Previous Residents:

2003

SILVINA DER-MEGUERDITCHIAN

[back]

Work:
I worked on two projects during my residency in Armenia. First I collected objects from everyday life-- such as tickets, books, and milk bottles. These objects were like pictures of the streets that I passed every day on the way to NPAK-things that for me are related to the construction of identity. I presented these objects in a exhibition floating in the air, as a way of expressing in a very realistic way my feelings towards the Armenian reality.

Second, I experimented with the folk tradition of reading coffee grounds as a way of meeting new people, where instead of exchanging commonplaces, you can directly communicate about the subconscious. Taking advantage of Armenians' predisposition towards this kind of reading, I asked them to make free associations with the coffee, as in a Rorsasch test, and I did the same with their coffee grounds. In the end I combined the two texts with pictures and I put them all in a social context, giving information about the age, profession, work situation of both participants, in a video and in a paper-based work. The work comprised 12 "meetings".