“There is nothing more human than sin, and there is nothing more human than the desire to overcome it”.
This year sees the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. Between April and November, the international art world converges towards Venice to discover the 88 national pavilions and the main exhibition, Foreigners Everywhere. The Armenian pavilion is located a few steps from the prestigious Pinault Collection at Punta della Dogana, in an ancient salt warehouse. There, visitors can step into the hushed, mysterious world of Paris-based artist Nina Khemchyan, to see her two major new installations: Seven Deadly Sins and Echo.
Seven Deadly Sins is a masterful representation of each of the biblical sins in black ink drawings, on a 50-metre single-piece paper roll. It whimsically encourages introspection and a reflection on morality and forgiveness. In Echo, eleven blue ceramic spheres mysteriously float in an empty room. Each is adorned with golden incrustations of the eleven Armenian chants of repentance, also heard in a pure a capella voice throughout the room. They were written by the renowned Mesrop Mashtots, the mediaeval inventor of the Armenian alphabet. History, spirituality and beauty collide to form an unforgettable display.
Join us for an online encounter with the exhibition curator, Armen Yesayants (director of exhibitions at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan), in the presence of the artist, to hear about the background of these delicate works of art, and about the challenging but exciting process of putting on a Venice Biennale show.
This event is held in partnership with the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Yerevan.
About Nina Khemchyan
Nina Khemchyan is a Paris-based Armenian artist. Graduating from the department of Industrial Design at the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Fine Arts, Nina has actively been working and presenting her works at varied galleries in Armenia since the early 1990s. Moving to France, she continued her education at the National School of Applied Arts and Crafts in Paris in 1996-1998. For more than 30 years Nina has worked as a sculptor and graphic artist. She has participated in dozens of group shows, art fairs and festivals, and had personal exhibitions not only in Armenia, but also in many cities in France, as well as in the USA, Italy, and Lebanon. Nina Khemchyan’s works are kept in many private collections in Armenia and abroad, and are part of the collections of Yerevan Modern Art Museum and Sergei Parajanov Museum.
About Armen Yesayants
Armen Yesayants is an art historian, curator, and lecturer based in Yerevan. He has served as the Director of Exhibitions at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts since 2016. Dr. Yesayants has curated or participated in the organization of numerous exhibitions and has written extensively on modern and contemporary Armenian art, among other topics. He holds an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from King’s College London and a PhD in Art History from Yerevan State University. The Cafesjian Center for the Arts is the general sponsor and patron of the Armenian National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale and Armen Yesayants is the curator of the National Pavilion.
