The guest speaker of our monthly talk was Nouritza Matossian. Matossian told us about the extra-ordinary life story of the world-famous artist Arshile Gorky, aka Manoug Adoyan, and how he discovered Gorky's Armenian roots.
The talk was coloured with examples of the work of Gorky. Matossian also shared with the participants photographs of the people, the obstacles and the adventures he came across while following Gorky's journey.

Matossian told us that he had come to Turkey eight years ago also, for an interview on Gorky. He began his presentation with how he came to know of Gorky. Matossian said he sensed the Armenian state of mind upon seeing Gorky's work and decided to do a research on him when he found out that Gorky was indeed an Armenian.

He told us about the trip to Van that he took to deepen his research and to understand Gorky better. Matossian has discovered that Gorky's works were influenced by the carving art of Van.
"Without understanding Gorky's past, we can't understand his work. He created a wolrd with his art. We Armenians must respect our past. We have many stories to tell. We need to reseach our recent past and adopt a scientific approach..."Matossian said, underlining the fact that he had set out to learn Gorky's story in the first place. After answering questions from the participants, Matossian ended his talk.

Nouritza Matossian: The author of biographies on Iannis Xenakis, world-famous composer, and on Arshile Gorky. He lives in London, delivers seminars, contributes to the BBC and writes articles for British newspapers. Also a documentary film director, Matossian has been staging in various cities of the world a one-man play on Gorky's life.

NOTE: The talk was given in Armenian. Pakrat Estukyan simultaneously translated it into Turkish, supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Association.