Armenian to represent Turkey at Venice Biennale

An ethnic Armenian descendent of Genocide survivors has been invited to represent Turkey at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

Sargis Zabunyan, whose parents escaped the 1915 mass killings in the Ottoman Empire, has considered the move an historic opportunity for future relations.


The Turkish Radikal has talked to the artist, describing his participation as very symbolic against the backdrop of the 2015 Armenian Genocide centenery.

Zabunyan said his participation in the biennale was discussed back in 2006 when he was asked how he would react to a possible invitation to represent Turkey at the event. “And I replied, ‘invite me, and I will give you the answer’,” he told the Turkish paper.


The artist said he doesn’t think that the decision to invite him was a mere coincidence with the centenary. 

He also spoke of his parents’ recollection of the Genocide horror. “My father was silent on the issue, and he lived on like that, as though he had no tongue in his mouth. He never said anything about his mother. Both my mother and father survived the 1915 exile. Their fathers were captured, and all finished with that. But my mother would speak,” he said.

The Turkish media reported earlier that Zabunyan was going to represent both the Armenian and Turkish pavilions at the biennale, trying in that way to build bridges between the two countries.