Surreal 3D landscapes, eco-performances and political collages: take a tour of a digital art exhibition from Armenia

Armenia Art Fair has launched an online exhibition showcasing digital artworks by experimental artists from Armenia and abroad.

The exhibition, Open Space, is now available online until 30 January, and features artworks ranging from performance art to photography by 30 artists from 19 different countries.

The Open Space platform, Eva Khachatryan as Curator and Artistic Director, was established in 2018 as an annual event to highlight innovative new media art practices in Armenia. This year, in its first online iteration, the platform decided to open their call to international submissions.

Exhibition highlights include Greek artist Thomas Valianatos’ video work of surreal landscapes created using mathematical models, and Iranian artist Parham Taghioff’s collages that mix black-and-white photographs with colourful two-dimensional geometrical objects.

The exhibition also features the work of Armenian artists such as Grigor Muradyan, who, inspired by his home near Armenia’s Sevan Lake, stages ecological video performances. Meanwhile, Gohar Sargsyan’s art film Exit explores how the graphic lines drawn in animation to define movement follow and merge with the pace of the human body, creating a new rhythm.

Open Space is a project of Armenia Art Fair Art Foundation, a regional art platform founded by Zara Ouzounian-Halpin and Nina Festekjian, to revitalise the local art market and increase the visibility of artists from the Caucasus.

“A digital platform is an immediate solution for continuing our activities and mission in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. It also adds long-term sustainability for us as a contemporary art organisation, since a permanent digital platform will enable constant public access to artworks and educational programmes that will run in parallel with the eventual return of physical exhibitions and events,” said Festekjian.

Find out more about the exhibition here.