Celebrities’ statues best project for Yerevan now – artist

The author of sitting statues placed in Yerevan as part of the project Our Geniuses are Beside us considers his sculptures urban illustrations which bear a temporary nature.

Suren Melkonyan, who has created the statues of the several renowned Armenian writers and other celebrities, told a news conference on Saturday that the project initially aimed to slightly change the capital city’s appear.

“I don’t know. Perhaps everybody had great expectations. This is an urban illustration. We wanted the city to change its image a little bit and to introduce some liveliness,” he said, admitting in the meantime that he would like the sculptures to feature a better composition.

Asked whether it is possible to make statues of non-fragile materials, he answered, “If there is a project clearly aimed at making long living sculptures, then yes. But this is the best that could have been done. We couldn’t place stone on wood. All we needed was to change the city’s image a little.”

So far, the statues of the great Armenian actor, Mher Mkrtchtan, renowned writers Yeghishe Charents, Paruyr Sevak and Hrant Matevosyan, and chess player Tigran Petrosyan have been placed on street and park benches in Yerevan. Mher Mkrtchyan’s statues was earlier reported to have been damaged and repaired a few times.