F.Turk
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Re: Cultural Horizons of Armenians
SERJ TANKIAN: 'ELECT THE DEAD' VIDEOS TO BE SHOWN ON BIG SCREEN
Blabbermouth.net, NY
Oct 8 2007
Serj Tankian - the visionary frontman for multi-platinum rock band
SYSTEM OF A DOWN - has asked a collection of video and film directors,
painters, and digital artists to each create a video for one of the
12 tracks on his forthcoming solo debut album, "Elect the Dead",
which will be released on Serjical Strike/Reprise Records on October
23, 2007.
"For me, the great pleasure of 'Elect the Dead' has been not only
to make the record with the pure vision of what I feel artistically
through my music and poetry, but also to multiply the art factor by
bringing in other great artists, in this case directors, and putting
forth their interpretations of my music and words," Tankian says.
"This serves two functions: to create more art from the original
source, the album, and to offer more than just a CD to people
interacting with the music, thus giving us more points of connection
with each other."
The directors involved in the project include a prestigious array
of artists whom Tankian has befriended over the last decade. They
include music video director Tony Petrossian (TAKING BACK SUNDAY,
SLIPKNOT, AVENGED SEVENFOLD), who shot the video for "Empty Walls",
the first single from "Elect The Dead", photographer/video director
Greg Watermann (MUDVAYNE, LAMB OF GOD, HOWIE DAY), Oscar-nominated
Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter Jose Rivera ("The Motorcycle
Diaries"), French film director Diran Noubar ("Armenia: A Country Under
Blockade"), digital artist Roger Kupelian ("The Lord of the Rings";
"Flags of Our Fathers"), documentary director Sevag Vrej (SYSTEM OF
A DOWN, FAIR TO MIDLAND), and Beirut-born filmmaker Garine Torossian
(SPARKLEHORSE), among others.
"I asked each of the directors for their visual interpretation of
my work," Tankian explains. "They were asked not to write treatments
and that they could make whatever they liked. The results have been
overwhelmingly amazing!"
A complete list of videos and directors is below:
01. "Empty Walls" - Director: Tony Petrossian 02. "The Unthinking
Majority" - Director: Tawd Dorrnfeld 03. "Money" - Director:
Ara Soudjian 04. "Feed Us" - Director: Sevag Verj 05. "Saving
Us" - Director: Kevin Estrada 06. "Sky is Over" - Director: Jose
Rivera 07. "Baby" - Director: Diran Noubar 08. "Honking Antelope"
- Director: Roger Kupelian 09. "Lie, Lie, Lie" - Director: Martha
Colburn 10. "Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammo" - Director: Greg
Watermann 11. "Beethoven's C***" - Director: Adam Egypt Mortimer
12. "Elect The Dead" - Director: Garine Torossian
All 12 videos will be shown at the following locations on Monday,
October 22 beginning at 8:00 p.m.:
Elect The Dead: The Short Films - Theater Listening Parties (visual
Interpretations of the debut solo album from Serj Tankian)
Herricks Cinema 3324 Hillside Avenue New Hyde Park, NY
Parsippany Cinema 3165 RT 46 Parsippany, NJ
Embarcadero Center Cinema 1 Embarcadero Center Promenade Level San
Francisco, CA
Ultrastar Theatres Mission Valley 7510 Hazard Center Drive San
Diego, CA
Kendall Square Cinema One Kendall Sq Bldg. 1900 Cambridge, MA
Century Centre Cinema 2828 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL
Emagine Novi 44425 W. 12 Mile Road Novi, MI
Clearviews Anthony Wayne Cinema 109 W. Lancaster Avenue Wayne, PA
Metro Cinemas 911 N.E. 50th Street Seattle, WA
The River Oaks 2009 West Gray Houston, TX
Lagoon Cinema 1320 Lagoon Avenue Minneapolis, MN
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Re: Cultural Horizons of Armenians
AZNAVOUR'S LONG GOODBYE -- 83 AND STILL SINGING
Agence France Presse
Oct 8 2007
PARIS (AFP) - As he would, Charles Aznavour, uncontested star of French
song, hummed and tapped a few bars before sitting down to talk about
his latest tour, a seemingly gruelling affair for an 83-year-old --
20 Paris concerts followed by 28 in France, Belgium and Switzerland.
After announcing his retirement in 1999, then again in 2000, and
crooning through a farewell foreign tour in 2006, the French press
reckoned the concerts kicking off next week were the singer's last
good-bye.
"I never said farewell, never!", said an indignant Aznavour, still
sprightly though a little hard-of-hearing. "But it's true the tours
are getting shorter. Only 20 concerts in Paris this time against nine
full weeks in the past. Next time it'll only be three or four days."
"It's like cutting back on cigarettes to stop smoking," said the
musician who's composed close to a mammoth 1,000 songs, sold more
than a million records, and played in some 60 films.
"There'll come a day when I forget the words and stumble on stage --
then I'll stop."
Nicknamed "Aznovoice" at the beginning of his career by English
critics because of his raspy delivery, the slight and easy-going
showman is the last of a generation of French "chanson" masters --
where the lyrics are king, the tune a prop.
"It's the words that count," he said. "It's a French genre. Our
chansons say more than anyone else's."
Born in Paris in 1924 to Armenian immigrant entertainer parents who
hoped to get to America but were never granted a visa, Aznavour --
original name Aznavourian -- grew up in the poorer neighbourhoods of
the city, pulling himself up by the bootstraps to a career on stage.
With his quirky eyebrows and tiny stature -- 1.64 metres (5 foot 3
inches in bare feet) -- Aznavour never quite made it as a leading
man on screen.
Cash-starved in his early 20s during the war years, Aznavour instead
tried cabaret, where he met and teamed up with young songwriter and
composer Pierre Roche, then with Edith Piaf, who would take him to
America and to a solo career.
"I got lucky," said the singer.
In 1954 he rose to prominence with his live renditions of "Sur Ma Vie",
followed by one of his biggest hits "Je m'voyais deja" in 1960 --
the same year he starred on screen in Francois Truffault's "Shoot
The Pianist", which catapulted him to fame abroad.
A couple of years later he took New York's Carnegie Hall by storm
before touring the world and seeing his songs sung by stars from
Ray Charles ("La Mamma") to Liza Minnelli and Fred Astaire. In 1972
he was top of the charts in Britain with the single "She", recently
rerecorded by Elvis Costello for the Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant comedy
"Notting Hill."
"I'm the last of the few singers who didn't just use their voice," he
said. "There were never very many of us, Sammy Davis, Liza Minnelli,
Shirley Maclaine, Yves Montand and me ... we also performed."
Voted one of the century's top singers with Elvis Presley and Bob
Dylan in a 1999 CNN/Time Internet poll, Aznavour dishes up his lyrics
with a typically French chanson syrupy mash of pop, jazz, blues and
latino sound (his just-released "Colore Ma Vie" was recorded in Cuba
with pianist "Chucho" Valdes).
The hundreds of tunes brought fame and wealth as well as a conflict
with the government tax-man that has left him living in tax-easy
Switzerland half the year.
But the hits often were hard-hitting with a social thrust -- songs
about his native Armenia, his 1970s ballad on homosexuality "Comme Ils
Disent" and currently, in his latest album, songs on the environment
and the plight of migrants in France's sleazy urban ghettos.
"I am attuned to what is going on around me," he said. "I grew up
among the Polish, Armenian and Greek tailors who worked off tables
on the outskirts of Paris. I never knew misery but I did know poverty."
Sitting in his Paris office -- the musical publisher Raoul Breton
which he bought in 1995 -- Aznavour is interrupted by a small girl
in black boots who suddenly opens the door, his granddaughter Leila,
who's lost a toy.
A devoted family man and husband married three times but 44 years to
his current wife, Aznavour decribes himself as "the Benetton of song."
One daughter is married to a North African, a son to a half-Canadian,
half-Haitian, himself to a Swedish Protestant though he remains
faithful to the Armenian Gregorian church.
"In half a century the whole world is going to be coloured, people
will be intermixed," he added. "We must all learn to be earthlings
together."
And did he mind being described as a monument of French culture?
"It's nice to be considered a monument ... as long as the pigeons
stay away," he laughed.
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Re: Cultural Horizons of Armenians
X-RAYS TO PENETRATE INTO THE SECRET OF MATENADARAN'S PARCHMENTS
ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 3 2007
ArmInfo. The Matenadaran-the Armenian Institute of Ancient Manuscripts
and the American Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (EMEL) signed
an agreement on the digitization of more than 100 palimpsests-
parchments. What was written on them was erased or washed out in
order to reuse them, Matenadaran's director Hrachia Tamrazian told
ArmInfo correspondent.
According to him, digitization of the manuscripts with the device
provided by the American side will directly start from the mid 2008.
It isn't still decided by what funds the device worth $90 000 will
be bought. However, EMEL expressed readiness to make concessions,
promising in advance to send its specialists to Armenia for training
the personnel who are going to operate the equipment. R. Tamrazian
emphasized that the digitization of the palimpsests will make it
possible to disclose the parchments' new contents in the Matenadaran.
In the Middle Ages because of scarcity of parchments scribe-monks
resorted to the method of washing out the antique manuscripts for
writing new works. Earlier, these ancient writs were restored by
chemical means. Now, the digitizing device does X-ray and infrared
irradiation of the parchment, simultaneously. In this way EMEL
organization disclosed the commentaries written by Archimedes to
Aristotle, which were hidden under a layer of paint. Tamrazian
emphasized that the American side was provided all the conditions
for reservation of copyright on dissemination of information on the
manuscripts beyond Armenia.
.....EMEL TO COLLABORATE WITH MATENADARAN OVER DIGITALIZATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Lragir, Armenia
Oct 3 2007
The Early Manuscripts Electronic Library will collaborate with
the Institute of Ancient Manuscripts of Armenia, Matenadaran, over
digitalization of palimpsests. News Armenia learned from the press
service of the Academy that this agreement was reached in a meeting
of the president of the Academy of Science Radik Martirosyan and the
director of Matenadaran Hrachia Tamrazyan with the representatives
of EMEL David Cooper and Michael Phelps.
EMEL proposes using the modern subtle encoding system for
digitalization of the originals of palimpsests.
The representatives of the organization introduced the possibilities
of this system and their experience of cooperation, namely with
the library of St. Catherine Monastery (Sinai) and the University of
Aristotle (Thessalonica). The scholars also informed that the scanning
of Archimedes' palimpsest discovered several works by Archimedes
unknown to science.
The scholars aim to use spectral analysis of ultraviolet and infrared
rays to cut the cost of digitalization.
The rights to the palimpsests are reserved to the Republic of Armenia.
EMEL is ready to start collaboration from mid-2008. For the time
being, it will be studying the type of the parchment or paper, age,
the composition of ink used on separate pages from Matenadaran.
The organization is also ready to train the Armenian specialists who
will be operating the equipment.
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Re: Cultural Horizons of Armenians
AZG Armenian Daily #172, 21/09/2007
Culture
EXHIBITION OF ARMENIAN MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS IN GENEVA
On September 14, an exhibition of Armenian medieval manuscripts and
books titled "Manuscripts of Armenia, the collection of Matenadaran"
was staged in Geneva. The exhibition was realized under the patronage
of the President of Switzerland Micheline Calmy-Rey and Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian and by the efforts of the Old
Manuscripts Institute after Mashtots, the Martin Bodmer Museum-Library
and the Armenian Embassy in Switzerland.
RA Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchian, Director of
Matenadaran Hrach Tamrazian, Chairman of the Geneva Central Council
Charles Ber, other officials of Switzerland and Geneva,
representatives of international organizations and diplomats
participated at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.
The exhibition presents Armenia as a crossroad of East and West and
its investments in the world treasury of spiritual values. It brings
to light the main effect of religion, philosophy, culture, art and
science on the formation of the Armenian essence.
The exhibition will present the Gospel of Artsakh (XIV c.), the Gospel
of Tatev School (XIV c.), and unique manuscripts of Grigor Tatevatsi,
Grigor Narekatsi and Davit Anhaght. The miniature painting school of
Cilicia is widely presented at the exhibition.
The exhibition will present also the Armenian manuscripts of the
Library of Mechitarist Congregation in Venice and the National Library
of France, also the History of Alexander (XIV c.), which is a unique
sample of non-religious miniature painting.
The exhibition will continue until December 30. In the framework of
it, an exhibition of photographs of a French artist Regi Laburtet will
be put on devoted to the Armenian churches.
The sponsors of the exhibition are Hans Wilsdorf Foundation,
"Poghosian and sons", "Armenia" and "Piliposian" foundations, Edi and
Talin Avagians and Lombard Odye bank. The Julius Baer Bank also
assists the exhibition.
P.S. Bodmer Museum-Library was founded by a Swiss benevolent Martin
Bodmer in the mid 20th century. It is one of the biggest personal
libraries in the world with 160 thousand volumes of collection. The
collection contains early and late medieval manuscripts, also series
of texts of the New Testament, mainly the oldest manuscripts of the
Gospel of John.
Translated by L.H.
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Re: Cultural Horizons of Armenians
Marshall takes on Armenian folklore
A Telegraph Column By Rebecca Rule ⇒ More Rebecca Rule Columns
Published: Sunday, September 16, 2007
"The Flower of Paradise and Other Armenian Tales" by Bonnie C. Marshall; Libraries Unlimited; cloth; 203 pages; $35.
From her home in Meredith, Bonnie Marshall travels across the world in stories.
Her previous translations of folklore include "The Snow Maiden and Other Russian Tales" and "Tales from the Heart of the Balkans." Her new book takes her, and readers, to Armenia, which – in case your geography is as vague as mine – has "served for centuries as a buffer zone between Europe and Asia." Once a stop on the Silk Road, it "extended from the Black to the Caspian Sea and from the Mediterranean Sea to Iran." Today, the Republic of Armenia, less than 12,000 square miles, sits south of Georgia, north of Iran, west of Azerbaijan and east of Turkey. Mount Ararat, where Noah's ark may have landed, was once part of Armenia and is still considered sacred territory by Armenians.
So much for the geography lesson. Marshall's new book, "The Flower of Paradise and Other Armenian Tales," reveals the culture as only folktales can. These old stories speak to the values of those who pass them on from generation to generation. By collecting these stories, Marshall – a Russian scholar and museum teacher for the N.H. Historical Society – says to readers: See how the Armenian people are like us. See how their folk lore mirrors ours in some ways, and deviates from ours in other ways. See how, just like us, Armenians teach their children through myths and legends, animal tales, fairy tales, and cautionary tales about everyday life and foolish behavior. Understand this culture by examining its roots.
So, yes, this is an important, educational book, complete with glossary, bibliography, recommended readings, index and authentic recipes from the old country, including pilaf, plaki and baklava. Eight pages of color photographs show readers something of the people, architecture and landscape of the country. Mostly, though, this is a story book, full of lively, exotic tales suitable for all ages. Parents and teachers might read some of the shorter ones to very small children. Teachers in elementary, middle and high school might use them as models for writing, as well as complements to studies of the region and its history. Like all folktales, these reveal human foibles and recount adventures. Some include morals, ripe for discussion. Others pile one lie on another to create the tallest of tall tales. Some poke fun at "Silly Pugi," who makes lots of mistakes. They include once upon a time, translated as "once there was and was not." They include happily ever after, translated as, "Three apples fell from heaven – one for the taleteller and two for the audience," or "They attained their heart's desire. May you attain your heart's desire, too."
The title story, "The Flower of Paradise," explains the change of seasons with the familiar cast of a beautiful maiden, a monster and a hero. It includes the familiar plot of a quest, kidnapping and rescue by brave, handsome Arin-Armanelin, who marries the maiden and brings spring back to the world. "Nature spread a beautiful carpet of roses and other flowers at their feet. People and animals, birds and even choruses of ants sang merry songs and hymns to them. Above them in the heavens stretched a marvelous bright rainbow, and the fresh spring sun smiled down on the earth."
The stories vary widely – some silly, some dark, some long and episodic, some quick as winks. Here's a short one that made me smile – and ponder. With hints of the "Boy Who Cried Wolf," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Three Little Pigs" and "Little Boy Blue," "The Wolf and the Lamb" is a fresh take on the relationship between wolves and lambs, how clever trumps big and ferocious, and how vanity leads to trouble.
A young lamb once lived in a shed. A wicked wolf got into the shed and grabbed the little lamb.
The lamb fell down on its knees and said, "God has placed me in your power. Eat me up, but before doing so, please fulfill my last wish – play a song for me on your trumpet. My ancestors told me that wolves are great trumpet players."
The wolf was flattered. He squatted down and howled at the top of his lungs.
His song awakened the dogs. The dogs rushed to the wolf and bit him.
The wolf ran out of the shed and rushed to the top of the hill. He sat down and began weeping and beating himself. "I am worthy of that attack. Who on earth would ever claim that I was a trumpeter? I have always been a butcher and the son of a butcher."
Maybe we can't escape our essential nature. Maybe we shouldn't be swayed by flattery. Maybe if we're going to eat a lamb, we should be quiet about it. I'm just glad that smart little lamb got away!
Marshall, with editorial help from scholar Virginia Tashjian, who happens to be Armenian, fills these pages with delightful stories. In her introduction, Tashjian explains why it's important for children to be exposed to the folklore of other cultures. She writes, "The universality of the story is rampant in these tales of Armenians. Yes, violence there is, but wisdom and idealism are ever present as well. The clever Armenian peasant working in his fields is not much different from the Norwegian Viking crossing the fjords in his need and emotions. Truly, the tapestry of folk heritage proves the richness of the brotherhood of man."
"The Flower of Paradise" belongs to a series of folktale collections published by Libraries Unlimited. Other books in the series feature stories from China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Greece, Mexico, Ireland, Australia, Cuba, England, Germany, Brazil and even America.
Rebecca Rule, a writer who lives in Northwood, writes this column weekly except the last Sunday of the month. Her e-mail address is [email protected]
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Re: Cultural Horizons of Armenians
Carpet Weaving in Armenia
[September 17, 2007]
The director of one of the few carpet-weaving units in Armenia, Mkhitar Simonyan, said that carpet weaving was on the verge of extinction in Armenia. Aida Simonyan ltd., owned by the Simonyan brothers, is located in the Gegharkunik village of Chambarak. The unit has 150 workers, but they only manage to gather around 40 carpet weavers, and that too only in the winter when people come to work there just because they have nothing else to do.
In the summer, they prefer to cultivate land and raise animals. A carpet weaver’s average monthly salary is 30,000 drams. There are virtually no other jobs in Chambarak.
“We are unable to promote carpet weaving. There are tens of unemployed women in Chambarak who can weave carpets, but they don’t come here to work. We cannot pay them enough to motivate them to come and not regret investing their time in this work,” said the company director Mkhitar Simonyan.
This carpet weaving unit opened in 2006, but has only managed to get by and is on the verge of closing, according to management. Their main client is Tufenkian Trans Caucasus, which exports 90 percent of its carpets to the United States and sells the remaining 10 percent in Yerevan, where the buyers are exclusively foreigners. Because of fluctuations in the dollar-dram exchange rate, the exporting company raised prices by 40 percent. The dollars brought in from carpet sales abroad were no longer enough to cover the expenses accrued in drams locally. The cost price of each carpet was higher than its selling price. Prices for other carpets in the international market have been quite stable over the past several years, while Armenian carpets have grown more expensive by 40-50 percent.
“The foreign market is flooded with carpets - cheap, expensive, good quality, bad quality - all kinds. If the buyer does not decide to buy Armenian carpets specifically, then they can find other carpets of the same quality but at a cheaper price. How can we compete? The client does not agree with the price we set, but we have no other choice. We have to either raise prices or shut down. But if we raise prices we may end up without clients and have to close down anyway,” concluded the unit director.
That is what happened to Sahakyan Carpets, founded in the 1990s, which sold its equipment to Tufenkian Trans Caucasus and left the market once and for all in 2005. A number of other small carpet-weaving units were dealt the same fate. Tufenkian Trans Caucasus has been operating in Armenia since 1994. Three units continue to work in Armenia thanks to orders from this company - one each in the villages of Chambarak, Lchashen and Karmir. These units do not have other clients. The carpets are all hand-woven. They are brought to a central office in Yerevan from the units, where they undergo final processing and are the exported to the United States, where they are sold in shops in a number of places - Dallas, Chicago, New York and California.
Arman Grigoryan, director-in-chief of Tufenkian Trans Caucasus, noted that carpet sales by the company had halved over the past three years. “We would produce and export around 800-900 sq m on a monthly basis two or three years ago, sometimes even 1000 sq m. Now the volume of our production and export is about half of that. Now we produce and export around 300-400 sq m a month,” said Arman Grigoryan.
Tufenkian Trans Caucasus is looking for ways to lower the cost price of carpets. They are searching for new suppliers are importers of wool and thread. “We used to think earlier that we should buy wool yarn from our villagers, but that would be a luxury for us now,” said Grigoryan. Mkhitar Simonyan, the director of the Chambarak carpet-weaving unit, was confident that they could produce carpets by themselves in a condition ready for sale, but that they could never succeed in selling them abroad. “Our carpets sell abroad because they bear the Tufenkian brand. We and others like us can’t break into the international market and sell our carpets at even half the cost price,” said Simonyan.
Carpet Weavers of Artsvashen Jobless
The carpet weavers of Chambarak are mainly women who migrated there in 1992 from Artsvashen. During the Soviet period, there used to be a branch of Haygorg, the state carpet company, in Artsvashen. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the invasion of the Azeris, the residents of Artsvashen migrated to Chambarak, Vardenis and Abovyan. The two-story Haygorg building was torn down and the storeroom, full of hundreds of carpets, was ransacked. The women of Artsvashen learned carpet weaving from their mothers and grandmothers. Many of them had worked for Haygorg for decades. “It was shameful for a girl or woman in Artsvashen not to be able to weave carpets. Even if they didn’t work for Haygorg, they would have a weaving stand at home and make carpets,” said Irina Ghalechyan, a former resident of Artsvashen and carpet weaver.
In 1992, the people of Artsvashen left all they had and moved to the area in Armenia closest to them, the village of Chambarak. They came with the hope that they would be able to return in three days, but they have remained for 15 years. “Haygorg was operating until the very last day. When they would start shooting we would hide in the basement. As soon as the shooting would stop, we would get out, get to our work stations and continue weaving,” said Irina. When the village was lost, there were around 750 households or 3,000 residents there. The government gave loans to the people of Artsvashen, with which they bought the houses of the Molokans in Chambarak.
“People used to really value carpets before… A carpet used to be like an open book in ancient times, it used to have real meaning. Now it is just a thing of beauty and wealth. Carpets used to tell stories, but not everyone could read them. My ancestors used to weave from memory. A long time ago, people would pay in gold for the carpets of Artsvashen, even though many of them were woven by illiterate women,” said Irina. Very few women from Artsvashen work in the carpet-weaving unit at Chambarak. They prefer to work in fields or orchards; carpet weaving is no longer a means to make a living. These women no longer want their daughters to learn carpet weaving.
One of the characteristic features of Armenian carpets is their symbolic representation of the sun, stars, animals, plants, people, dragons, birds and snakes. This is in contrast to Arabian, Persian or Turkish carpets where they are represented as they are, without symbolic patterns.
“In the old days, people would hang carpets on the wall. That’s how it would be in almost all houses. Carpets had the same significance to Armenians that icons had for the Orthodox Church. Carpets were considered sacred. My ancestors believed that a carpet could bring success and prosperity to the house. Obviously, one couldn’t put a carpet like that on the floor or table. They would weave carpets for the floor which would not have any symbols representing God or light. But they would not hang carpets on every wall. They would leave it for the main wall of the house, where they would also hang their guns and pictures of their ancestors,” said Irina.
One of the best-known symbols on Armenian carpets represents the Dragon. Carpets with dragons on them are called vishapagorg, or Dragon Carpets. The Dragon is not considered good or evil in Armenian symbology; it is an element that can be both good and inexorably evil. The Dragon is considered a protective symbol for the home. Dragons are woven into the edges of a carpet but never in its center. This is to say that dragons protect the edges of the world, but the center is almost always occupied by the Sun.
“Our grandfather dealt in the trade of ancient carpets his whole life. He used to say that a cow, a silver belt and a carpet were all equal as riches and held the same value. In my grandfather’s time, women used to weave carpets from memory, which is why each carpet was an irreproducible piece of art. Now, even if the carpets are hand-woven, they are mass produced and are all the same because the women look at pictures to weave them,” said Mkhitar Simonyan.
Armenian carpets used to have different names in the past - Vishapagorg, Tavriz, Bayazet, Vaspurakan, Tzaragorg, Zangezur, Gharabagh, Dvin, Shirak, Lori, Taron, Ani - according to corresponding patterns and places. Now, carpets no longer have names, they are just given numbers.
“In the 90s, many Armenians sold the carpets that they had for pennies. We lost a part of the history of our art in that way,” said carpet weaver Irina Ghalechyan.
Lena Nazaryan
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Re: Cultural Horizons of Armenians
INTERNATIONAL PUPPET FESTIVAL TO BE HELD ON SEPTEMBER 6-10 IN DSEGH
Noyan Tapan
Sep 6, 2007
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. International Puppet Festival under
the title Tale Day will be held on September 6-10 in the village
of Dsegh, Lori region, on the initiative of the Armenian Center of
the Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA). Armen Safarian,
the Chairman of the Center, said this in his interview to Noyan
Tapan correspondent.
According to him, this year puppet theaters' creative groups from
Armenia, Javakhk, the Ukraine, Lithuania, and Russia will take part in
the festival being held for already the second year. 18 performances
created on the basis of tales created by various peoples will be shown
in the native village of great Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanian within
the framework of the festival.
A. Safarian said that the festival also gives newly created puppet
theaters the possibility to take part in it and to present their
performances. "One of festival's goals is to help newly created and
young puppet theaters' creative groups to get acquainted with the
rich experience of professional theaters and to establish immediate
contacts with them," he said.
Among Armenian regions, theater groups of Ijevan, Metsamor, Gyumri,
and Charentsavan, as well as the theater group of Khnko Aper National
Children's Library will take part in the festival.
As the Chairman of the UNIMA Armenian Center said, the Armenian
delegation represented by the UNIMA Armenian Center's Karapet puppet
theater will also take part in the Puppet Theaters' International
Congress to be held next year in Australia.
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