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Photo credit: Norayr Kasper, "I Will Talk to You About Time." Fotoistanbul 2015.Join our community and receive regular updates!
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Guléne Torossian-Der Boghossian: A figurative sculptor with a big heart and an insightful grasp of the human condition, dies
It is with a heavy heart that we at h-pem mourn the untimely passing of Guléne Torossian-Der Boghossian on July 6th. In her quest for the humane, the influential Lebanese-Armenian sculptor reinvented the human figure for over three decades. Her irreplaceable depth of experience, spirited creativity, incredibly generous mentorship, and unwavering kindness towards everyone will sadly be missed by the many people whose lives she touched and enriched.
Post-genocide creative vision: A seminar for Armenian youth on culture and identity
How has the trauma of the Armenian Genocide become part of the collective unconscious of Armenian culture and identity in the diaspora?
What contribution have artists and cultural institutions made to the shaping of who we are as individuals and as communities?
Can art heal our enduring traumas?
Searching for answers? Read on…
Algorithms for loss: By Alan Semerdjian
Something extraordinary happened on the day award-winning writer, musician, and educator Alan Semerdjian released a collaboration of poems and sound with guitarist/composer Aram Bajakian—Kim Kardashian tweeted about his project The Serpent and the Crane!
While a lot has happened in the world since then, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 44-day Artsakh war, Semerdjian went on to write an essay, a meditation about that actual day, April 24th 2020. He generously contributed his compelling story to h-pem because he believes it “should live in the world.”
Experimental in form and delivery, the essay is an attempt to tackle broader issues, such as the nature of virality, how to process and share difficult and hard to digest art, the question of Armenian identity, genocide denial—all still relevant and resonant.
Check out Semerdjian’s wonderfully intuitive, extremely timely and profound story as it unravels in real time below…
Where “bad Europe” met “bad Asia:” Alexander Tamanian brought the Mountain home
As high-rise buildings continue to pop up across different parts of Yerevan—often than not replacing structures deemed to be of historical and architectural significance, we cannot help but wonder to what extent Tamanian’s master plan of the city, which was only partly implemented, is different from today’s metropolis.
