Syndicate 2014/Arman Grigoryan

Syndicate 2014

Author: Arman Grigoryan

Performers: Arman Grigoryan & Areg Tonoyan

Year: 2014

In my work, I often refer to artists who have brought liberating ideas into art  by replaying their works or moving their images into the current context.

The performance is an opportunity to open a conversation about utopian-revolutionary projects of industrial development in Eastern countries. It attempts to connect artists committed to the ideas of the progress of different generations in our local modernist environment. The central character is famous but at the same time the most ridiculed and neglected, futurist poet Kara Darwish. Modernist art of the 20th century enabled "non-European" nations to participate in the innovative processes of world art, both in the Middle East and the Caucasus.

The “Syndicate 2014” consists of photographs by members of the Futurist Syndicate formed in 1918 in Tbilisi (Georgia), original canvases of Harutyun Galents, photos, texts and performances. Areg Tonoyan participates in the performance, imitating the dance of Sufi dervishes, accompanied by a musical composition – “Duet” - for bicycle and the engine of the Mercedes-Benz G 300.

After the performance, postcards written by the author with futuristic poems were distributed. One of the postcards was dedicated to Armenian progressive artists of the 60s whose efforts led to restoring the local modernist tradition in our country.