Today the closing ceremony of the eighth international Biennale took place in Gyumri Academy of Arts. It was the first Biennale in the Soviet Union, it was established in 1998 and it has managed to gain worldwide fame. Azat Sargsyan, one of the cofounders of the Biennale and the director of the Gyumri Center for Modern Art, said during a conversation with us that although artists from different countries – Canada, Ireland – have come, this Biennale differs from the previous ones in the inner activity, in the participation of artists creating at different centers of Armenia.
Sev and Gigi from the US whose pieces have not been exhibited in Armenia for a long time have also participated in the exhibition of modern art pieces. Azat Sargsyan also informed that they had organized the Biennale having no budget, only 150 thousand AMD had been given by the regional administration of Shirak, whereas different countries spent a lot of money on bringing their countries’ modern art to the international level, moreover, the galleries established networks, centers for modern art, museums. “The Gyumri Biennale has been appreciated highly even by Turkish newspapers. I mention the Turkish press, because the European and American press speak of Gyumri Biennale everywhere, we have a catalogue now, in which the international centers for modern art, one of which is Gyumri’s center for modern art – there is nothing else from Armenia – are mentioned. But if we consider what huge institutions work, for example, in Istanbul, what investments are made
in modern art, to have a Biennale, which has existed for 14 years and corresponds to all state projects in both economic and political respects. When they talk about cultural decentralization, we started it in 1998, so at the time when there were no hotels – the only hotel was Dvin in railroad cars. When I say the Turkish press writes about its importance, we don’t want to apply anywhere, because this is a mature event, they will apply, we will decide whether we will take that money from them or not, we don’t need support, we need cooperation,” Azat Sargsyan said.
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Our interlocutor informed that now Baku also intended to establish a Biennale and huge sums were spent on this. “They know that the country, which wants to have a system of art, an open society, people realize that the existence of modern art is very important indeed, because one of the modern artist’s problems is to raise political, as well as economic and environmental, problems and to also make it a subject of art criticism, research.”
Talking about the Venice Biennale, which is the most famous around the world, our interlocutor said that the Israeli Prime Minister, Saakashvili, presidents of various countries usually came there; they spent huge sums of money on maintaining the platforms there for two years. In a nutshell, the governments of these countries attach huge importance to the participation of their countries in an exhibition of modern arts in their countries, whereas in our country, not only is half a dime not spent on this, but they also don’t provide facilities. Azat Sargsyan didn’t even recall any Armenian official who would voluntarily come and participate in the Gyumri Biennale at least driven by interest. “There can be no Biennale without a budget, if there is no budget, it will close,” the cofounder of the Biennale that has brought Gyumri to international level warns stressing at the same time that they have managed to invite international authorities, museum directors to Gyumri and to surprise artists, because it is impossible to speak to them even on the phone.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
