2010 | Presences

The installation “Presences“ is about the Armenian presence in Aleppo, Paris, Buenos Aires and Córdoba and implies absence of Armenian life today in the native city of my grandparents, Ainteb, now called Gaziantep - which is 120 km away from the Turkish / Syrian border. Historic images between 1910 and 1975 document the life of my family in exile showing very
meaningful moments such as the arriving of my grandmother
Agavni on a trip to her sister in the USA. It was
their first reunion in over 50 years of separation after
they had survived the death marches of 1915.

1920: my grandfather Avedis Tobdjian with his school class in the Catholic Armenian school in Aleppo







































About 1914: my Grandfather Levon Der-Meguerditchian with his mother Elmass Kurkdjian, Marash

1924: Aleppo, my grandfather Avedis Tobdjian makes music with cousins and friends.




















1959: Avedis Tobdjian with his music group 'Tatul Altunian' during a show in Buenos Aires.

























1975: My grandmother Agavni Tengerian de Der-Meguerditchian arrives in Miami.

Video: „La quête d’un refuge“
Jahr: 2007
Laufzeit: 24:20 min
Gruppe Tatul Altunian aus Buenos Aires, Leiter
Interview in Armenian with EN Subtitles
Sound: Avedis Tobdjian, LP ca. 1959
Mekhitaristen Mutterkloster, Venedig, armenische liturgische Lieder, Solist: Rev. Vartanes Oulouhodjian, 2005
La quête d’un refuge is a documentary based on an interview with Dr. Vahe Tachjian that took place in Berlin (2006). Tachjian, born in Beirut and living in Berlin since 2006 is a researcher and author specialized in the Late Ottoman Empire and the modern States of the Middle East. In this video I use a minimalistic visual language: historical images are shown and discussed on his imac laptop. The thread of the conversation reveals step by step the collective picture in which my grandparents have lived. I realize that orphans with their traumas, fears and hopes constructed our third generation reality in the Diaspora.