Armenia hosts first contemporary art triennial

The first  STANDARD International Triennial of Contemporary Art  opened in Armenia on Thursday to bring together artists, art critics  and fans with different appraoches and tastes for art on a united platform.

The event was organized by the Armenian Arts Council in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the organization Art for the World, the Embassy of Switzerland in Armenia, the Armenia Art Foundation and a range of other private partners and sponsors.

The organizers have selected the Gyumri-Yerevan and Yerevan-Sevan route for this year's triennial, the Council's president, Vartan Karapetian, said at a news conference introducing the program.

In his words, the cultural event has solid foundations in Armenia which has a developed set of values matching the criteria of modern art. “Contemporary art is not a new trend in Armenia. The Gyumri biennale has a great tradition in that respect. The institutions in Yerevan have been carrying out considerable work since the early 1990s to achieve perfection in what is called contemporary art,” he said, noting that Armenia received the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion in 2015.

Adelina Cüberyan, an author of the project who arranged the Armenian pavillion in the 55th internationally acclaimed exhibition-contest, said they came up with the idea of a new cultural initiative "not to lose the gains in the 2015 Venice Biennale".

Inspired by 20th century French surrealist writer René Daumal's unfinished novel Mount Analogue, the organizers have selected the historical-cultural sites at the foot of Mount Ararat as the venue of the Triennial.

The organizers promise to help build bridges  between valuable sites and pieces of art by developing a direct dialogue among individuals and artists pursuing different cultural traditions.