Antoine Agoudjian – Burning Eyes: Memories of the Armenians

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27 April – 5 June 2011

The exhibition by Antoine Agoudjian, a French Armenian photographer, will feature the photographs he has taken since 1988. His work will be presented in Depo as part of a narration developed by the artist. The exhibition will also take place in Paris during the fall of 2011.

Since 1988, Agoudjian has devoted the months of April to the quest of history, the history of his people and his own history. Agoudjian, like a writer, lives, feels and documents in order to record fragments of his life in his memory; his work goes far beyond recording images. He has traveled to Armenia, Georgia, Kharabakh, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel and Turkey in order to explore the human conditions of the Armenian communities and his own inner self. Agoudjian’s work continues in his laboratory where, like an alchemist, he plays with shadow and light, accentuating or eliminating certain elements until the image corresponds to his vision. In his works, he gives priority to the color black in order to emphasize light: This is the intense black of pain and death, of the lost eyes of orphans. The black of forgotten memories. The black of secrets.

This exhibition is realized with the support of the Gulbenkian Foundation, Fineco, AGBU and Anadolu Kültür. The photography book published by the Actes Sud in France, Les Yeux Brûlants (Burning Eyes), containing most of the photographs in this exhibition will be printed by Birzamanlar Yayıncılık bilingually in Turkish and Armenian.

“I began this journey from darkness towards light twenty years ago; I tried to visualize the imaginary narratives I inherited from Armenian exiles.”

Antoine Agoudjian

“… these photographs carry you away from the real world to a world of images and meanings. The meanings you find there belong to you, but you feel you have arrived somewhere because these are not only photographs. Behind the black and white prints you look look at with a desire to discover, there is a world that invites you to discover it. It is this new world calling for you; it is not a photograph you are looking at but a new realm.”

Ara Güler

Supported by:
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
AGBU
Saberatours
Kodak
Fineco
Papier d’Armonie
CIRCAD
Kült
Anadolu Kültür

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 icon-file-text Fire Eyes

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Press

21.4.2011
Agoudjian’dan Fotoğraflarla Ermenilerin Hatıraları
Bianet

27.4.2011
Le génocide arménien, une mémoire toujours contestée
Slate.fr

27.4.2011
İstanbul’da 24 Nisan…
Birgün

24.4.2011
“Les démons existent toujours en Turquie, les anges aussi”
L’Express

30.4.2011
A Istanbul, la mémoire en images du génocide arménien
Le Monde

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