Mekhitar Garabedian
Mekhitar Garabedian was born in 1977 from Armenian parents in Syria and has lived in Belgium since he was young. His own Armenian origins and that of others is one of the central themes of his work.
The complexity of life in the diaspora is also reflected in the use of a wide variety of media in his work: photography, text, neon, video, sound, installations, and publications. In his work, he touches on existential questions related to migration and shifts in cultural context and meaning. At the same time, he investigates the conceptual possibilities and potency of the work of art, the way in which it can communicate with the observer, be linked to a broader tradition, pushes back or break the boundaries of understanding.Garabedian’s work is about showing and hiding, making things audible and inaudible, creating meaning and producing meaninglessness. In the end, it always confronts the observer with his or her own limitations.
(Hans Martens, catalogue for the Ariane de Rothschild Art Prize, 2008)
