SPYING ON ARMENIA
Many of us may wander “How did I manage to be born in Armenia?” And just because of such thoughts we take the risk of being punished by remaining sterile and without experience, of which we can be saved by work and fate. What we can learn from, is where we are, because we can only get out of a place where our body is.
The only homeland of individuality is the unknown homeland. Any artist or personality, including the young Armenian one, in some sense is a citizen of an unknown country. He is like a spy who has attained reality, with the difference that it is not clear who is he serving? Because he does not serve a specific state against his native homeland, but an unknown homeland, which is void of a specific geographic name. Therefore, he serves neither Armenia, nor France or Russia. This very realization places us in a situation where we have to be spies. Spies, because everything in front of us is secret, needing to be exposed and taken apart. But the trade of the spy has a specificity. The spy has to resemble common citizens. It is his consciousness which is that of a spy. Usually spies work in disguise, for example as engineers, accountants and sometimes as artists. With artists, however, there is always temptation of wearing the hat of the “unknown” homeland, which is quite frequent. A good spy must blend in. One needs to wear the hat of the homeland where one lives as a common citizen, in this case Armenia. Temptation or attempt of wearing the hat of an unknown homeland results in degeneration of artistic talent. As a result instead of seeing the reality, one always sees himself, or creates with self-admiration, and nothing comes of it.
Let us assume a person loves his homeland, which has deficiencies. If he loves it possessively, he will be eternal slave of his homeland, without being capable of loving it freely and independently. In love we are not accountable to anyone, including the homeland. Love is a personal matter, therefore the person is free of the expectation that his homeland must be perfect. It is not possible for individual’s or artist’s love for the homeland to depend on whether it has deficiencies or not. This is why one can leave it, and one’s departure will not be a matter of love of the homeland or lack of it. But in our consciousness Armenia can never become perfect as long as we live with the passion of proving our love for it. Here, people and countries become identical, since from the standpoint of workings of our attachments and dependencies they are the same.
Seda Shekoyan
P.S. The exhibition space will be divided into following pavilions/sections:
Consumer Armenia / Impoverished Armenia / Learning Armenia / Praying Armenia / Emerging Armenia / Sweet Armenia / Working Armenia / Dissatisfied Armenia / Thinking Armenia / Wandering Armenia
