ONGOING; ARTISTIC-CURATORIAL; RESEARCH PROJECT
Memoryal Tsavt Tanem Ցավդտանեմ

Artistic-Curatorial Research Project that explores memory, trauma, and resilience through the (im)material practices of Armenian culture.

Initiated in 2024, it investigates how practices like carpet weaving, singing, and oral storytelling preserve familial and collective memory, connect generations, and process transgenerational trauma.

The research combines the following three approaches:

I Collecting:
Documentation

Within the REZIN Armenian Art Residency Program in 2024, I initiated conversations with people from diverse generations, family structures, and life experiences—as well as with weavers, singers, and storytellers from both rural and urban regions, spanning from Lori to Syunik Region. This initial field research, documenting conversations, everyday practices, and archival material, will be brought together in an audiovisual and textual archive for a poetic-emotional analysis of cultural memory.

Stills from Video Documentary

In August 2024 I showed "Memoryal Trees" as a first insight into the documentation of "Memoryal" at the Goethe Institute in Yerevan.

↓ ART WORK Memoryal Trees

II Creating:
Memoryal Collaborations

The Memoryal Collaborations took place in April 2025, including a residency at Art Basis in Mush, work at GTC Gyumri Technology Center, and the Living Room Project Space as well as in Sec Studio in Yerevan. Armenian artists in collaboration explored personal memory practices, linking them to an artistic analysis of the Documentation. Seven sound artists and movement-based performers as well as two curators participated through an open application call.

Aligned with the theme "Weaving the Immaterial," this initiative contrasts with "Weaving Material," the thematic focus of the upcoming collaborations happening in Germany, which will integrate two Germany based Armenian artists into a collaboration trio of visual artists.

Below is an overview of this journey so far:

Mush — Gyumri Air Programm (Art Basis, Hayastan All Armenia Fonds)

Community Project & Walk-in Workshop “BANKET”
in Collaboration with Yulia Stepanova

In the Mush neighborhood, local residents connected personal memories with archival stories from the documentation through artistic expression. Inspired by Armenian traditions, food, drink, and aromas created a sensory ritual guided by smell and taste — the senses most closely linked to memory.

Gyumri — Gyumri Technology Center (GTC)

Sound Work “Surp”
In Collaboration with Yulia Stepanova

The piece features the voice of Heghine Khachantryan, singing to a newly planted tree at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. The recording was repeatedly played back and re-recorded at a prehistoric ritual site in the Shirak region, allowing the site’s resonances to merge with her voice. Drawing on her daily songs and prayers to the poet Hovhannes Shiraz, the work also incorporates recordings from his house in Gyumri, using the same method, creating a layered dialogue between voice, place, and collective memory.

Masterclass: “Everything Is Sound, Is Memory”
In Collaboration with Taron.X and Syuzi Ginosyan

Youth participants explored how their memory places sounds through community soundwalks. Their recordings became a basis for creating a soundtrack of Memoryal.

Yerevan — Living Room Laboratory (Artas Foundation, Sec Studio)

Sound & Movement Lab
In Collaboration with Igor Rogalev, Karina Kazaryan, Margarita Sargsyan, Lolita Moistrapishvili, Monika Mirzoyan, Vardan Harutyunyan

Artists translated personal memory into sound and movement. The “red thread” symbolized how memory weaves through life, forming interconnected compositions of remembrance.

Open Process Day
In Collaboration with Igor Rogalev, Karina Kazaryan, Margarita Sargsyan, Lolita Moistrapishvili, Monika Mirzoyan, Vardan Harutyunyan

An open laboratory invited artists, curators, and cultural workers to engage with the process  of the Sound & Movement Lab using curated cards with research material, quotes, and reflective questions.

Collaborating Artists and Curators in "Memoryal Collaborations"

In October 2025, I was invited by Artas Foundation to participate in a ten-day community-based art residency in Goris and the Armenian–Azerbaijani border region, as part of the “Memoryal” project.

COMMUNITY RESIDENCY Archaeology of the Present ↓

III Connecting
(upcoming)

Workshops with the Armenian diaspora in Germany, combining weaving and oral history, enabling storytelling and participatory creation.

The project is aimed to culminate in a book and audio publication, as well as exhibition between Armenia and Germany, engaging audiences in dialogue about cultural memory and heritage.

Memoryal is realized by Anika Krbetschek and G.URBAN, in cooperation with GTC Gyumri Technology Center, di.Studio, ArtBasis, Artas Foundation, sec Studio, and :DDD Kunst Haus, supported by Goethe-Institut Yerevan and Armenien Fonds. Artistic mobility support for "Memoryal Collaborations" has been provided by Culture Moves Europe, a project funded by the European Union. If you are interested in further details or extensive documentation contact via mail.