Dream Places - Armenian Culture Days in the Museum of European Cultures

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Dream Places - Armenian Culture Days in the Museum of European Cultures was a series of events from August 20 to November 6, 2016 in the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin-Dahlem . An accompanying exhibition was shown from August 20, 2016 to February 5, 2017. The project was implemented by the museum in cooperation with the Armenian Embassy Berlin and members of the Armenian community in Berlin. The Armenian Culture Days were part of the 13th European Culture Days of the Dahlem Museums .

The topic was the cultural identity of the roughly 10 million ethnic Armenians , two thirds of whom live outside the Republic of Armenia . It was about the local and mental places of longing of the Armenians when they think of Armenia, and how these dream images shape their own and ethnic self-image. During performances, lectures and discussions, the Armenian culture in Armenia and in the diaspora with its wealth and broken history was presented. Among other things, Katerina Poladjan read from her nascent novel about Armenia and the Armenian children's choir Little Singers of Armenia under the direction of Tigran Hekekyan and the actor, director and songwriter Stepan Gantralyan, who lives in Germany, performed.

In his project terra ar me nia, the exhibiting photographer and photojournalist Erol Gurian from Munich asked  ethnic Armenians from the large exile communities in Beirut, Paris, Munich and Los Angeles what their dream images of Armenia look like. He portrayed the interviewees at their place of residence and captured their dream places in Armenia with photo art. For example, the then 59-year-old pharmacist Sossy Boladian from Beirut learned the "Song of the Cathedral of Echmiadzin " as a child in Aleppo . When she went there one day, she felt at home - “like in Syria”. 15 photo pairs were shown in the exhibition - each a portrait at home and a photo-artistic representation, as well as the associated story as a quotation from a conversation.

The young student Ani Hovakimyan from the Berlin Armenian Youth, on the other hand, asked people in the Armenian capital Yerevan about their dreams and took photos of them.

Identity-forming objects were also shown in four showcases. Among other things, a Bible by the Armenian scholar Mechitar von Sebasteia (Armenia is the oldest Christian state) printed in Venice between 1733 and 1735 , cooking utensils made of brass, pomegranates on an old zinc plate (pomegranates contain around 365 kernels and are therefore a traditional Armenian New Year present) and a British newspaper report from 1915 on the genocide of the Armenians and the differentiated behavior of the Muslim population.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Museum of European Cultures: European Culture Days. In: smb.museum. Retrieved November 25, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Dream Places - Armenian Culture Days in the Museum of European Cultures. In: smb.museum. Retrieved November 25, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b Jane Redlin: Dream Places. Armenian Culture Days in the Museum of European Cultures . In: Armenian German correspondence . September 25, 2016.
  4. ↑ Tanja Langer: At home like in Syria . In: Berliner Zeitung . 23rd August 2016.
  5. ↑ Armenia is like a predator . In: Inforadio . August 21, 2016.