Son[i]a #387 Haig Aivazian
- 00:01 Puzzlement
- 02:28 It's not about subjective truth
- 05:42 The double movement of modernity
- 09:46 Capture takes different forms
- 11:39 Reparative practices
- 16:18 Truth, facts
- 25:10 Useful poetics
- 32:52 Modes of address
- 41:00 Light, darkness
- 50:56 Beirut, a city plunged in darkness
- 53:26 The infrastructure of normalcy
- 60:38 Gaza
- 67:49 Ghosts, law
- 76:51 An alliance with the dead
To say that Haig Aivazian’s (b. 1980, Beirut) work addresses notions such as duress, capture, resistance and fugitivity is simply to state the obvious considering the basic facts of his biography. Born in Beirut in 1980, Haig was raised amidst the Lebanese Civil War and forced into exile before turning 10.
Through media such as lectures, performance, video, drawing, installation, and sculpture, Haig’s multifaceted works intricately blend the personal and the geopolitical as well as micro and macro narratives. They uncover or perhaps even fabricate complex threads, timelines and visual networks with multiple layers of meaning and ambiguity. His stories are intended to puzzle, reveal intangible connections, and evoke a sense of ghostly friction among conflicting ideas. Since 2009, the duality of light and darkness has been one of the recurring themes that Aivazian examines through various lenses—from the symbolic and metaphorical, to the harsh reality of armed conflict, as well as urban planning and the many ways in which states exercise their power.
In this podcast, we talk to Haig Aivazian about counter-propaganda, sports, blackouts, Palestine, fugitivity and what he calls “the dumping grounds of democracy”.
This podcast is part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. Co-produced by BEK.
Conversation: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros and Anna Ramos. Script and sound production: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros. Voice over: Javiera Cadiz. Sounds: RWM Working Group, sounds from the Willem Twee Studios library, in Den Bosch. Photo: Myriam Boulos.