PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version:
HIS HOLINESS ARAM I MEETS WITH THE DIRECTOR
OF THE “ARMENIA FUND”
His Holiness Aram I received the director of the “Armenia fund” Naira
Melkoumian, the Ambassador of Armenia to Lebanon Arek Hovhannisian and the
representatives of the fund in France and Germnay, Bedros Terzian and
Gilbert Momdjian on August 11.
His Holiness Aram I stressed the importance of the fund, especially within
the context of Armenia-Diaspora cooperation. He praised the work done by the
directors of the fund and particularly the dedication of Naira Melkoumian.
He pointed out that the fund should carry out more organized work within the
dioceses of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.
The discussions during the meeting revolved around the Armenian community of
Lebanon. His Holiness emphasized the importance of reforming the fund’s
local committee in Lebanon so Lebanese-Armenians can more actively
participate in the building of Armenia.
##
View picture here:
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version:
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF VENEZUELA RECOGNIZES THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The committee of the Catholic Churches of Venezuela unanimously recognized
and condemned the Armenian Genocide on August 3.
The committee adopted a resolution during its annual conference in response
to the efforts of the spiritual leader of the country’s Armenian community,
Archbishop Gomidas Ohanian and officials from the Diocese. The resolution
aims at preventing the recurrence of genocides in the future.
“We, the members of the Plenary Council of the Catholic Church of Venezuela,
having held our sessions, and considering that the year 2005 marks the 90th
Anniversary of the first Genocide planned and organized in the Twentieth
Century:
1.. Do hereby condemn such criminal act against humanity committed against
the Armenian People and pray that such actions may never be repeated between
human beings, all brothers to one another, and sons of God Almighty.
2.. Do hereby express our Christian solidarity to the memory of faithful
Armenian Christians, who preferred death rather than renouncing their faith.
3.. Do hereby express the Armenian People of Venezuela and the authorities
of the Apostolic Armenian Church, our support to their just humanitarian
claims as a people, which have been postponed for so long, and offer our
prayers for their cultural integrity and their right to religious freedom.”
Archbishop Gomidas has been attending the conferences of the committee for
six consecutive years and has been working towards securing this recognition
following instructions and advice from His Holiness Aram I.
The National Assembly of Venezuela recognized the Armenian Genocide in a
resolution adopted on July 14.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

Armenpress
ARMENIAN FM RECEIVES STATE SECRETARY OF SWEDISH PM’S STAFF
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Vartan
Oskanian received today delegation headed by the state Secretary of Swedish
prime minister’s staff Lars Danielsson Gunnar who is in Armenia within the
frameworks of regional visit.
Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry press service said during the meeting
the sides underscored the necessity of development of bilateral relations
and organization of mutual visits in this respect. Armenian foreign affairs
minister pointed out the support of the Swedish side in promoting the
involvement of Armenia in the EU New Neighborhood policy. The sides also
underscored the successful pace of implementation of technical programs
which have launched in Armenia since 1995 funded by Swedish International
Development Agency.(SIDA).
Speaking about the peaceful regulation of the Karabagh conflict, Gunnar
noted that his country is interested in regulation of all the conflicts in
the region as soon as possible. He also pointed out that Sweden is ready to
support the sides both politically and economically for reaching agreement
on the conflict regulation. With the request of the guest, Oskanian
presented the current cooperation programs implemented with EU and NATO, as
well as issues on the Armenian-Turkish relations.

Thursday, August 11, 2005
************************************
In some cultures military defeat is worse than death; in others it is moral victory.
*
The only time some Armenians think they are discharging their patriotic duty is when they are at each other’s throat.
*
There is a type of tourist who goes to Florence for the pizza.
*
I have observed that anonymous critics tend to be more aggressive.
*
Success is as difficult to handle as failure.
*
I analyze myself to understand others; and I analyze others to understand myself.
*
An honest man is a charlatan’s worst nightmare.
*
To how many of my fellow Armenians I could say:
Recover your humanity, you have nothing to lose but your Ottomanism.
*
It’s not easy dealing with Armenians, but it helps if you are deaf to their insults and blind to their defects.
#
Friday, August 12, 2005
**************************************
An in-depth study of contemporary Armenian literature in the Diaspora would be the shortest book in the world and it would say: Armenians in the Diaspora spend more money on pilaf and shish kebab than on books.
*
Authoritarian environments offer no incentive for growth because questioning and doubting dogmatic assertions are not allowed.
*
Take away Turks and the ego of some of our self-assessed, self-appointed, and self-satisfied pundits will collapse like a perforated balloon.
*
Like Armenians, Turks too come in all sizes and shapes and some Turks have been so thoroughly brainwashed that only the ghost of Ataturk can reach them.
*
A dogmatist is one who has been conditioned never to disagree with himself.
*
Unlike fools, the smart know their limitations.
*
The surest index of the future is not the promises of politicians or the rhetoric of charlatans but reality as assessed by objective historians.
*
Dealing with filth is an inevitable part of life and it makes no difference what you do for a living. Understand this and many incomprehensible things about the human condition became less unbearable.
#
Saturday, August 13, 2005
************************************
Like most Armenians I was raised with a forest of prejudices. Which is why I am not surprised when teenage readers hurl insults at me as if I were a pro-Turkish traitor.
*
Armenians of the Diaspora like to say that it will take two or even three generations for Armenians in the Homeland to be thoroughly de-Sovietized as if they themselves were in no need of being de-Ottomanized.
*
We divide foreign historians into Armenophiles and Turcophiles. We don’t have a category for objective historians because we assume Armenophiles to be more objective than Turcophiles. No doubt Turks make a similar assumption about Turcophiles.
*
A Turkish reader writes: “We will never apologize!” Thus implying that even if they do they will not mean it. Which amounts to saying that they will never accept the so-called values of the so-called civilized West, which has been the source of more evil than all the other continents combined. The irony here is that Armenians and Turks agree on viewing the West as thoroughly corrupt and hypocritical.
*
The German government may have apologized to the Jews but many Germans as well as anti-Semites of all nations and tribes, including, alas, Armenians, think the Holocaust is a gigantic hoax.
#

L.A. Weight Loss Centers relocates to Auburn, expands client base
The Citizen (Auburn, New York)
Thursday, July 21, 2005
By Louise Hoffman Broach
AUBURN, NEW YORK — L.A. Weight Loss Centers is Auburn’s gain.
The national weight control chain has opened at 53 Water St. It
relocated its Camillus store there because so many of its clients live
in Cayuga County, said Yvonne Taylor, the manager of the Auburn center.
Taylor and three other L.A. Weight Loss counselors meet privately with
clients three times a week, helping them learn better eating habits to
achieve effective weight loss. Having so many of them drive back and
forth so frequently was inconvenient, so the company started looking for
a location closer to its client base.
“It was a business decision,” Taylor said, noting there are two other
L.A. Weight Loss Centers in Onondaga County. “We wanted to make it
easier for our clients. A lot of them came from Auburn, Cato and
Weedsport. It was easier for them to get to Auburn.”
L.A. Weight Loss remodeled the space, bringing in new furnishings and
painting the interior. While clients wait to meet with counselors, a
television plays a CD of client testimonials about why the program
worked for them. There are also pictures of local successful weight
losers on the walls.
The Water Street office, formerly Curves and before that, a dance
studio, is busy. The parking lot is full most of the time as clients
come for their meetings. Taylor said they last about 10 to 15 minutes,
giving clients an opportunity to ask questions about the program and get
advice for situations that might prove difficult for them, such as
upcoming parties or other events where food will be abundant. The
counselors develop personalized meal plans that help clients reach their
weight loss goals.
The program does not require participants to eat special foods, although
there are soy-based products, such as shakes, soups and chocolate bars,
that clients are encouraged to purchase to help them stick with the program.
Taylor said the youngest L.A. Weight Loss client in Auburn is 13 and the
oldest is in her 70s.
The initial consultation for the program is free. Taylor did not
disclose how much the program costs, but said the initial commitment is
usually for a year. Weight loss for clients averages two pounds a week,
which she described as a healthy loss. The program runs the same for
people who want to lose 10 pounds as it is for someone who wants to lose
50. There is also a maintenance plan that helps people maintain their
weight loss.
L.A. Weight Loss Centers was founded in 1989 by Vahan Karian. There are
now almost 800 centers in the United States. Canada and Europe. They are
evenly split between corporate and franchise ownership. The center in
Auburn is corporate-owned. According to business tracking group Hoovers
On-Line, L.A. Weight Loss had $156.8 million in sales last year and
employed 1,600 people.
Staff writer Louise Hoffman Broach can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238
or [email protected]

Home Grown: Many newer homes were built on old Andover farmland
Andover Townsman (Andover, Mass.)
Thursday, August 4, 2005
By Rita Savard
Garabed “Red” Dargoonian remembers when Andover’s landscape was an
endless canvas of emerald green fields.
That was before industry and interstates helped change Andover into the
upscale bedroom community it is today.
“House after house, developers kept them coming,” recalls Dargoonian,
squinting in the sun as he fixes his gaze across the road from his
property at 23 Blanchard Ave., where 32 acres of his family’s farm once
stood.
“I crawled on that land on my hands and knees for over 40 years,” he
whispers. “To see houses over there, it hurts.”
The disappearance of Andover’s farms was the town’s single greatest
change during the last century, say Andover historians. Tucked away on a
shelf at the Andover Historical Society, the yellowed pages of a 1920
Town Directory list the names and addresses of 206 working farmers. By
1950, fewer than half remained. Today, the town assessor’s office shows
five parcels of land listed as paying a farmland tax.
Those chapter 61A records, according to Assessor Bruce Symmes, do not
necessarily include all the town’s remaining farmers. For instance,
Peter Loosigian, 84, is not on the list but he continues to work his
land religiously each day despite a never-ending train of offers to buy.
Loosigian has a 10-acre farm on Lowell Street.
Nevertheless, the significant decline in Andover’s farming community is
clear. Richard Nabydoski is selling his farm following lawsuits and
neighbors’ complaints about seagulls eating food meant for cows. When
Nabydoski’s land is sold, Bob Parks, owner and operator of Parks’
Piggery at 141 Chandler Road, will be the town’s only livestock farmer.
“Many farmers sell the land because they simply cannot afford to farm
anymore,” said Town Planning Director Steve Colyer. “Small farms have
almost become obsolete as a result of economic change. For farmers,
staying in their profession becomes a decision between putting bread on
their own families’ tables or putting bread on the tables of others. In
the meantime, property taxes increase, the values of land go up and
returns on produce or livestock fall.”
From farmhouses to cul-de-sacs
Before the turn of the last century, farming was a vital force in the
area’s economy, with Andover farmers helping to nourish the industrial
boom that put Lawrence on the map.
“Andover was known as the home of the hill, the mill and the till,” said
historian Juliet Mofford. “It was the farmers in town who supplied the
food to feed all the thousands and thousands of mill workers in Lawrence
and beyond from 1845 into the 1950s.”
Colombo Yogurt started in Andover in 1929, in the kitchen of the
Colombosian family.
But the very advent of industry in the area eventually led to many
Andover farms’ demise. Factory towns provided the perfect location for
major throughways. During the 1950s and 1960s, the emergence of Route
495 and Interstate-93 led to more industry in Andover.
“Everything in West Andover was pretty much farmland,” said historian
James Batchelder, whose own family owned and operated Rolling Hills, a
120-acre dairy farm on Argilla Road. “After I-93, we became more of a
bedroom community, with Boston being 25 minutes down the road instead of
an hour-long drive along Route 28.”
This construction of major throughways increased Andover’s accessibility
to commerce, trade and out-of town jobs – and lessened the demand for
homegrown produce. Highways also made Andover a more attractive place to
live.
Home developers began clamoring for Andover land. Farmers who did not
stop work during earlier construction waves were later approached with
attractive payouts for their land.
“When I came to Andover it still seemed like the last frontier,” jokes
Colyer, who moved to West Andover in 1984.
Today Andover is a town of more than 30,000 people, and there is little
land left to build on.
“If a guy gets a good price for selling, you can’t blame him,” said
Benjamin “Ben” Dargoonian, Red’s brother. The Dargoonian brothers sold
their 32-acre lot on Blanchard Street in the mid-1990s, when produce
profits were no longer enough compensation for labor-filled days in the
fields, they said. Ben Dargoonian’s son, Tom, is continuing the family
farming tradition on close to 40 acres of state-owned property he bought
across the road from the old Dargoonian farm.
As new housing developments continue to spring up throughout town, some
business-minded farmers such as the Sarkisian family, which owns
Sarkisian Farms and Driving Range on 153 Chandler Road, have managed to
remain by adding new services. The Sarkisians now have an ice-cream
stand and a golfing range alongside their active greenhouses.
Whatever their secret to survival, a handful of residents are now part
of a distinctive breed. They are Andover’s last farmers.
[Profiles of the farmers are published in the printed edition.]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkey denies holding Al-Qaeda suspects
Agence France Presse
Thursday, August 11, 2005

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s security department denied that police had detained
a group suspected of having links to the Al-Qaeda extremist network and
of plotting attacks against Israeli cruise ships in southern Turkey.
Police sources said a Syrian national was detained on suspicion of
involvement in a series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in November
2003, blamed on a local Al-Qaeda cell.
Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier said 10
people had been detained in the Antalya Province, which attracts
millions of tourists each year, on suspicion of plotting attacks on
behalf of Al-Qaeda on cruise ships popular with Israeli holiday makers.
Police headquarters in Ankara denied the report, also carried by the
Turkish media.
“Recent reports in the Turkish and foreign media on the arrest in the
southern provinces of Al-Qaeda members preparing to attack foreign ships
and the seizure of C4 plastic explosives are totally false and
ill-intentioned,” the statement said.
The private news channel NTV said earlier that the detained group was
gathering information on synagogues in Turkey as well as on Israeli
ships to prepare for attacks.
It said the suspects were detained in Istanbul and Antalya.
The suspects included a Syrian national believed to have built the bombs
used to attack two synagogues, the British consulate and London-based
HSBC bank in Istanbul in November 2003, NTV said.
The Syrian national, identified only by his initials N.S., was detained
in Diyarbakir, in the southeast, and was taken to Istanbul for
questioning by anti-terror police in connection with the 2003 attacks,
officials said.
Israel’s counterterrorism unit earlier this week warned Israeli holiday
makers to avoid a strip of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast between the
resorts of Alanya and Kemer, in Antalya Province, citing credible
intelligence pointing to a potential attack.
Last week, Israeli authorities ordered four Israeli cruise ships
scheduled to dock in Alanya to change course to Cyprus for fear of a
possible attack.

Metros rally to draw
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Youri Djorkaeff scored two second-half goals Saturday night to rally the
MetroStars to a 2-2 tie with FC Dallas at Frisco, Texas.
Djorkaeff’s goals wiped out a 2-0 halftime deficit and helped the
MetroStars improve to 7-6-8. FC Dallas (10-5-5) is winless in its last
five games.
Djorkaeff tied the game in the 53rd minute, looping a volley from about
20 yards that dropped into the left corner of the goal for his fifth
goal of the season. Ante Razov earned the assist. Djorkaeff also scored
an unassisted goal in the 47th minute.
Carlos Ruiz scored twice for FC Dallas, in the 31st and 34th minutes. He
twice came close to completing a hat trick. In the 87th minute, Ruiz had
a shot from 15 yards stopped by goaltender Tony Meola, and a minute
later, his shot from the left corner of the goalie box drifted a few
feet wide right.
The first goal at Pizza Hut Park came on a Ruiz bicycle kick. He also
scored the first goal at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., in 2003.
Minutes later Ruiz flicked a back-footed shot into the right corner of
the net from inside 15 yards for a 2-0 FC Dallas lead and his ninth goal
of the year. O’Brien and Bobby Rhine assisted.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian National Committee
Illinois
1701 North Greenwood Road
Glenview, IL 60026
Contact: Greg Bedian
Tel: 917 428 1918
Fax: 718 651 3637
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
ANC ILLINOIS APPLAUDS GOV. BLAGOJEVICH FOR SIGNING GENOCIDE CURRICULUM BILL
Chicago, IL- The Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Illinois praised
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for honoring his pledge to sign
legislation mandating that Illinois public school students receive
instruction on the Armenian Genocide and other acts of genocide.
“The Armenian American community is pleased that the Governor has signed
this bill to successfully complete the enactment process,” stated Greg
Bedian, ANC of Illinois chairperson. “By signing this bill, the Governor
not only demonstrated his concern for victims of previous genocides, he has
played an active part in a process that will hopefully help deter future
genocides.”
The bill, HB312, cleared the legislature with commanding margins earlier
this spring, passing the Illinois House on March 1st and passing the Senate
on May 11th. Soon after the bill won passage, the Illinois Information
Service (part of the state’s official government media communications
office) reported that Gov. Blagojevich confirmed that he would sign the
bill. That commitment was later confirmed by community members who met with
the Governor. Blagojevich also mentioned his support for genocide education
in a recent gubernatorial proclamation issued to mark the 90th Anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide. In it the Governor stated “both recognition and
education concerning past atrocities such as the Armenian Genocide is
crucial in the prevention of future crimes against humanity.”
After the bill was introduced, the ANC helped to mobilize Armenian and
non-Armenians alike to work for passage of the bill, which was introduced by
Representatives John A, Fritchey (D-11) and Paul D. Froelich (R-56). Upon
passage in the Illinois House by a vote of 96-11, HB312 was forwarded to the
Senate where Senators Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-16) and Ira Silverstein (D-8)
led the effort to a 47-5 victory in the Senate. During the weeks leading up
to the bill’s passage, the ANC lobbied Illinois House and Senate members to
work for passage of the bill by organizing grassroots email, telephone and
letter-writing campaigns as well as conducting office visits with
legislators. The ANC also made presentations to various groups to encourage
their participation in this activity.
“It was gratifying to see that our efforts led to a successful outcome,”
stated Karine Birazian, who heads up the ANC of Illinois’ Genocide Education
Committee. “It’s important for the many constituents, and especially the
public school students, who participated in this endeavor to see that their
voices were heard and that their actions could make a difference on such an
important issue as Genocide education.”
HB312 provides “that in addition to the unit of instruction studying the
events of the Holocaust, the curriculum of every public elementary school
and high school shall include a unit of instruction studying other acts of
genocide across the globe, including, but not limited to, the Armenian
Genocide, the Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, and more recent atrocities in
Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan.” With the passage of HB312, Illinois
joins several other states, including California and Massachusetts, which
have mandated expanded genocide education. Birazian added that the ANC will
be working with groups in those states as well as other organizations to
help assemble the necessary resources to help schools implement the new
requirements.
The Armenian National Committee of Illinois is a grassroots public affairs
organization serving to inform, educate, and act on a wide range of issues
concerning Armenian Americans throughout the state of Illinois.

NYFA Interactive
amp;fid=6&sid=17
Spotlight: A Representation Gap
Neery Melkonian
Although the prominence of the Middle East in political rhetoric (and
action) is affecting the amount of work by Middle Eastern artists
American audiences see, a problem remains. US-based Middle Eastern
artists often gain prominence and are shown more frequently
internationally. Are American curators not proposing sensitive and
thorough shows involving Middle Eastern artists? Are American
institutions threatened by the nature of their work, which is
frequently critical of American political policies? Or, more grimly,
are both true?
An online article in the January 26 issue of the Beirut Daily Star
entitled `Promoting an Alternative Image of the Arab World’ notes that
in 2004 artist Mona Hatoum, poet Mahmoud Darwish, and architect Suad
Amiry were all recipients of prestigious European awards, supposedly
based on merits and not the contemporary politics that have thrust the
Middle East very much into the spotlight of the western world. Similar
opinions were echoed in 2004 when Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born British
architect, became the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture
Prize.
Even if such awards are politically motivated, they don’t negate the
worthiness of their recipients, who are pioneers in their respective
fields and have been producing remarkable work for decades. A more
pressing issue to consider might be whether such recognition is
capable of altering the effects of vast representational imbalances
Middle Easterners have been experiencing in the US, culturally and
otherwise, for over a century.
Much like the delivery of news on the Middle East in the mainstream
media, curatorship has recently lacked when it comes to mediating
works by artists from this region. Without nuance, the translations of
work by Middle Eastern artists risks confining its legibility to the
ghettos of the contemporary art world instead of reaching larger
audiences. A brief overview of recent visual art trends (biennials,
mid-career surveys, and thematic exhibitions) demonstrates a growing
interest here in the works of Middle Eastern artists. But the
translatability of this delayed and somewhat sporadic reception within
a market-driven international art scene and its corresponding `global’
aesthetics also reveal certain patterns which beg some questions and
pondering. Namely, US-based Middle Eastern artists usually gain
recognition in Europe and elsewhere before the stamp of acceptance
comes from cultural institutions in the US.
For example, until the 1997 New Museum’s opening of Mona Hatoum’s
15-year survey exhibition (organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Chicago), the artist enjoyed much broader recognition in Canada and
Europe, despite’or maybe because of’the more overtly political content
of her earlier performance work. Similarly, New York-based Egyptian
artist Ghada Amer, known for her painstakingly stitched canvases that
appropriate pornographic imagery from popular culture, was shown at
the Istanbul, Johannesburg, and Venice Biennales (1995, 1997, and
1999, respectively) before significantly cracking the US art scene in
2000, when she was included in the Whitney Biennial; P.S.1’s Greater
New York; and had solo shows at Deitch Projects, New York; and the
Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee. The majority of New York-based
Walid Raad’s Atlas Group exhibitions between 2002-2004 were
international. Emily Jacir’s now-iconic Where We Come From series, in
which the artist (who possesses an American passport) performed favors
for’and the fantasies of’Palestinian citizens who aren’t privileged
with her freedom of movement, recently came under a scrutiny in the US
that it didn’t face when it was shown at the 2003 Istanbul
Biennial. Earlier this year, away from cosmopolitan centers, the
Jewish Federation of Kansas pressured Wichita’s Ulrich Museum of Art
to place brochures and a sign expressing their views in the gallery
where Where We Come From was scheduled to be shown. A nationwide
letter-writing campaign succeeded in convincing the university to
withdraw their decision.
It’s perhaps because of such controversies that the University of
Illinois’ Krannert Art Museum’s group exhibition Beyond East and West:
Seven Transnational Artists references the region without naming it,
but expands its geography by including a US-based Pakistani artist and
a British-born, part Iraqi artist. It might be worth mentioning that
five of its seven artists were part of a Middle East diaspora(s)
exhibit called Between Heaven & Hell (which I conceived in 1994) that
was unexpectedly canned (along with its curator) by the organizing
institution after it had received funding from the Rockefeller
Foundation and the NEA. The curatorial premise of Between Heaven &
Hell (which has been available online for nearly a decade) also
reverberated in the promotional materials of the more recent exhibit.
Granted, the term `Middle East’ has been problematic since its
colonial inception, but to render it invisible’even if just in the
`packaging’ of a touring exhibit’speaks to an erasure or denial of
sorts. To substitute the term `diasporas’ with yet another charged
term, `transnational,’ doesn’t help us unpack our (mis)understanding
of the Middle East, either. Just as projecting a different (imaginary)
cartography avoids the pitfalls of (actual) geopolitical remapping of
the region. Don’t such assumptions affirm that post-colonialism has
produced what some call `imperialism without colonies’?
Though mediating through languages outside their own, during the last
decade a number of Middle Eastern diaspora artists and cultural
producers have finally gained legitimacy within the competitive and
territorialized space of the international art world. Run by a circuit
of cosmopolitan dealers, collectors, curators, art publishers, and
intellectuals, these artists’ works are curated, brokered, managed,
and written about in ways which confront us with familiar questions:
who represents whom? How is a discourse framed? What happens to
national and cultural specificities (including ethnic minorities in
the region such as Azeris and Kurds) in homogenized `global’
exhibition practices? Are the production and dissemination of these
forms of knowledge available to broader audiences, including Middle
Eastern communities living in the West?
The internationalization of contemporary art by Middle Easterners
living in the West began nearly ten years ago, even though the
westward migration of Middle Easterners can be traced back to the end
of the Ottoman Empire and the following remapping of the region by
European colonial powers. The tragic survival story of the
Armenian-American painter Arshile Gorky (and the lesser known sculptor
Raoul Hague, Gorky’s compatriot and contemporary) stands not only as a
testament to the era’s grand project of Modernism (the formation of
nation states, displacement of large populations, ethnic cleansing,
and genocides) but also to the relegation of art to exile and the
struggle for survival. No wonder such experiences found expression
best in the homogenized aesthetics of abstraction.
Currently, the inclusion of Middle Eastern artists within the art
world’s `mainstream’ doesn’t equate to the more committed integration
of broader representational concerns. Without conscience-formation,
exhibitions, biennials, and prizes risk becoming markers of passing
trends, void of meaningful currency and vulnerable to the changing
appetite of shoppers in the expanding global art malls.
Neery Melkonian is an art writer based in New York. She was formerly
Associate Director at the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard
College, and the Director of Visual Arts at the CCA in Santa Fe. She
spent the last five years producing art-based projects in the war-torn
and disputed enclave of Nagorno Karabagh, Armenia (arbitrarily annexed
to oil rich Azerbeijan by Stalin). Melkonian was born and raised in
the Middle East to parents who were survivors of the Armenian genocide
and immigrated to the United States, where she pursued graduate
studies in art history at UCLA.
—
New York Foundation for the Arts
155 Avenue of the Americas, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10013-1507
Phone: 212.366.6900
Fax: 212.366.1778
Email: [email protected]