A Sneak Peek into the Evolving Worlds of արդ եւս|in view
Through the արդ եւս|in view contemporary culture grant, the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation continues to treat Western Armenian as a living social infrastructure. The programme invites thinkers, creators and digital innovators to push the boundaries of artistic expression, using the language as a tool to navigate modern complexities.
As these innovative initiatives progress from concept to reality, we are happy to offer a sneak peek into some of the cutting-edge projects currently reshaping the digital and cultural landscape of the Armenian Diaspora and the Western Armenian language.
1. The Vowel in the Image: The Creative Dialogue of a Diasporic Painter and Writer
What happens when the etchings and paintings of a visual master meet the prose of a literary titan? This online presentation creates a dynamic space where the artwork of Assadour and the writings of Krikor Beledian converge. Centered on profound themes of diaspora, scattered spaces and fragments, the digital showcase highlights the creative symbiosis and mutual influence between contemporary Armenian literature and visual art. By placing painting and literature, side-by-side, form and content interact from complementary perspectives. The project examines how existential questions of identity, memory and the power of place are written and painted into existence, offering a rich, multi-sensory source of inspiration for today’s writers, artists and thinkers.
What is it?
An artistic and multidisciplinary online exhibition that presents contemporary Armenian artist Assadour Bezdikian’s work in parallel to contemporary Armenian writer Krikor Beledian’s writings related to diasporic themes as well as their collective works in the form of illustrated books, exhibitions or publications.
Who is the creative mind behind it?
Cercle des Amis de Krikor Beledian (France, Belgium), Nooneh Khoodaverdyan (Armenia, USA)
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2. An Armenian Atlas: Mapping Lived Geographies
How can we remember, understand and reimagine the former Western Armenian homelands today? An Armenian Atlas / Աշխարհացոյց is an ongoing interactive counter-mapping project that builds on memory maps of neighborhoods and towns drawn by genocide survivors by setting them into dialogue with contemporary satellite imagery, archival and contemporary photography, and 20th century architectural and urban history. The project resists genocide denial and revisionist narratives by recovering lost spatial histories and building a counter-cartography of Armenian belonging supported by a growing dictionary of Western Armenian spatial and urban vocabulary. Weaving together geography, photography, language and memory, the project reconnects people and place while gesturing toward reparative futures.
What is it?
A digital mapping project that traces ancestral villages, neighborhoods, and cities in the former Western Armenian homeland through memory, archival records, photography and contemporary spatial data. The project recovers language, stories and obscured urban histories.
Who is the creative mind behind it?
Garine Boghossian (Lebanon, Armenia, USA)
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3. Vazrig Loutsqi: Reimagining Bourj Hammoud through Sequential Art and Visual Narratives
Contemporary storytelling is viewed as a medium of emotional resonance. Vazrig Loutsqi is a graphic novel that explores how this resonance can be produced using memory, cityscapes and language. Through black-and-white illustrations, environmental storytelling, and references drawn from Bourj Hammoud and its community, the project imagines an alternative future that is both strange and familiar. Within this framework, Western Armenian becomes an operational tool that generates emotional resonance by inhabiting every layer of the story, from dialogue and humor to signage, cultural references, and everyday life.
What is it?
A hand drawn science fiction graphic novel with an avant-garde flair that addresses a series of absurd events happening in the city of Bourj Hammoud through the experiences of the protagonist. The narrative addresses key aspects that build our understanding of the city as well as how we relate to it and remember it.
Who is the creative mind behind it?
The Loutsqi Collective of artists, architects and anthropologists: Shoghag Ohannessian, Varak Karakashian, Serge Manouguian, Araz Kojayan (Lebanon)
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Inspiring the Future of Western Armenian
These projects represent more than standalone creative endeavors; they are the nodes of a newly emerging cultural ecosystem. By fusing Western Armenian with cutting-edge design, interactive cartography and digital storytelling, the արդ եւս|in view awardees are expanding the domains in which the language lives.
Stay tuned as these platforms evolve and more projects launch over the coming months. They invite us all not just to look back at where we have been, but to look in view, towards where we are going.
The արդ եւս|in view grants provide critical support to contemporary cultural practices in Western Armenian, fostering innovation, critical thinking and connectivity across the Diaspora and Armenia.