Yerevan October 19
Ani Mshetsyan. The "HayArt" Museum of Contemporary Art in Yerevan hosts an exhibition of works by eight dozen authors of paintings and installations, representing 26 different countries of the world. It became possible to open the round halls of the museum unique in their architecture for the unique exhibition only thanks to the renovation of the museum at the initiative of the Italian Embassy in Armenia.
As Rita Sharoyan, director of HayArt Cultural Center told ArmInfo in an interview, the Italian Ambassador to Armenia visited the museum with a working group of specialists during the preparatory work for the opening of the exhibition of works by famous European authors of modernity. ''They studied the state of the exhibition halls of various museums in Yerevan in order to organize this exhibition. In general, many guests from Europe highly appreciate the architecture of our building and they really liked the design of the building, but, unfortunately, it was in a rather poor condition, "Sharoyan said.
The Director emphasized that the embassy representatives still felt that the HayArt museum's capabilities were the most optimal for the fulfillment of their ideas, but the lack of repair was a serious hindrance. "We stated that we were ready to discuss the issue of renvation. Head of the EU delegation in Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Switalski was also very interested in this issue, who had also visited the building of our museum. Various proposals were made to us, the exhibition organizers proposed to repair the museum free of charge if we agreed to provide exhibition halls for the exhibition, and we happily agreed, because it was a great achievement for us, because our museum would have acquired its original appearance again, " Sharoyan said. She stressed that the repair work, in which Italian specialists and even volunteers were involved, gave an amazing result. The exhibition of world modernists opened on September 28 and will last exactly one month, until October 25. Admission is free for everyone. Artworks, installations, short films "without end and beginning", and sculptural works are presented as exhibits. All the interior of the museum is a the synthesis of movement, sounds and colors.
To note, the "Hay Art" cultural center is the first Soviet Museum of Contemporary Art in Yerevan, founded in 1972 by famous art critic and public figure Henrich Igityan. A modernist-style building was erected – an ensemble of several round rooms located above the ground – the so-called "kruglyashek" was allocated for the museum on the main avenue of Yerevan, Then in 1987, the museum was allocated the area of the first floor of a new residential building, built across the street due to too many storage rooms. In 1997, the Museum of Contemporary Art for some reason left its unique architectural building of concrete circles and moved to the first floor of a new building that does not even have an entrance to the street. Thanks to the heads of the mayor's office a unique architectural ensemble of the first museum was fully used by commercial stalls and facilities. For many years, being on the balance of the mayor's office, the museum was completely abandoned, plaster collapsed in its halls, mountains of garbage lay, it was completely unsuitable for organizing exhibitions. For 2 decades, not a penny was allocated for its restoration. Only in one of the halls, in a completely unattractive atmosphere, some exhibitions of Armenian artists were periodically organized under the special patronage of the mayor's office of the capital. One of the latest exhibits was dedicated to the works of the famous Armenian artist Eduard Isabekyan. According to the testimony of museum workers who are not provable, Isabekyan's son Rector of the Academy of Arts Aram Isabekyan gifted the former mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan with one of his father's works to organize the exhibition.