Exhibitions
1988-2022: HISTORY IN MOTION
Starting from the 1988 Spitak Earthquake, the independence movement, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, all the way to the 2020 Artsakh War, reporters, photojournalists and videographers in Armenia have captured the story of a nation.
Editor, Areg Kozmoyan
Areg is a professional videographer with a masters degree in cinematography and over eight years of experience in filmmaking. Along with filmmaking and various video projects, Areg has been collecting and recreating the sounds of 20th century Yerevan from archival footage.
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EVN REPORT: COVER-TO-COVER
Launched in September 2020, EVN Report Magazine has featured topics ranging from agriculture to security to political culture. The cover of each month’s issue is designed by Harut Tumaghyan, an architect and illustrator who has mastered the stunning imagery of visual language.
Illustrator, Harut Tumaghyan
Harut is an architect and illustrator who has worked for many years on developing concepts for children’s books. Since 2002, he has designed and developed children’s interactive games and has collaborated with a number of international companies in creating children’s game content. As an illustrator, Tumaghyan has collaborated with Armenian, Czech, German, Ukrainian and Russian publications. He has also developed the concept and visual language for programs for many Armenian and international organizations.
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POST-WAR, POST-TRUTH
After the end of the 2020 Artsakh War, the public was forced to confront a rather painful reality: the surrender of seven regions that had been under the control of Armenian forces for nearly three decades, the loss of Hadrut and Shushi, which were part of the Soviet-era Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, the deployment of Russian peacekeepers, and the thousands of dead, wounded, missing, captured, displaced and traumatized.
The aim of the “Post-War, Post-Truth” project is to document and reveal the reality and issues of post-war Armenia, focusing on issues of human rights as a result of the war.
These complex and multi-layered topics presented in this exhibition, with their many socio-economic problems, including psychological trauma, were studied long and patiently. They have been documented with thoughtful, ethical approaches, which, unfortunately, are not always applied in the Armenian media.
The interpretation of the six photo stories created during the project can help to understand the causes of war: violence, hatred, lack of mutual understanding and in that process redefining peace and humanity.
4 Plus
4Plus is an independent documentary photography center founded in 2012. The focus of our activity is the promotion of documentary photography and the development of the professional sphere in Armenia.
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INSTALLATION: THE HUMAN COST OF INFORMATION
Playwright and poet Dan O’Brien, writing about his war reporter friend, recently wrote: “To bear witness is to share the burden of suffering.”
When we are glued to our screens during natural disasters, conflicts or wars, thirsty for video images, photos and reports, we often forget that there are actual humans—journalists—who are risking their lives to bring us the stories and images that matter, that we need. During the 2020 Artsakh War, and now in Ukraine, journalists are being injured, targeted and killed. That is the human cost of information.
This installation of press vests and helmets is a stark reminder of a journalist’s “burden of suffering.”
EVN Report
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DA(I)MAGES
“Da(i)mages”, damaged pixels of images of destruction is a project by photojournalist Karen Mirzoyan, part of his coverage of the 2020 Artsakh War. The 3D scans of Stepanakert following shelling by Azerbaijani forces, is a commentary on the distraction of war that appropriates the image to the reality on the ground, telling the story in less than the highest resolution, however, with an added aim of multi-dimensional storytelling.
Karen Mirzoyan
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LRATUN
The Lratun media museum project of the Media Initiatives Center was launched in 2011. It touches upon the history of coverage of significant events during the Independence Period.
The first exhibition of the Lratun project entitled “Earthquake That Shook the Soviet Media” opened in September 2013. The exhibition toured four regions of Armenia for two months: Shirak (Gyumri), Lori (Vanadzor), Gegharkunik (Martuni), Syunik (Kapan), and finally in Yerevan.
Lratun does not have a permanent home and is presented periodically through traveling exhibitions.
Media Initiatives Center
Media Initiatives Center supports freedom of expression, as well as establishment and development of independent media. They are involved in the improvement of media legislation and the protection of journalists’ rights. MIC has long-term experience in media trainings, media literacy and media content production.
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Film Screenings
May 28, 8 p.m.
Five More Days
Directed by Arman Manaryan
Hayfilm Studio, 1978
85 minutes
*Armenian only
Hovik, a carefree young journalist in search of a hot story discovers a notebook that relays unknown details about his grandfather, who was executed in 1920. Undermining the myth of the heroic patriarch, the discovery leads the reporter on a difficult path of self-inquiry and a reassessment of the journalist’s ambivalent moral position between the obligation to report the truth and the desire to uphold fragile human bonds. Based on noted novelist Vahagn Grigoryan’s script, Arman Manaryan’s 1978 film ‘Five More Days’, was a metaphorically veiled critique of the Soviet news media and an attempt to pinpoint the pernicious falsification of historical memory, upon which the Communist Party constructed its model of Soviet identity.
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May 29, 8 p.m.
[Making] the Impossible, Possible
Directed by Tigran Paskevichyan
Versus Studio production
*Armenian with English subtitles
Modern day information technologies do not have a prototype. Writing, printing, radio or television individually or collectively were not and are not able to have the effect that the internet has today. And as strange as it may seem, the search for the prototype of the internet led to one place, a place with no computers, Ipads, cellphones, digital photography or videography. There are no technical advantages but there is the aspiration to expand the reach of the word. The film, “[Making] the Impossible, Possible”, a Versus Studios production is a film about samizdats, the clandestine copying and distribution of literature banned by the state and a unique phenomenon of the Soviet era, which became a symbol of the struggle for freedom.