This article was originally published on Civilnet.am on November 26.
German artist-in-residence
Three weeks ago, an artist from Stuttgart decided to perform an unexpected artistic and social experiment on the Yerevan-Gyumri train. Barbara Karsh-Chaïeb had been doing an artist residency at AKOS for a little more than two weeks when she heard about HAYP Pop Up Gallery’s exhibition project on the train, and decided to get involved.
Photo credits: Joseph Zakarian.
Anna and I first met Joseph Zakarian in December 2014. We had just closed off our first HAYP exhibition, and went to celebrate at Jean Paul Existential Café. It seems to happen every so often in Yerevan ; you get acquainted with new people on a night out, and somehow you end up working with them on your next project, just because you realize how aligned your ideas are.
Joseph Zakarian will be our DJ and live performer for the opening night of “The Scale of Life” our upcoming exhibit. We’re very happy to be collaborating with such a talented and open minded artist. As far as his musical genre is concerned, Joseph’s influences are Detroit Techno and Chicago House, although he loves to experiment and never sticks to one style when he’s performing.
Joseph performing in Tehran for NYE 2015. Photo credits: Joseph Zakarian.
An early aficionado, Joseph has been into electronic music since his school days when he started DJing at small house parties. He has always been enthusiastic about mixing, and that passion naturally evolved later to producing his own electronic music.
Joseph Zakarian was born in Amman, Jordan, and studied filmmaking and photojournalism here in Yerevan. He says that this particular environment helped him develop as an upcoming artist back then. A talented photographer, Joseph is currently working on combining his passion for electronic music with his academic background. In our opinion, marrying filming and photography with electronic music and performance definitely sounds like a good experiment to try out at HAYP…
Last month, Joseph’s photographs from the Armenian Presidential Elections Aftermath, (2007) were exhibited at Sararash art gallery, in his hometown of Amman.
Armenian Presidential Elections Aftermath, 2007. Photo credits: Joseph Zakarian.
Armenian Presidential Elections Aftermath, 2007. Photo credits: Joseph Zakarian.
Armenian Presidential Elections Aftermath, 2007. Photo credits: Joseph Zakarian.
Luckily, Joseph Zakarian will be staying and performing in Armenia for the next few weeks, before going back to Jordan. To find out when and where his next gigs are, follow his fan page on facebook!
We’re looking forward to see him in action on Friday.
Charlotte Poulain
