Exhibition Essay:

HAYP Pop Up Gallery was born on December 12, 2014 with the aim of bringing art into the everyday environment. For the past four years, HAYP has invited artists and audiences on a journey of discovery throughout Armenia and at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Through nomadic exhibitions within private homes, street-side shops, abandoned Soviet structures and scientific centers, we have set out to engage with our environment and its various histories, communities and subcultures.

From the very beginning with “Frame of Mind: Context and Perspective”, HAYP has taken a playful and self-aware approach to the nuances of perception and how it relates to cultural and spacial realities. An arching theme has been that of communication, and in particular, how the elements of surprise and disruption can be useful tools for disarming preexisting social barriers to exchange. Exploration, play, curiosity, and an openness to the unexpected have characterized our history of projects which we honor now at HAYP 12 12 12 Retrospective.

The visitor will find a selection of works from past HAYP Pop Up Gallery exhibitions in parallel to new site-specific collaborations inspired by the theme of the Caravanserai. As a medieval meeting point for trade, cultural exchange, and refuge, the Caravanserai (or “funduk”) was a “pit stop” for travelers along the silk road. It was characterized by a common social square surrounded by niches for individual experiences. HAYP 12 12 12 features a similar structure with a cultural intersection at its heart – a place for transactions of all types (language, objects, ideas, moments)- surrounded by independent projects that explore urbanity, travel, alienation, introspection, and identity.

We do so within the symbolic space of the Armenia Market, an exchange point that first opened in 1995, ten years after the building’s construction in 1985 above the Barekamutyun Metro stop. Ironically, though the Barekamutyun Metro is the last stop headed North from Yerevan’s centre, it was the first stop built in the history of the Armenian metro system dating back to 1981. In this way we come full circle, both on the metro line and in the history of HAYP Pop Up Gallery, which, four years ago today was born from a spontaneous drive to discover roads unexplored, and investigate how art can be a catalyst for meaningful social experiences within the liminal space.

Anna K. Gargarian
Curator & Co-Founding Director of HAYP Pop Up Gallery

Assistant Curator & Content Researcher:
Hasmik Badoyan

Volunteers:
Lori Kassabian
Alice Moxley
Laure Raffi

Artists:

Aram Atamian, Arash Azadi, Kamee Abrahamian, Gayane Barkhudaryan, Narek Barseghyan, Hayku Guys – Leah Clancy, Vahram Galstyan, Anush Ghukasyan, Loussine Ghukasyan, Vardan Harutyunyan, Aramazt Kalayjian, LUSKA, Sonya Armaghanyan, Sona Manukyan, Lvis Mejía, Mary Moon, Kaitlin Prest, MIHR Theater, Ani Qananyan, Radio Evn, Samvel Saghatelian, Hasmik Tangyan, Gorod Ustinov, Armenuhi Yeghanyan, Gayane Yerkanyan.

Essays and editorials about HAYP 12 12 12 here:

• “Reflections by the Curator” by Anna K. Gargarian
• “A walk around Oda[r]isque” by Aram Atamian
• “Where is Home?” by Laure Raffy

Exhibition Photos:

Photocredits: Ed Tadevossian

Funduk Week:

Various performances, happenings and events from Dec 13- 24. New collaborations inspired by the framework of the urban caravanserai, or “Funduk”, a term of Arabic origin that dates back to the middle ages. 

Program:

(Download Brochure here )

12 Dec: OPENING EVENT
19:00 – 22:00 Exhibition, installation, and performance

19:00 – 20:00 Silk Screening with Visual Gap Gallery
19:30 “Is it a Hamam?” Action by Gayane Barkhudaryan
20:00 “Dialogue without me” contemporary dance BY MIHR Theatre & Tiezerk Band
20:30 Performance/Action by Vardan Harutyunyan & Samvel Saghatelyan
20:00 – 22:00 “Monsters Rot 54” installation performance by Narek Barseghyan

FUNDUK WEEK
13 Dec

1700 – 21:00 “In Exchange For” Action & Installation by Lea Frohlicher. Bring an object that you don’t use anymore! It will become part of an art installation.

14 Dec

20:00 – 22:00 “HIGHաստան” Audio Visual performance by RADIO EVN. (Facebook Event Here)

15 Dec

13:00 – 18:00 “In Exchange For” Action & Installation by Lea Frohlicher
Bring an object that you don’t use anymore! It will become part of an art
installation.
15:00 – 15:30 “A Journey to Nowhere” Sound Walk & Audio performance by MIHR Theatre
16:00 – 19:00 Coffee & Haikus with Aramazt Kalayjian and Leah Clancy, an interactive performance
20:00 – 21:00 Audio set by Lvis Mejia

16 Dec

14:00 – 21:00 “In Exchange For” Action & Installation by Lea Frohlicher
Bring an object that you don’t use anymore! It will become part of an art
installation.
15:00 – 15:30 “A Journey to Nowhere” Sound Walk & Audio performance by MIHR Theatre
16:00 – 17:00 Tour of the exhibition by the Curators
19:00 – 21:00 Coffee & Haikus with Aramazt Kalayjian
18:00 – 20:00 Silk Screening with Visual Gap Gallery

20 Dec

19:00 – 21:00 “Oda[r]isque” an interactive, on-going installation with Aram Atamian

21 Dec

15:00 – 15:30 “A Journey to Nowhere” Sound Walk & Audio performance by MIHR Theatre
17:00 – 19:00 “Where is home?” Performative Workshop by Sonya Armaghanyan/EVN Community Theatre. Register here at 24hourtheatre.evn@gmail.com
19:00 – 21:00 “Oda[r]isque” an interactive, on-going installation with Aram Atamian

22 Dec

14:00 – 15:00 Theatre of Ideas: Presentation by Justin Grotelueschen on Pop Up Festivals, Radio Art & Documentary Media Arts programs in the US
15:00 – 16:30 Talking Frequency: Sound, Audio-visual & Storytelling Artist Roundtable
17:00 – 18:00 Performance by Vardan Harutyunyan
19:00 – 21:00 “Oda[r]isque”an interactive, on-going installation with Aram Atamian

23 Dec

13:00 – 15:00 Silk Screening with Visual Gap Gallery
15:00 – 15:30 “A Journey to Nowhere” Sound Walk & Audio performance by MIHR Theatre
20:00 – 21:00 Performance by Hasmik Tangyan

24 Dec

LAST DAY
15:00 – 16:30 Theatre of Ideas: Roundtable with Artists & Curators on our future Art Space