entire cities, as Russia and Ukraine sink deeper into a seemingly endless war, while Georgia faces the likelihood of a civil conflict, and Azerbaijan taunts Armenia with its readiness to start yet another one, any sense of normalcy begins to feel like a delusion. But then, there is nothing like the proximity of war to make one appreciate the extraordinary privilege of getting out on a sunny October weekend and being presented with an infinite array of cultural events in a bustling town like Yerevan. If the past few years have taught us anything, it is not to take these vital pleasures for granted. Tomorrow we may easily be denied that opportunity.
EXHIBITIONS

Few figures are as synonymous with the joy of living as Sergei Parajanov. The venerated filmmaker and artist, whose centenary was one of the cultural high-points of 2024, continues to fascinate and intrigue long after his passing. The National Gallery’s new exhibition of Henrik Siravyan’s paintings dedicated to Parajanov will certainly entrench this fascination and, undoubtedly, contribute to the ever-growing mythologies surrounding the filmmaker. Closely acquainted with Parajanov since the 1960s, Siravyan had drawn him frequently over the years. But it was only after the director’s passing in 1990 that the artist began a large-scale series of thematic canvases, which cast this cinematic paragon as a quasi-mythological personage inhabiting a magical, timeless world of pure aesthetic pleasure and creativity. It’s a fitting, if somewhat expected tribute to a luminary who managed to transform even the most quotidian moments of life into a beguiling performance.
Exhibition: “Siravyan’s Parajanov”, Henrik Siravyan
Where: National Gallery of Armenia
Republic Square, Yerevan
Dates: October 9-November 9
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Parajanov is not the only Tbilisi-born Armenian artist getting a spotlight this month. Unfortunately, however, relatively few people are aware of the distinctive mixed-media paintings and assemblages of Vazgen Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, whose work has been largely overshadowed by the legacy of his father, Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan—one of the great masters of 20th century Armenian painting. Now, a new retrospective offers a rare opportunity to properly reappraise the daringly imaginative and darkly mysterious world of this idiosyncratic artist, who passed away at a tragically young age, at the height of his powers. Distinguished by his early engagement with European artistic movements like Concrete Art and Arte Povera, Bazhbeuk-Melikyan managed to devise his own visual realm made up of discarded objects, rubbish and almost sculptural application of paint that mediate on the evanescence of life and the presence of the divine in the most banal of materials. Infused with a heightened sense of spiritual transcendence these works have few parallels in modern Armenian art and deserve to be more widely known and studied.
Exhibition: “Paintings From The Future”, Vazgen Bazhbeuk-Melikyan
Where: Artist’s Union of Armenia
16 Abovyan St., Yerevan
Dates: October 11-20
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The desire to capture spiritual essence is a quality that also characterizes the paintings of emerging artist Margarit Babayan, who will showcase her latest portraits and figurative compositions at the Pyunik Development Center. Though there is an undeniably distinctive stylistic flourish in Babayan’s swirling and expressive brushwork, the “cosmic” dimension in her work appears like a surprisingly old-fashioned, sentimental rendition of German Expressionism that lacks the raw, nerve-shattering ferocity of masters like Oskar Kokoschka and Emil Nolde. Nevertheless, Babayan’s painterly gusto and evident ambition inspire hope that she will eventually overcome the conceptual vacuity typical of so many young Armenian painters nostalgically following in the throes of twentieth-century modernisms.
Exhibition: “Solo Exhibition”, Margarit Babayan
Where: Pyunik Development Center
3/1 Buzand St., Yerevan
Dates: October 13-19, 5 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Four more emerging female artists will be showing their work in a group exhibition held at HayArt Centre on October 11. All four—Araks Davtyan, Arusyak Minasyan, Elen Arakelyan and Manana Makaryan—specialize in various print-based media and were trained in the studio of Tigran Sahakyan, one of the few prominent experts in this field in Armenia. While it’s too early to make any assessments about these budding creatives, it is encouraging to see that the fresh blood is still eager to cut, burn, etch and ink their ideas in these age-old and very analogue techniques.
Exhibition: “Hexagon”, Group Exhibition
Where: HayArt Centre
7a Mashtots Ave., Yerevan
Dates: October 11-November 11
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On a more masculine side of things, there is Hero and Feminine, the latest show by the indefatigably prolific maestro of socio-sexual perversions, Samvel Saghatelyan. Presenting two of his most voluminous and important series from the 1990s (across two different locations) the exhibition covers Saghatelyan’s ongoing fascination with the follies of human desire and societal dysfunctions, which he renders with unabashed explicitness in the aptly-titled “Grotesque Reality” and “Metamorphoses”. Seen together, these extensive groups of paintings and drawings form an almost cinematic narrative of Armenia’s chaotic post-socialist, neo-capitalist realities seen through an often mordantly funny, brutally revealing, but always compassionate lens. Aiming to unmask the unspoken impulses within the everyday social structure, Saghatelyan exhumes the often disparaged qualities that make us so imperfect, yet so profoundly human. It’s an unapologetically sincere, self-reflective and provocatively non-PC vision that has lost none of its relevance or power to shock, almost 30 years after seeing the light of day.
Exhibition: “Hero and Feminine”, Samvel Saghatelyan
Where: Latitude Art Space
7/1 Ashtarak Highway, Yerevan
Dates: October 12, 7 p.m.
Where: A1 Art Space
1 Abovyan St., Yerevan
Dates: October 15, 7 p.m.
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One would be hard-pressed to find anything even remotely profane in Matendaran’s latest sacrosanct show, Spiritual Entity, Timeless Images. The concept here is quite novel. Drawing from the Matenadaran’s extensive archive of photographic negatives, curator Yvette Tajaryan has selected late 19th and early 20th century images of ecclesiastical objects, manuscripts and ethnographic garbs shot in Ejmiatsin, which have been paired with some of the actual artefacts located in the collections of the Holy See of Ejmiatsin and other museums in Yerevan. Presumably, the aim of this exercise is to showcase the sustained efforts of the Catholicate in preserving Armenian cultural patrimony. But as so often happens with Matenadaran’s exhibitions, the excessively reverential emphasis on the display of these “treasures” overshadows the need for a critically-informed analysis about the fascinating relationship between images, objects and the production of collective beliefs.
Exhibition: “Spiritual Entity, Timeless Images, Treasures of Matenadaran and the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin”
Where: Matenadaran
53 Mashtots Ave., Yerevan
Dates: Open from October 2
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The National Museum of Architecture is hosting another, largely photography-centric exhibition dedicated to the transformations of Yerevan over the past few centuries. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the capital’s master plan devised by architect Alexander Tamanyan, this show features a strange mash-up of Yerevan’s widely-circulated historic views and buildings, which have been thrown together with no ostensible structure or logic. Perhaps the organizers were trying to mirror the current state of Yerevan with its irrational patchwork of disfigured historic buildings and rampant new real estate development? Who knows… Lacking any actual curatorial or critical propositions, or much of any fresh material, this magnified Instagram feed of a show is yet another sad attempt at a populist appeal by a museum that has been struggling to retain its relevance over the past decade or so.
Exhibition: “Yerevan Yesterday and Today”
Where: National Museum of Architecture
Government House 3, Yerevan
Dates: October 11-December 11
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CONFERENCES

Fall is always a busy season for international conferences in Yerevan and this month there are a few notable events for students and researchers engaged in Armenian studies and museology.
Yerevan State University is holding a three-day conference on the Current Issues of Armenian Studies and Future Perspectives with a packed program featuring a vast array of local, diasporan and international scholars working in the disciplines of history, archaeology, ethnography, as well as social and cultural studies. There are some very urgent topics under discussion here, like Knarik Avagyan’s report on the “The Crisis in the Armenian Community of Syria and the Repatriation Process”, as well as some oddly esoteric ones like “Traditional Skills in Chechil Cheese-Making and Preservation Among Armenians”. All of which goes to show that Armenian studies continues to be an ever-growing and vibrant branch of the humanities.
Conference: “Current Problems and Prospects for the Development of Armenian Studies”, International Conference
Where: Yerevan State University (Faculty of History)
52 Abovyan St., Yerevan
Dates: October 9-11
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The History Museum of Armenia and ICOM Armenia have put together an all too topical symposium about Museum Professionalism and Ethics in Challenging Times. There are notable international speakers who will share their expertise on protecting cultural heritage in conflict zones and dealing with the challenges posed by global warming among other topics. Considering the vital political and economic significance of cultural heritage for Armenia and the many threats it faces here due to ongoing aggression of its neighbours, as well as lack of resources and developed infrastructure, the vital necessity of such specialized, knowledge-exchange initiatives cannot be overstated.
Conference: “Museum Professionalism and Ethics in Challenging Times”, International Conference
Where: History Museum of Armenia
Republic Square, Yerevan
Dates: October 23-26
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FESTIVALS

Festivals are those increasingly rare cultural events where the whole family can partake in, without making either the young or the old suffer. And few are as family friendly as the annual ReAnimania International Animation Film Festival, which will unfold its 16th edition from October 20-26. The only animation festival in the entire region, ReAnimania has consistently delivered the most notable examples of this medium to film audiences in Yerevan and this year is no exception. There are award-winning features from all over the world, including France, U.S., China and Australia, alongside a program of fantastically inventive short films—a richly diverse selection offering animated pleasures for all ages and tastes.
Festival: “ReAnimania International Animation Film Festival”
Where: Cinema House
18/2 Vardanants St., Yerevan
Dates: October 20-26