HOME IS WHERE WE START FROM
LA MAISON EST LÀ OÙ TOUT COMMENCE

Maison Tavel (MAH)

Rue du Puits-St Pierre 6, 1204 | Geneva

20 February – 30 August 2025
Opening: 19 February at 18:00

Inspired by the evocative poem “My mother was my first country. The first place I ever lived’’ by African American writer Nayyirah Waheed, this exhibition curated by Adelina Cuberyan von Fürstenberg brings together twentysix women artists of diverse migratory origins, spanning the first and second generations.

While embracing a global perspective with the participation of internationally acclaimed women artists such as Marina Abramović, Elena el Asmar, Mona Hatoum, Kimsooja, Ekene Emeka-Maduka, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Shirin Neshat, Rosana Palazyan, Iris Sara Schiller, Zineb Sedira, and Maria Tsagkari, the exhibition also highlights women artists who live and work in French-speaking Switzerland, namely Clara Alloing, Anna Barseghian, Marie José Burki, Marisa Cornejo, Fabiana de Barros, Anjesa Dellova, Vanna Karamaounas, Elisabeth Llach, Keiko Machida, Maria-Carmen Perlingeiro, Mai-Thu Perret, Carmen Perrin, Alexandra Roussopoulos, Davide-Christelle Sanvee, and Vivianne van Singer.

The exhibition at Kalfayan Galleries marks the first presentation of works from the new series of ‘memory-carpets’ by Silvina Der Meguerditchian, titled ‘The Texture of Identity’. The works offer a tactile yet powerful fusion of past and present, where photographs and fragments are meticulously woven into contemporary forms. For the first time in this series, Meguerditchian includes recent photographs she has taken in cities she visited over the last twenty years, each affected by political upheaval or war—such as Aleppo in 2006, Stepanakert and Shushi (Nagorno Karabakh) in 2008, Diyarbakir in 2014, and Beirut in 2018. These works serve as an homage to the enduring memory of daily life in these cities, minimal monuments merging the temporal with the timeless in a reverent tribute.

Through collage, sculpture, and immersive installations, Der Meguerditchian probes the intersections of personal narratives with collective memory, exploring questions of coexistence in(post-)migrant societies. Her expansive installations create spaces for reflection and critical engagement, inviting viewers to confront and consider complex cultural narratives.

Using everyday objects, traditional textiles, and personal artifacts, she crafts narratives that examine themes of displacement, cultural heritage, and resilience. Her work seamlessly integrates archival materials—photographs, documents, letters—with abstract elements, establishing a dialogue between memory and forgetting, presence and absence. These compositions function as thought exercises on loss and recovery, urging audiences to reflect on the ways history is both constructed and deconstructed.

SCREENING of THRESHOLDS and CARE TO CARE

at the Film Festival "Heimat in der Fremde - Transnationales armenisches Kino"

Fr. 20. September 2024 – 20:00 Uhr

Kino des DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum
Schaumainkai 41
60596 Frankfurt am Main

Zu Gast: Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Krikor Beledian; Übersetzung; Elke Shoghig Hartmann; Moderation: Lusin Reinsch

This series by Filmkollektiv Frankfurt e.V. is dedicated to the cinema of people of Armenian descent from all over the world, the Armenian diaspora - a first in Germany.
This programme presents some outstanding examples, both feature-length and short films, and illustrates the artistic range of this transnational Armenian cinema, from feature films to essayistic documentaries and experimental films.

Based on the leitmotif "The Pile", the first chapter of the novel Semer (Thresholds) by Krikor Beledian, THRESHOLDS, realised by the important visual artist and filmmaker Silvina Der Meguerditchian, deals with 20th century photography and its role in the cultural and familial heritage of the people. The text, one of the literary masterpieces of the Western Armenian language, explores the influence of photographic images on the appropriation of family history, in this case of a family of survivors of the Armenian Genocide (1915). Meguerditchians CARE TO CARE, on the other hand, is filled with memorable, symbolic images that seem to illustrate an archaic performance.

HOME/HOPE is a capsule exhibition centred on notions of belonging, identity and our dreams for the future at the Larnaca Biennale in Cyprus. Curated by Yev Kravt, this exhibition features 30 guest artists, all exploring the intricate theme of "home" from diverse perspectives.

HOME/HOPE explores these intertwined notions, telling tales through the works of 30 selected artists. The exhibition takes cues from several pressing questions: how might the definition of home be changing? What constitutes hope? And crucially, how do these separate concepts reinforce one another?
 

The exhibition includes contributions by 30 visual artists, including: Andreas Kalli, Armen Ter-Mkrtchyan, Aukje Dekker with SEXYLAND, Benji Boyadgian, Danae Stratou, Cengiz Bodur, Droog x KesselsKramer, George Stamenov, Gohar Martirosyan, Guy Ben-Ner, HovHar, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Maria Touloupou, Melanie Bonajo, Neo Matloga, Olgaç Bozalp, Pet Liger, Raida Adon, Rosana Palazyan, Selma Selman, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Slavs and Tatars, Sunny Dolat, Tal Shochat, Tania El Khoury, Turan Aksoy, Vyacheslav-Yura Useinov, World Citizen Government and Yves Sambu.

Künstler*innen: Chan Sook Choi, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Pınar Öğrenci, Selma Selman

Die Ausstellung versammelt vier Künstlerinnen, die – ausgehend von der eigenen Familiengeschichte – Nachwirkungen generationaler Traumata von Vertreibung und Unterdrückung untersuchen. In Video, Skulptur und Installation machen sie Erfahrungen marginalisierter Gemeinschaften und Formen von Erinnerung, Überleben bis hin zu Widerstand sichtbar:

Über einen interdisziplinären Ansatz nähert sich Silvina Der Meguerditchian Fragen von Erinnerung, Erbe und Identitätsbildung aus einer armenisch-diasporischen Perspektive. Sie lotet die Zwischenräume von Sprache und Semantik aus und transformiert diese in vielschichtige Bildkörper.

Chan Sook Choi spannt in ihrer langjährigen Feldforschung einen Bogen von der demilitarisierten Zone zwischen Nord- und Südkorea bis ins nördliche Chile. Sie hinterfragt die Rolle des Eigentums im Kapitalismus anhand von Land und Körper und reflektiert Mechanismen, die sich im Digitalen zu wiederholen scheinen. Die Van-Region in der östlichen Türkei ist Schauplatz für die Arbeiten von Pınar Öğrenci, in denen sie sich den Lebensrealitäten der kurdischen Bevölkerung und anderer vertriebener Gruppen in der Türkei widmet. In so stimmungsvollen wie subtilen Aufnahmen wird staatliche Gewalt, Vertreibung und das Verschwinden von Menschen ebenso thematisiert wie Schach als Strategie, um zu überleben. In widerständigen Gesten erforscht Selma Selman Facetten ihrer Identität und Möglichkeiten der Selbstermächtigung. Von lautstarken Aktionen im öffentlichen Raum über ein intimes Gespräch im vertrauten Zuhause wirft sie einen kritischen Blick auf die eigene Community der Rom:nja und gesellschaftliche patriarchale Strukturen.

Die künstlerischen Positionen der Ausstellung verweilen nicht im Persönlichen, Dokumentarischen oder in der Korrektur von Narrativen, sondern eröffnen neue Räume, in denen Potenziale für Veränderung erforscht werden.

https://kunstverein-tiergarten.de/ausstellungen/kommende-ausstellungen/

Opening: Friday, 10. Mar, 7 pm
Ground Floor

Artists: Nadja Abt, Tekla Aslanishvili, Marianna Christofides, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Christian Diaz Orejarena, Sofia Duchovny, Ahu Dural, Cornelia Herfurtner, Göksu Kunak, Isaiah Lopaz, Alina Schmuch
 

Curators: Layla Burger-Lichtenstein, Arkadij Koscheew

Realities Left Vacant presents works by the 11 international artists awarded the 2022 visual arts work stipend of the Berlin Senate. The exhibition shows the diversity of their individual artistic approaches while highlighting the broader social issues and contemporary image politics that shape them.

https://www.nbk.org/en/ausstellungen/realities-left-vacant

A collaboration between the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens and the Schwarz Foundation (Munich/Athens/Samos) is pleased to announce its collaboration with the non-profit Schwarz Foundation, as part of its new policy of creating synergies and partnerships with other institutions in Greece and abroad and its policy to showcase its collection outside the museum itself, and beyond its metropolitan context, in other regions of Greece.  Within this framework, the group exhibition HANDMADE: On the Social Dimensions of Craft will be presented in the Schwarz Foundation’s venue, Art Space Pythagorion, on the Greek island of Samos,

from the 5^th August – 25^th September this year.

The exhibition features nine artists, including works from the Museum’s Collection.

Curated by Katerina Gregos

Artists: Nikos Alexiou, Bertille Bak, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Maria Louizou, Jennifer Nelson, Natalia Manta, Eleni Mylonas, Sphinxes, Maria Varela

https://www.emst.gr/en/exhibitions-en/handmade-on-the-social-dimensions-of-craft

Klimawandel und Dürren, Politiken der Isolation, Rezession, bewaffnete Konflikte und autoritäre Regime – viele der existenziellen Fragen unserer Zeit, unserer globalen Krisen können allein in Relation zu diesen beiden Begriffen formuliert werden: Natur und Staat. Im Zentrum von Nature and State steht die Untersuchung von Kontinuität und Ungehorsam, mögliche Wege der Transformation von Staatlichkeit als Gesellschaftsform und der genealogischen Beziehung zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft.

Kuratiert von Cagla Ilk, Misal Adnan Yildiz und Christine Lehnert

Los Angeles Art 1970s – 1990s  
from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection

ON THE EDGE /“Discovering Takouhi: Portraits of Joan Agajanian Quinn,” will include Armenian artists such as Dahlia Elsayed, Jean Kazanjian, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Ara Oshagan, Zaven Sarkissian, and Aram Saroyan.
Curated by Gina Grigorian and Natalie Varbedian.
Opening on Thursday, June 16, 2022

The exhibition features more than 75 artists including Lita Albuquerque, John Altoon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynda Benglis, Vija Celmins, Gregory Wiley Edwards, Frank Gehry, Helmut Newton, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol. Curated by Rachel McCullah Wainwright.

65 Main Street Watertown,

Massachusetts
www.armenianmuseum.org

SOFT OPENING 25.02.22 | 14:00 to 20:00

Register under: https://ngbk.de/de/show/687/der-ausstellung

EXHIBITION 26 February – 30 April 2022

ngbk (neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst)
Oranienstraße 25
10999 Berlin

The Twister project explores artistic engagement with political upheavals in the Eastern Mediterranean, and takes place at both nGbK locations. It consists of an exhibition and panel discussions at Oranienstraße as well as an installation and workshops at nGbK Hellersdorf, and a catalog.Twister explores both political whirlwinds and the absurdity of nationalistic claims to geography and nature. Finally, the project looks at how diasporic communities from different countries can interact and cooperate. Curated by : nGbK project group Berk Asal, Emre Birişmen, Erden Kosova, Melih Sarıgöl, Selda Asal Artists: Mouna Abo Assali, Mehtap Baydu, Christina Dimitriadis, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Ece Gökalp, Edona Kryeziu, Eleni Mouzourou, Ceren Oykut, Viron Erol Vert, FUNKE collective (Selda Asal, Emre Birişmen, Melih Sarıgöl, Seçil Yersel)

Solo show

Opening: Thursday, 15 November 2018,
20.00 - 22.00

Duration: 15 November 2018 - 12 January 2019

Opening hours: Monday & Saturday: 11.00 - 15.00, Tuesday - Friday: 11.00 -19.00

11 Haritos Street, Kolonaki 10675 Athens, Greece

T.+30 210 7217679  /

info@kalfayangalleries.com / www.kalfayangalleries.com

Theaterparcours in Fener-Balat/ Istanbul / Premiere 24.Mai 2014 um 14:00 - Treffpunkt Café Hanimeli in Akçin Sokak Balat No: 3, Fener, İstanbul Eintritt frei | Anmeldung bis 23. Mai 2014 unter: buromilk(at)gmail.com

Wohin-Nereye? ist eine theatrale Suche nach den Auswirkungen von Verdrängung im Viertel Fener-Balat in Istanbul. Armenier, Griechen und Juden haben in der ersten Hälfe des 20. Jahrhunderts das Viertel geprägt, in den 70er Jahren kamen Einwanderer aus der Schwarzmeerregion, später Kurden und Roma. Ein geheimnisvoller Stadtteil ist dort erwachsen und aufgrund der häufig traumatischen

Erfahrungen der Vertriebenen auch ein bitterer. Heute wird das kulturelle und soziale Leben in Fener-Balat durch Immobilienspekulation und Kahlschlagsanierung zunehmend zerstört. Doch noch lassen sich Spuren verschiedener Gemeinden finden.

Die Protagonisten von Wohin-Nereye sind Experten des Alltags: Vertriebene, die heimisch
geworden sind in Fener-Balat und nun abermals gehen müssen. Basierend auf Interviews mit dem letzten Armenischen Bewohner von Balat, mit einer der letzten Schülerinnen der Griechischen Mädchenschule Yoakimion, mit dem Inhaber des Cafés Hanimeli und mit dem Leiter des jüdischen Altersheims ist ein Panoptikum persönlicher Erfahrungen und Wahrnehmungen entstanden. In einem Parcours durchlaufen die Zuschauer städtische Transiträume in Fener-Balat und begegnen den Protagonisten. Dabei bietet der selbst zurückgelegte Weg neue Erfahrungen und Blickweisen auf das vergangene und heutige Viertel Fener-Balat und seine Bewohner.

Konzept und Regie: Cagla Ilk | Silvina Der-Meguerditchian
Dramaturgie: Paulina Papenfuß Recherche: Urszula Wozniak | Güleren Eren Produktionsleitung: Cagla Ilk
Produktionsassistenz: Zeynep Titizer | Güleren Eren
Film: Silvina Der-Meguerditchian

"Wohin-Nereye?" ist der Gewinner des Projektwettbewerbs kultur-im-dialog.moe in 2013. kultur-im-dialog.moe ist ein Wettbewerb, den MitOst in Kooperation mit der Schering Stiftung ausschreibt.

Silvina Der-Meguerditchian's second solo exhibition in Istanbul, hosted by Depo, from April 18 till 25. May

One of the leading visual motifs in Der-Meguerditchian's oeuvre is cords of various forms that come in red. Presented as wool threads, long strings and braids, they beget a wide range of associations, which evoke mostly organic structures such as blood vessels, neural systems, blood spills and spider webs. It feels as if they have an organic integrity and texture, at times recalling closely interwoven fabric patterns. These fibers seem to be unraveling from where they belong, driven away, scattered, and fractured. Yet, they don't lose contact entirely with the site of origin. One end of the thread maintains its touch with this unity. (...)

Silvina Der-Meguerditchian and Jasmin İhraç
21.-24.3.2014, 20 Uhr

mj’asin is the Armenian word for “together”. The visual artist Silvina Der-Meguerditchian and the choreographer and dancer Jasmin İhraç embark on a search for what supposedly connects them: their Armenian roots. Walking through tradition and history, they come upon blind spots, absence and loss. And their unusual play with traditional symbols, techniques and folk dances invariably makes a connection to the present: will yesterday’s community remain today’s yearning? Where is the resistance in cross-stitch and lockstep? What are fragments and documents of our appropriation? The multimedia performance, consisting of sound, objects, installations and dance, makes use of the notion of synchronicity and opens up a new space for the different perspectives.

Produced by Kultursprünge at Ballhaus Naunynstraße gemeinnützige GmbH, funded by the intercultural project funding of the Land of Berlin. Original photo: The sisters Araxi, Sara and Eva Kazandjian, © Alice Kazandjian collection, Beirut.

http://www.ballhausnaunynstrasse.de/auffuehrung/66630662

Kuratorinnen: Dr. Birgit Möckel und Özlem Cengel Götzelt Zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung Donnerstag, dem 31. Oktober 2013 um 19 Uhr im HAUS am KLEISTPARK lade ich Sie und Ihre Freunde herzlich ein. Haus am Kleistpark Grunewaldstraße 6-7 10823 Berlin http://www.hausamkleistpark.de

Deep Sea Fish is at the 10th International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels. Held between March 10-18 the festival brings together this year films from the history of feminist cinema and marvelous films from previous Filmmor festivals.
The film invites us to Istanbul to have a walk on the streets of Cihangir. The person that will accompany us is in an area where past and present, consciousness and unconsciousness are tangled. Is it possible to reshape and describe erased memories? - 
Deep Sea Fish - Germany  - Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, 2011, HD, Color, 31’, English with Turkish subtitels - Screenings: 16.03 - 15:00 h and Sunday 18.03 12:30 h at Istanbul Modern