Skip to main content
Events

Cultural Context and Identity: Armenian Art in Global Dialogue

armeniaart.com_UseRMay 15, 20263 min read
Cultural Context and Identity: Armenian Art in Global Dialogue

Cultural Context and Identity: Armenian Art in Global Dialogue

📍 15–16 May 2026
Yerevan, Armenia, Tufenkain Hotell
Conference Chair: Iain Robertson (Cultural Studies, Hongik University, Seoul)

Please confirm your interest in attending the conference by registering
Places are limited, you will receive a follow-up email

Register (EN) Գրանցվել (AM)

Learn more about the programme and speakers below ↓

Why This Conference, Now?

Because the art is there.
The stories are there.
And the gap in global art history remains too wide.

ABOUT

A two-day international conference bringing together researchers, curators, artists, and institutions to position Armenian art within a broader global context. The conference integrates research, policy, and digital perspectives, contributing to AMCA’s long-term development of digital tools, knowledge exchange platforms, and future publication outputs.

Ինչու՞ այս կոնֆերանսը՝ հիմա

Քանի որ արվեստը կա։
Պատմությունները կան։
Իսկ համաշխարհային արվեստի պատմության մեջ բացը դեռ չափազանց մեծ է։

ԿՈՆՖԵՐԱՆՍԻ ՄԱՍԻՆ

Երկօրյա միջազգային կոնֆերանս, որը միավորում է հետազոտողներին, քյուրատորներին, արվեստագետներին և մշակութային հաստատություններին՝ հայկական արվեստը տեղավորելու ավելի լայն՝ գլոբալ համատեքստում։
Կոնֆերանսը համադրում է հետազոտական, մշակութային քաղաքականության և թվային մոտեցումներ՝ նպաստելով AMCA նախագծի երկարաժամկետ զարգացմանը՝ թվային գործիքների, գիտելիքի փոխանակման հարթակների և ապագա հրատարակությունների ձևավորման ուղղությամբ։

THEMES

SPEAKERS

DAY 1 — Friday, 15 May

10:00  Registration & Arrival Coffee

10:30  Opening Remarks — Zara Ouzounian-Halpin & Dr. Iain Robertson

Institutions, Support & Cultural Policy

10:30: Keynote framing

Chair / Keynote Framing
Dr. Iain Robertson
Professor of Art & Cultural Studies, Hongik University, Seoul
The Current State of the Market for Armenian Art

10:50 Lali Pertenava
Art Critic & Curator, Tbilisi
Borderless Practice: Art Networks of Armenia & Georgia

11:10 Nazareth Karoyan
Director, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Yerevan
The Modern Art Museum of Yerevan and the Embryogenesis
of Contemporary art in Armenia

11:30 Dr. Narek Tovmasyan
National Consultant, ArtNexus Program, Yerevan
Strengthening Cultural Ecosystems: The ArtNexus Model for Policy Reform
and Sustainable Support in Armenia

11:50 Stephen McCoubrey
Art Advisor and Curator, London
The Power of Private Initiative
The role of non-government projects in expanding the global art landscape.

 

Digital Knowledge & the Future of Art

13:00 Keynote Speaker
Alfredo Cramerotti
Director, Media Majlis Museum, Northwestern University Qatar
We Are Not Sure What This Work Is: Toward an Ethics of Curatorial Uncertainty

13:25 Tina Lorenz
The Head of ZKM | Hertzlab, Karlsruhe
Sovereign Systems: Empowering Artists and Preserving Media Art in a Full-Stack Institution

13:50 Hulé Kechichian
Head of Special Projects at TUMO and General Director of ACHI (Armenian Cultural Heritage Institute)
Digital documentation and contemporary cultural activation by the Armenian Cultural Heritage Institute

14:05 Marek Claassen (virtual)
Co-Founder, ArtFacts, Berlin
Panel discussion

14:20  Discussion

DAY 2 — Saturday, 16 May

10:00 Arrival

Artistic Dialogues & Influences

Format:
Research presentations followed by Q&A

10:30 Dr. Iain Robertson
Professor of Art & Cultural Studies, Hongik University, Seoul
The Art and Market of Leon Tutundjian

11:00 Dr. Pedro Lapa
Professor, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon
Kochar, António Pedro + Sirató: Between Dimensional Becoming and Expansion

11:30 Short break

11:45 Karina Kochar
Director of the Ervand Kochar Museum, Yerevan
Positioning Ervand Kochar Internationally: The Role of the Kochar Museum

12:05 Marina Medzmariashvili
Senior Researcher and Art Historian, Institute of the History of Georgian Art
Tiflis and Its Artists: Niko Pirosmani and Karapet Grigoryants

12:25  Q&A

12:45  Coffee Break

Contemporary Armenian Art Movements

13:15  Panel Discussion

Synopsis
This panel explores contemporary artistic practices in Armenia within a broader international dialogue, including comparative perspectives with Georgia.

Participants

Eva Khachatryan
Team Lead & Key Expert Culture | Մշակութային ծրագրերի պատասխանատու
Goethe-Institut Armenia | Goethe-Institut Հայաստան
EUD Support to Cultural and Youth activities | ԵՄ աջակցության մշակութային և երիտասարդական միջոցառումներ

Tereza Davtyan
Founder, DDD Kunst House, Yerevan

Lali Pertenava
Art Critic & Curator, Tbilisi

14:15  Dr. Iain Robertson — Closing Remarks

Produced by

Next Post

Recommended For You

Events Art in the Post-Soviet World: Armenia and the Caucasus

Art in the Post-Soviet World: Armenia and the Caucasus

armeniaart.com_UseR
armeniaart.com_UseRApril 18, 2026
Events Online Presentation

Online Presentation

armeniaart.com_UseR
armeniaart.com_UseRMay 20, 2025
Events Fieldwork in Armenia

Fieldwork in Armenia

armeniaart.com_UseR
armeniaart.com_UseRMay 14, 2025

Leave a Reply

Exploring and promoting Armenian art across time, geographies, and generations.

Learn more
Connect

About

Events & Resources

Contact Us

+374 91 81 01 45

+44 7807707025

hello@armeniaart.com

Armenian Modern & Contemporary Art (AMCA). All rights reserved © 2026.

AMCA is operated by the ARTmenia Foundation, a non-profit organization registered in the Republic of Armenia.

The presentation explores contemporary approaches to the digital documentation and accessibility of Armenian cultural heritage through the work of the Armenian Cultural Heritage Institute. It will address how heritage preservation, digital technologies, and 3D scanning initiatives can support contemporary artistic creation, research, and new forms of cultural engagement, including projects such as the Armenian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2025.

DDD Kunst House is an independent virtual and physical shared space that aims to provide a platform for local and international artists and curators to connect and communicate in a pure and free environment. The concept was founded in 2020 by curator Tereza Davtyan during the lockdown in Yerevan, as a response to the need for an online space where artists and curators could work together outside the limitations of traditional art institutions, foundations, museums, and galleries. :DDD Kunst House initiates from messenger chats to studio visits while sharing an open space for proper communication and collaboration. It selects the most relevant projects and may showcase them spontaneously, without focusing on a specific target audience, as it is sure that the audience will, one way or another, find their way to :DDD Kunst House. Founded in 2020 during the global COVID-19 pandemic, :DDD Kunst House is an independent, curator-led platform dedicated to fostering artistic exchange, care, and experimentation across borders. Initially operating entirely online, the initiative built a strong and diverse community through digital exhibitions, public talks, and collaborative projects. In 2022, the platform transitioned into a physical location within the former Scientific Research Institute of Spa Treatment and Physical Medicine in Yerevan, a unique and unconventional space that continues to serve as a site for exhibitions, residencies, performances, workshops, and informal public gatherings. At the core of its programming is the Sleepover Artist Residency, a distinctive, process-oriented residency model that offers artists time and space to rest, reflect, and create without the pressure of fixed outcomes. Since its launch (2024–2025), the residency has welcomed over 20 international artists from countries including Germany, France, Taiwan, Switzerland, Croatia, the United States, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Georgia, Argentina/Chile, Italy, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. This ongoing international engagement has significantly enriched the local cultural context and fostered meaningful, long-term connections between artists, curators, and researchers. :DDD Kunst House continues to operate as a flexible and responsive platform that supports contemporary artistic practices while maintaining a strong commitment to inclusivity, hospitality, and critical dialogue. website: www.dddkunsthouse.com IG: @ddd_kunsthouse

This presentation introduces the mission and current activities of the Ervand Kochar Museum, situating its work within the broader context of preserving and promoting modern Armenian art. It reflects on the legacy of Ervand Kochar, highlighting key aspects of his artistic contribution, while also outlining the museum’s recent achievements and its ongoing efforts to reposition Kochar within an international art historical framework.

This presentation examines the question of national identity among artists of the Tbilisi school of painting of both Georgian and Armenian origin. It focuses on professional artists Mose Toidze and Grigol Sharbabchyan, as well as self-taught painters Niko Pirosmani and Karapet Grigoryants.

A comparative analysis of their works reveals, on the one hand, shared themes and motifs, and on the other, differences in aesthetic and artistic perception. These differences, among artists living within the same geographical and social environment, demonstrate the resilience of long-standing national traditions in both cultures.

Abstract: Charles Sirató’s Dimensionist Manifesto (1936) created a network linking the international avant-garde, including Ervand Kotchar and António Pedro. Grounded in the theory of relativity and an interpretation of the fourth dimension, it extended this idea across literature, painting, sculpture, and their transgressions. These arts were expanded upon by adding a new dimension to the traditional ones. While Kotchar’s “painting in space” and Pedro’s dimensional poems viewed dimensional increase based on concepts of simultaneity and duration, Sirató emphasized a scientifically informed, material objectification as the basis for new perception. Together, these perspectives define a key transformation of the art object in the avant-garde in the 1930s.


Leon (Serge) Tutundjian: A Moment in Time: The Paris avant garde in transition amid a multiplicity of theories and practices.

Between 1925 and 1930, Paris functioned as a cauldron of ideas and experimental practices across film, poetry, sculpture, painting, and philosophy. At the centre of these developments were urgent questions of space and metaphysics-above all, the relationship between objects and the role of the viewer in the realisation of a work of art.

Within this field, Leon (Serge) Tutundjian emerges as a key figure. His work destabilises form, collapsing the boundary between object and perception and requiring the viewer’s active participation. In doing so, he anticipates the logic of Tachism-not as a style, but as a mode of thought in which the artwork is realised through perception.

Alongside Kochar and Kakabadze, Tutundjian exhibited with the Parisian avant- garde, contributing to a shift from form to experience. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 curtailed this moment of experimentation, forcing artists and markets into retreat. Tutundjian left Parris soon after, his trajectory abruptly interrupted.

This brief period-following the cultural intensity of Weimar Berlin-proved decisive in shaping modernism. Though now largely forgotten, Tutundjian was not peripheral, but integral to this redefinition of the artwork as a site of unstable meaning and viewer realisation.

This presentation explores how the unique institutional model of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe supports media art across its entire lifecycle: From ideation and production through exhibition to preservation and restoration. Central to this approach is empowering artists through the support infrastructure and expertise of its people, integrating cutting-edge tools into an ecosystem that bridges artistic production, maintenance, and long-term conservation of
media art works.

What happens when a museum cannot honestly say what a work is, who made it, or whether what you are seeing matches what was first shown? This talk argues that digital instability is not a technical problem awaiting a solution — it is the underlying condition of cultural work today. Moving through three interlocking registers — technical, cognitive, and authorial — it proposes framing as care as a curatorial practice adequate to the present: one that renders uncertainty legible rather than resolving it, and that holds institutions accountable for the systems they host, commission, and call art.

This presentation explores how and why the ArtNexus project integrates international expertise with local governance to foster a resilient and democratic cultural sector in Armenia. By examining our multi-stakeholder approach to policy development and institutional support, we highlight how collaborative program models can bridge the gap between global standards and local artistic needs while maintaining respect for cultural differences.

This theme looks at cross-border initiatives, artist collectives, and collaborative projects that connect Georgian and Armenian artists and cultural practitioners. In reaction to common histories of empire, conflict, migration, and underfunded cultural infrastructures, it emphasises the practical, ethical, and political aspects of cooperation. It explores how such partnerships negotiate national narratives and conflict legacies while addressing networked practices, such as co-productions, artist-run spaces, residencies, exhibitions and digital platforms.