In parallel with the exhibition Hrant Dink: Here and Now which opened in Yerevan on May 7, 2022, the Hrant Dink Foundation held a number of side events addressing prevalent themes of the exhibition.
The talk “A Dialogue Between Art and Memory” addressed the question of how art and culture, artists and cultural actors can contribute to the practices of dealing with traumatic histories and difficult pasts while acting as bridges between people. The speakers were Asena Günal and Sena Başöz from Turkey and the talk was moderated by Ruben Arevshatyan from Armenia.
The event focused on the role art, artists and spaces of art can play in fostering mutual understanding, dialogue, empathy and preserving memories while also exploring if and how they contribute to societal healing. The talk provided an opportunity to explore how artists and spaces of art can have their share in building new conversations and alternative narratives to challenge the hegemonic discourse and promote peace.
The talk was followed by a Q&A session during which the participants raised questions and discussed the various themes presented by the speakers.
| Speakers |
| Asena Günal (Turkey) |
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Asena Günal obtained her BS in International Relations and MA in Sociology from the Middle East Technical University. She received her PhD from Boğaziçi University in 2008 with a thesis focusing on state-citizen relations through health care policies in Republican Turkey. She worked as an editor at İletişim Publishing House from 1998 to 2005. Since September 2008, she has been working as the program coordinator of Depo, a center for arts and culture in the Tophane neighborhood of Istanbul. Günal is a co-founder of Siyah Bant, a research platform that documents censorship cases in the arts in Turkey, and was a fellow of the AHDA Program at Columbia University in 2014. She has been working as executive director of Anadolu Kültür since March 2018. She co-authored ‘A City that Remembers: Space and Memory from Taksim to Sultanahmet’ (Memory Center, 2019), and co-edited ‘90’larda Türkiye’de Feminizm’ (Feminism in Turkey in ’90s, İletişim, 2002) and ‘Bir Daha Asla!: Geçmişle Yüzleşme ve Özür’ (Never Again!: Apology and Coming to Terms with the Past, İletişim, 2013). Günal won the 2019 German-French Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
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| Ruben Arevshatyan (Armenia) |
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Ruben Arevshatyan is an artist, art critic and curator. He is the president of AICA-Armenia and teaches at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Yerevan. He has published widely on contemporary art, architecture, and theory - mainly around topics and on issues of urban and cultural transformation focusing on post-Socialist contexts. Arevshatyan is a member of the editorial board of www.red-thread.org e-journal. He has curated and associated a number of projects like `Great Atrophy`, `Parallel Reality`, `Local Modernities`, `Soviet Modernism 1955-1991/Unknown History`,` Trespassing Modernities`, `A Parallel Modernity` (as part of the framework of the São Paulo Biennale 2014), `The City of Tomorrow` (travelling exhibition that was shown in 2019-2020 at the Architectural Museum, Yerevan, Palace of Arts, Minsk, New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, ZK 19, Novosibirsk), etc. In 2011 he was the curator of `Manuals: Subjects of New Universality` – Armenian National Pavilion in 54th Venice Art Biennale and in 2014 he was the curator of `The Capital of Desires` – Armenian National Pavilion in 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. He is the author and curator of Sweet 60s international research project and associate curator of STANDART contemporary arts triennial 2017. He led the scientific restoration program of Sevan Writers’ Resort in the frames of Getty Foundation’s Keeping it Modern program.
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| Sena Başöz (Turkey) |
| Sena Başöz is an artist and filmmaker based in Istanbul. Her work investigates healing processes after cases of trauma, and recently she has been focusing on subjects such as death, regeneration, renewal and liberation. The organism’s self-repair and the balance nature obtains in the long run constitute the backbone of the narratives she employs in her works. Sena works on archives and alternative ways to activate the archives.She received her BA in Economics from Boğaziçi University in 2002 and MFA from Bard College in Film and Video in 2010. Her recent exhibitions include her solo show ‘On Lightness’ at DEPO Istanbul, ‘Studio Bosporus’ at Hamburger Bahnhof, ‘Quiet Dialogue’ at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Sharjah Biennial Offsite Exhibition: Bahar, Istanbul and a duo exhibition at Memphis Gallery-Linz (with Lisa Truttman). Her films have been screened at various local and international festivals. She attended artist residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2017 and Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz in 2009. She was one of the team members and artists who worked in the creation of the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory. |
