2010 | Semantic Fields

The three works of the Semantic Fields series that are displayed in this exhibition are variations on a common theme: 'E' (existence), 'Nous' (we) and 'Ben/Sen' (I/you) form a continuous narrative which tells the story of Silvina Der-Meguerditchian's personal path of coming to terms with the trauma of the Armenians expulsion from Turkey and her attempts at rapprochement. The visualization of an absence; the void left behind by the Genocide of the Armenians thereby forms the starting point of the artist's creative process. It appears as if torn out, the scrap of paper on which the Armenian 'E' a synonym for 'being' becomes readable through a form of puncture: the pricking of the smallest of holes as signs of the disappearance. The artist fills these holes with fleecy woolen threads, lending them a new materiality and asserting in a forceful manner the existence of a cultural Armenian identity. This assertion becomes in the work 'Nous' an appraisal as well as a biographically motivated question: Who are we? How might a contemporary Armenian identity look in light of the past? The 'holes', the present and the lost, remain visible. From others there appear to grow threads, always establishing new connections and linkages. Yet these connections appear vulnerable, unsettling, in part even threatening: reminiscent of barbs and thorns and the trauma of the void. The room installation 'Ben/Sen' goes one step further. Differently-colored woolen threads coming out of the holes in the paper fall harmoniously to the floor from opposite walls and come into contact with one another. They enter into dialogue and join in some places into a whole. Ben/Sen imparts the wish of the artist of 'coming together' after the breach, of seeking out common cultural identities and living reconciliation. Text by Barbara Höffer