The video series titled ‘Dialogues about Revolution and Power’ evolves along the lines of post-revolutionary analyses and creative manifestations conducted by female experts, researchers, scholars and queer feminist activists from Armenia that initiated and organized by Susanna Gyulamiryan, the curator of the Pavilion of the Republic of Armenia.

 

Gayane Ayvazyan

Gayane Ayvazyan focuses on one of the most important sources that documented the 2018 Armenian revolution – the Armenian press coverage and media bias. Much is being spoken about the dangers of commissioned media coverage, journalistic negligence, and the lack of proper analysis of political issues and other professionally vital dicta. Ayvazyan especially pays attention to the complete incompetency of the press, particularly when the country finds itself in a state of emergency or revolution, to perceive phenomena and analyze them through an intellectual prism as well as its description-oriented, narrative-oriented nature and its politico-ideological instability and opportunism.

 

Gayane Ayvazyan has graduated from the Department of History at YSU(Yerevan State University) (Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and PhD). In 2010-2011, Ayvazyan worked at the Chair of Armenian History at YSU. Since 2011, she has been working as senior researcher at the Institute of Ancient Manuscripts ‘Matenadaran.’ Ayvazyan has worked as a researcher at the following universities: Blagoevgrad Neofit Rilski (Bulgaria), Shehir (Istanbul, Turkey), Graz (Austria), Bilkent (Ankara, Turkey), Louvaine Catholic (Belgium). She has participated in a number of conferences in Yerevan, Aghveran, Batumi, Graz, Thessaloniki, Michigan, Alma Ata. Ayvazyan is the national coordinator of the ‘Knowledge Exchange and Academic Knowledge in the Black Sea Region’ and ‘Traveling to the Black Sea Region’ (Horizon 2020) projects. She has authored numerous articles and textual analyses.

 

Ruzanna Grigoryan

Ruzanna Grigoryan performatively declares, in a slogan-like statement, that she is ‘Not speaking of the revolution for the sake of the revolution.’ She emphasizes the apologia of the revolution and the revolution as an Event stays loyal to the dictum – paraphrasing Hannah Arendt – that politics can realize that for which the human comes to life. The human corresponds to this mission only when she or he is a participant of a revolution or is, at least, faithful to the heritage of the revolution.

 

Anna Nikoghosyan

Anna Nikoghosyan observes the political events that took place in Armenia in 2018 ‘through the lens of complicated and complex gender relations’ and, instead of applying the notion of revolution, applies that of regime change. Nikoghosyan analyzes the phallocentric logic of gender stance and genderised interrelations observed in the neoliberal and conservative political utterances of the regenerating Armenia. She criticizes gender performativity and hegemonic masculinity (a central notion in patriarchalism) and emphasizes the gravity feminism holds in inciting revolution and political upheaval on the playground of traditional public and governmental forces. Nikoghosyan also focuses on women’s civil activism and political actions – the dominating interpretations based on the idea of male supremacy. Unfortunately, the majority of Armenians either believes in male supremacy or takes a passive stance, abstaining from responding to the ‘sugarcoated statements’ about women’s innate qualities made by the male leader(s) of the Armenian revolution.

 

Anna Nikoghosyan is a queer feminist scholar and activist. She holds an MA on ‘Gender, Sexuality and Culture’ from Manchester University, UK. Nikoghosyan is a lecturer at Yerevan State University where she teaches ‘Gender and the Media’ module. She co-founded a feminist library called ‘FemLibrary Armenia’ which is a place for feminist knowledge production, education, organizing and resistance. Nikoghosyan is the author of several academic and journalist articles about feminism, queerness, critique of neoliberalism and militarization which have been published on regionally and internationally and translated into several languages.

 

Anna Zhamakochyan

Anna Zhamakochyan recites the poem-manifesto ‘Revolution: An Event of the Return of Reality.’ She speaks about the preconditions for a revolutionary event and its process of realization, where radical rejection, compassion, and collective, emotional, and political actions merge – if to put Anna’s poetically charged manifesto in few words.

 

Anna Zhamakochyan is a sociologist and a researcher of media and discourse, with interest in ideology studies and critical theories. For Zhamakochyan, the criticism of media and ideology is a mechanism for social change. She also has professional interest in contemporary art (artivism) in Armenia and has a curatorial experience. Zhamakochyan is the president and co-founder of Socioscope NGO. Socioscope designs, coordinates, and implements researches on issues related to social conditions and needs, legal protection of various groups, coverage of human rights in media, reforms in the field of ecology, as well as gender and other related issues.