Arts & Culture

An Armenian exile’s daughter who became one of the Soviet Union’s most celebrated performers, Tamara Khanum used dance to challenge patriarchy, embody cultural resistance, and redefine womanhood in Central Asia, even as her art was folded into the Soviet project.

A landmark of Soviet-era scholarship, the Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia remains the most comprehensive reference work in Armenian. Shaped by ideology yet vast in scope, it reflects both the intellectual ambition and the political constraints of its time.

In this compelling exploration of how early Western Armenian writers foresaw the cultural erosion of diaspora life, Andronik Papyan draws a stark parallel to today’s Armenian community in Russia, arguing that without language, institutions and literary production, identity risks fading into symbolism.

Berlin marked the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide last year with an unprecedented cultural program. Yet the commemorations also exposed a deeper paradox: Germany, once complicit in the genocide, now hosts the memory work, as artists and curators confront history, responsibility and contemporary politics.

Tracing how power reshapes cities, Heghine Pilosyan’s essay moves from Paris to Yerevan to show how architecture, land and urban form have served as instruments of authority, across monarchy, socialism and post-Soviet capitalism, revealing striking continuities beneath shifting ideologies.

Filmmaker Eric Nazarian challenges the cultural gatekeeping that dictates who is “allowed” to tell certain stories. Drawing on a life shaped by multiethnic Los Angeles, he makes a powerful case for cross-cultural storytelling as resistance, empathy and a reminder that art transcends borders.

Through forgotten photographs and Barthes’ language of studium and punctum, Talinn Grigor uncovers the overlooked histories of Armenian women architects in modern Iran, tracing their encounters with Mies van der Rohe and revealing silent, resilient cosmopolitanism in a male-dominated world.

The archives of Studio Rex, a photo studio founded by Armenian Genocide survivor Assadour Keussayan in Marseille, document decades of European migration. These once-practical photographs have become powerful historical artifacts chronicling diverse immigrant experiences from the 20th century.

After a seven-year restoration, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, considered the world’s oldest cathedral, was reconsecrated in 2024, a historic effort that preserved sacred murals, reinforced the ancient structure and culminated in a chrism blessing.

Yerevan’s statues reveal shifting political ideologies and national identity, from Soviet heroes to national figures, international allies and “symbolic” women. Hovhannes Nazaretyan explores how public monuments reflect power, memory and Armenia’s evolving historical and geopolitical narratives.