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How do we preserve our monuments?
June 21 2014
The topic under "Face to face" series of talk show of Aravot online is
discussed between the publicist Karine Hakobyan and theater critic Ara
Khzmalyan. Aram Abrahamyan - Do you see a logical chain: Afrikyan's
house, Zvartnots, and Garni? Karine Hakobyan - Circular Park, around
Opera, elimination of our entire old Yerevan. One can continue this
series and mention the inconsolable state of our monuments and
churches today. In other words, how we treat our heritage, our
culture. Our priorities are broke, and the culture has been pushed to
the background. One of its manifestation was the incident happened in
Garni and Zvartnots. The culture has been moved to the backstage, and
is serving as a measure, and its symbolic picture is as follows, the
Garni temple is on the backstage, in front of it they feast, sitting
with the back to the temple, eating and drinking. This is the
reflection of our reality, our today's value system. A. A. - People
sitting around the tables with Garni temple on the back are eating and
drinking. Do you see a symbol here? Ara Khzmalyan - I am trying to see
more specific phenomena. I as a man of writing and written world think
that everything starts with a letter, a script. We have a problem of
regulating this sector legislatively. I must say that this is not
something new in the international practice, the cultural values have
long been down from inaccessible dimension and have enter entered into
people's everyday lives. This is an international process. Even the
richest country cannot be 100 percent involved in conservation and
restoration of its cultural monuments heritage, and with similar
events, they are trying to regulate, conserve stones, temples and
other values. The issue is whether the money is serving to the
purpose. I think that we need to pay attention to the draft law on
museums, on which we are working around a year, and after the adoption
of this law, I think many issues will be resolved. There is a separate
clause there about reserve-museums. A. A. - In other words, half-naked
people are walking, drinking, and eating at Zvartnots temple, and is
it done for preservation of the temple? K. H. - Of course, museums and
cultural monuments should be archived and eliminated. They must become
available, they must live. And there are ways for it. In reality,
money has become a god, and not only in Armenia, moreover, generally,
the whole Western civilization is guided by it, and this is the very
cause of the crisis. A. Kh. - It is true that the methods should be
decided, but the problem is that our society nowadays has become
scandalmonger. The factor of populism, demagogy, is actually very big,
because today we have much bigger problems around us, in the
hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes, and they never get a public
utterance. Anyone can talk about culture, the one who understands: the
one who does not understand, the one who is concerned, and the one who
is indifferent. Simply, this is becoming a platform, where each person
dissatisfied with his life and health has the opportunity to express
dissatisfaction and aggression. K. H. - Culture is not a museum that
should be put in a distance. Culture is our life, and we understand it
very well, and this revolt, the complaint happened because we realize
that we losing our attitude toward culture are also losing our
independence, our identity, in short, we, the Armenian people, are the
culture. A. KH. - Do you believe that all the protestors know where
Zvartnots is, and are more or less familiar with the history? K. H. -
It is a secondary question. One knows, one does not know, one knows by
hearsay. It is not the matter. Today, we are talking about imperfect
legislation and ideology, which we have adopted, and which has no
future. Prepared by ARAM ABRAHAMYAN "Face to Face" talk show series
are released by the Open Society Foundations- Armenia. The views and
analyzes found in this broadcast express the opinions of the
participants, and are not approved by the Open Society
Foundations-Armenia, or its Board. This broadcast is made available
thanks to comprehensive financial support by the Open Society
Foundations-Armenia, under the mass media support program, grant No
18624.
Read more at: http://en.aravot.am/2014/06/21/165749/
June 21 2014
The topic under "Face to face" series of talk show of Aravot online is
discussed between the publicist Karine Hakobyan and theater critic Ara
Khzmalyan. Aram Abrahamyan - Do you see a logical chain: Afrikyan's
house, Zvartnots, and Garni? Karine Hakobyan - Circular Park, around
Opera, elimination of our entire old Yerevan. One can continue this
series and mention the inconsolable state of our monuments and
churches today. In other words, how we treat our heritage, our
culture. Our priorities are broke, and the culture has been pushed to
the background. One of its manifestation was the incident happened in
Garni and Zvartnots. The culture has been moved to the backstage, and
is serving as a measure, and its symbolic picture is as follows, the
Garni temple is on the backstage, in front of it they feast, sitting
with the back to the temple, eating and drinking. This is the
reflection of our reality, our today's value system. A. A. - People
sitting around the tables with Garni temple on the back are eating and
drinking. Do you see a symbol here? Ara Khzmalyan - I am trying to see
more specific phenomena. I as a man of writing and written world think
that everything starts with a letter, a script. We have a problem of
regulating this sector legislatively. I must say that this is not
something new in the international practice, the cultural values have
long been down from inaccessible dimension and have enter entered into
people's everyday lives. This is an international process. Even the
richest country cannot be 100 percent involved in conservation and
restoration of its cultural monuments heritage, and with similar
events, they are trying to regulate, conserve stones, temples and
other values. The issue is whether the money is serving to the
purpose. I think that we need to pay attention to the draft law on
museums, on which we are working around a year, and after the adoption
of this law, I think many issues will be resolved. There is a separate
clause there about reserve-museums. A. A. - In other words, half-naked
people are walking, drinking, and eating at Zvartnots temple, and is
it done for preservation of the temple? K. H. - Of course, museums and
cultural monuments should be archived and eliminated. They must become
available, they must live. And there are ways for it. In reality,
money has become a god, and not only in Armenia, moreover, generally,
the whole Western civilization is guided by it, and this is the very
cause of the crisis. A. Kh. - It is true that the methods should be
decided, but the problem is that our society nowadays has become
scandalmonger. The factor of populism, demagogy, is actually very big,
because today we have much bigger problems around us, in the
hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes, and they never get a public
utterance. Anyone can talk about culture, the one who understands: the
one who does not understand, the one who is concerned, and the one who
is indifferent. Simply, this is becoming a platform, where each person
dissatisfied with his life and health has the opportunity to express
dissatisfaction and aggression. K. H. - Culture is not a museum that
should be put in a distance. Culture is our life, and we understand it
very well, and this revolt, the complaint happened because we realize
that we losing our attitude toward culture are also losing our
independence, our identity, in short, we, the Armenian people, are the
culture. A. KH. - Do you believe that all the protestors know where
Zvartnots is, and are more or less familiar with the history? K. H. -
It is a secondary question. One knows, one does not know, one knows by
hearsay. It is not the matter. Today, we are talking about imperfect
legislation and ideology, which we have adopted, and which has no
future. Prepared by ARAM ABRAHAMYAN "Face to Face" talk show series
are released by the Open Society Foundations- Armenia. The views and
analyzes found in this broadcast express the opinions of the
participants, and are not approved by the Open Society
Foundations-Armenia, or its Board. This broadcast is made available
thanks to comprehensive financial support by the Open Society
Foundations-Armenia, under the mass media support program, grant No
18624.
Read more at: http://en.aravot.am/2014/06/21/165749/