Curated by
Vigen Galstyan

The 2020 war with Azerbaijan and the loss of Artsakh in 2023 have resulted in a devastating trauma that the Armenian society has yet to fully acknowledge or address. As we rebuild our lives from the ashes of the past, it still seems too agonising to reflect on this experience.

Can art help us grasp the unimaginable scope of the tragedy and deal with its consequences it before it turns into yet another historical burden? The multimedia project Silence, by the Yerevan-based artist Lousineh Navasartian, is focused precisely on these issues. Produced between 2021 and 2024, the work features a monumental, four meter drawing alongside a video of its making. Oscillating between abstraction and documentation, the drawing's dark subject is a haunting reminder of war's eviscerating impact. Yet, upon closer inspection, colors and forms begin to emerge, gradually dissipating the dense darkness of the image.

Positioned at a point where language falls short, Navasartian's employs repetition, movement and duration to indicate that the void is never absolute, but always contains forces of life and possibility. This confrontation with the tragic aftermath inevitably alters our being, as demonstrated by the artist's own body in the accompanying video. Simultaneously, it becomes an act of living that breaks down the darkness into energies of hope and resilience.

Silence is the inaugural project of National Gallery of Armenia's Prospectations program, dedicated to showcasing significant new works by contemporary Armenian artists.

Exhibition organized with the support of Ashot Johannisyan Research Institute in Humanities, Yerevan Institute of Contemporary Art and Siranush Dvoyan.