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LOOKING AT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE THROUGH THE LENS OF ART
18:17, 24 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
"In honor of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, the Musee
de la Photographie di Charleroi in Belgium has organized, in
collaboration with the Boghossian Foundation and the Universita
Saint Joseph in Beirut, an exhibition entitled "Les armeniens -
Images d'un destin 1906 - 1939 (The Armenians - Images of Destiny,
1906-1939)," which focuses on photographs recovered from the photo
archives of the Oriental Library at the Universita Saint Joseph,"
Maurizio G. De Bonis, a photo critic and cinematographer, writes in
an article published by The Huffington Post.
The photographs were taken by Jesuit missionaries, including Antoine
Poidebard and Guillaume de Jerphanion, and, over a broad period of
time, highlight the dramatic repercussions persecution had on the
Armenian population, even prior to 1915. The exhibit also showcases
works that portray the places, villages and towns where the Armenians
lived.
Whether these were villages lost among the mountains, or neighborhoods
in Turkish cities (for example Adana), the viewer feels as though he
is witnessing a community with its own local history and traditions,
and which was brutally uprooted and eradicated.
The simple, serious dignity of several very young students from the
city of Tokat, photographed by Antoine Poidebard, is set against the
enormous mass of orphans captured in Tarso following the massacre that
took place in 1909 in Adana. Later in the exhibition, a shoeshine
man is captured as he's working, counterbalanced by a young, proud
Circassian woman looking into the camera, seemingly communicating
with the viewer directly.
"Today, thanks to works like these, it is possible to truly understand
the importance of human memory," the author writes. According to him,
"the Armenian Genocide cannot be left to sink away into silence."
"The visual arts must strive to play a key role in the transmission
of memory, especially to younger generations, as they have in
disseminating a global understanding of the Holocaust. In this sense,
photography and cinema can help jumpstart that extremely important
process that we can define as actualization of the past; a process
that transforms the memory of a tragedy from a purely historical,
museum-worthy subject of in-depth analysis for specialized scholars
-- distant from the rest of us, and destined to be forgotten -- into
a dramatic, agonizing phenomenon experienced in the present day. It
must become an element of our shared memory. And as such, it cannot,
must not be erased and forgotten," Maurizio G. De Bonis writes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maurizio-g-de-bonis/armenian-genocide-art_b_6857788.html
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/24/looking-at-the-armenian-genocide-through-the-lens-of-art/
From: Baghdasarian
18:17, 24 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
"In honor of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, the Musee
de la Photographie di Charleroi in Belgium has organized, in
collaboration with the Boghossian Foundation and the Universita
Saint Joseph in Beirut, an exhibition entitled "Les armeniens -
Images d'un destin 1906 - 1939 (The Armenians - Images of Destiny,
1906-1939)," which focuses on photographs recovered from the photo
archives of the Oriental Library at the Universita Saint Joseph,"
Maurizio G. De Bonis, a photo critic and cinematographer, writes in
an article published by The Huffington Post.
The photographs were taken by Jesuit missionaries, including Antoine
Poidebard and Guillaume de Jerphanion, and, over a broad period of
time, highlight the dramatic repercussions persecution had on the
Armenian population, even prior to 1915. The exhibit also showcases
works that portray the places, villages and towns where the Armenians
lived.
Whether these were villages lost among the mountains, or neighborhoods
in Turkish cities (for example Adana), the viewer feels as though he
is witnessing a community with its own local history and traditions,
and which was brutally uprooted and eradicated.
The simple, serious dignity of several very young students from the
city of Tokat, photographed by Antoine Poidebard, is set against the
enormous mass of orphans captured in Tarso following the massacre that
took place in 1909 in Adana. Later in the exhibition, a shoeshine
man is captured as he's working, counterbalanced by a young, proud
Circassian woman looking into the camera, seemingly communicating
with the viewer directly.
"Today, thanks to works like these, it is possible to truly understand
the importance of human memory," the author writes. According to him,
"the Armenian Genocide cannot be left to sink away into silence."
"The visual arts must strive to play a key role in the transmission
of memory, especially to younger generations, as they have in
disseminating a global understanding of the Holocaust. In this sense,
photography and cinema can help jumpstart that extremely important
process that we can define as actualization of the past; a process
that transforms the memory of a tragedy from a purely historical,
museum-worthy subject of in-depth analysis for specialized scholars
-- distant from the rest of us, and destined to be forgotten -- into
a dramatic, agonizing phenomenon experienced in the present day. It
must become an element of our shared memory. And as such, it cannot,
must not be erased and forgotten," Maurizio G. De Bonis writes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maurizio-g-de-bonis/armenian-genocide-art_b_6857788.html
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/03/24/looking-at-the-armenian-genocide-through-the-lens-of-art/
From: Baghdasarian