HYBRIDITY to represent Republic of Armenia at La Biennale di Venezia

YEREVAN – Following an open call announced by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, and the deliberation of a 12-member jury, the proposal HYBRIDITY (previously Hybrid Identities) was selected to represent the Republic of Armenia at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The project is presented in collaboration with the Boston-based architecture and design firm INVIVIA, founded in 1999 and the Yerevan-based Storaket architectural studio, founded in 2007.

In today’s world of multifaceted cultures and relentless movements, we need to better understand how people develop a sense of identity and learn to coexist in varying places. Armenians have a singular heritage that has compelled them to connect diverse diasporic communities across the world through digital and virtual processes. The Armenian Pavilion will allow the international community to step into the Armenian experience for a time.

HYBRIDITY, curated by Allen Sayegh (Vosguerichian) and commissioned by Tina Chakarian, is an experimental installation on the grounds of Ca’ Zenobio degli Armeni as well as a digital platform that encourages visitors to explore the fundamentals of human interaction through a physical and virtual expression of the living process among a hybridity of identities. As a representation of the Armenian experience of exile and survival, dissemination and coming together, HYBRIDITY tries to translate this human capacity to interact with each other and influence cultures both as individuals and as a community, in familiar as well as in unusual spaces. It will run from August 28 to November 21.

HYBRIDITY will connect more than 80 countries of the Armenian Diaspora through a global virtual machine that digitally expands the architectural structures in Venice. Using Augmented Reality (AR), Armenians from around the world will be invited to share visual stories, videos and images of spaces they inhabit. Visitors of the exhibition will be able to experience the collective contributions interwoven into the physical environment in and around the grounds of Ca’ Zenobio degli Armeni.

The Armenian pavilion celebrates the resilience of a people, while remaining conscious of the universality of the issues at hand. At a time where humans face a number of planetary crises, HYBRIDITY highlights the human capacity to interact with each other in the realms of the local and the global, the national and the diaspora, the digital and the physical.

Call for Submissions to be Integrated to the Armenian Pavilion

The curatorial team of the Armenian Pavilion is collecting photos, videos or art from Armenians all over the world to exhibit at the Armenian Pavilion from August 28 – November 21, as part of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Deadline for submissions is June 20, 2021.

Armenia has a long history of tackling the Biennale’s question: “How will we live together?” Maintaining connections together through time and distance, millions of Armenians throughout the Diaspora have been adapting to new socio-cultural contexts while keeping strong relationships to their Armenian identity. Armenians share a rich culture that has resulted in a unique community strengthened through intangible quantities, such as the smell of cooking, humming a tune or a sense of humor.

Armenians are encouraged to submit photos/video/art/poetry of any object or spaces in your home that convey the intangible qualities of being Armenian. These objects may not be overtly Armenian, but instead, uniquely significant to you. Ask yourself: 1) What intangible (hidden) qualities does this object have? What emotion does it stir up? 2) Why is this object significant in the formation of my identity?

Online submissions must include original text in any language describing how the space or object conjures up the intangible qualities of being Armenian.