Box, cross, dissmemberment, genocide

Installation, performance, 1997

The box is white and mysterious. It sits in the middle of the room. She opens the box reverentially. The ritual is not about mourning, but about discovery and revelation. The box opens and it becomes a cross. The cross carries a body, candles and papers. She empties the box and discovers the body. She lights the candles around it and rests for a moment. Then she takes the pieces apart and moves them to different directions. She plants seeds in the ground next to each piece. The candles keep burning...

Music:
Shoushanig Lyric Image, Edward Mirzoyan
Lord, open us the doors, arr. by R. Atayan, Lucine Zakarian, soprano
Hispanola, Vangelis
Moxica and the horse, Vangelis
Text: excerpt from Arshile Gorky's letter to his sister Vartoush, February 25, 1941, New York
Voice: Greg Thompson
Sculpture: Simon Guevrekian and Alina Mnatsakanian