When women meet amongst themselves, what do they discuss? Apologies to the men out there – the correct answer is, their mothers. At least, this is what Eliacheff and Heinich affirm in their text on mother-daughter relationships. Indeed, even though women do not all become mothers, and not all mothers have daughters – every woman is blessed with a mother. To question mother-daughter relationships, thus, remains a shared interest. It is also an interest to men, involved in this problematic, whether they wish it or not.

Mother stereotypes are numerous and diverse – the jealous mother, the superior mother, the immature mother, the confident mother, the matchmaker, etc. Every life event calls to it various perceptions and maternal figures, which the film industry, literature and popular fairytales have often immortalized. The methodological choice of the psychoanalyst and the sociologist, who have combined their expertise in this project, is to underline the means, by which popular culture spontaneously represents and enviously degrades mother-daughter relationships. Purposely eclectic, the authors sought inspiration as much from the unavoidable Françoise Dolto as Colette or Virginia Woolf, while also referring to Pedro Almodovar. Beginning with cases borrowed from fiction (films and novels), Eliacheff and Heinich explore all the possible relationships, depicting how the transmission of roles and the construction of identities functions from generation to another. These elements demonstrate how a positive relationship may be achieved. Indeed, in the delicate task, which consists of being a daughter to her mother, or eventually, a mother to her daughter, there are most definitely easier paths to choose than others.

Eliacheff and Heinich unite their different approaches, in order to dig further into all aspects of mother-daughter relationships, in this enlightening essay. According to their conclusions, such relationships may only be articulated in a group of three – the father included, independent of his will.

The project contains the following elements:

A projection and discussion of Paule Zajdermann’s film Mère fille, pour la vie (Mother, daughter, for life), based on Mères-filles, une relation à trios, written by Caroline Eliacheff and Nathalie Heinich
A projection of the films, which constituted the basis of Eliacheff’s and Heinich’s research on the diverse mother-daughter relationships
An encountered discussion on the theme, “When a woman becomes a mother”

List of the films cited in Mère fille, pour la vie (in order of apparition)The screenings took place once a week at THE CLUB, in collaboration with AFG Film Club.

9 March 2010 (in French Embassy in Armenia), 23 March 2010 (at THE CLUB) “Mother-Daughter Triangle” by Paula Zajdermann, 2005, 63 min


16 March 2010 “Madame Bovary” by Claude Chabrol,France, 1991, 143min

23 March 2010 “The Piano” by Jane Campion , 1992, Australia 121min 

30 Marh 2010 “La ville est tranquille” by Robert Gedikian, France, 2000, 133min
06 April 2010 “Talons aiguilles” by Pedro Almodóvar Spain, 1991, 112min

13 April 2010 “La pianiste” by Michael Haneke, Australia 2001, 131min

20 April 2010 “El Calentito” by Chus Gutiérrez, Spain, 2005, 90min
27 April 2010 “Treading water” by Lauren Himmel, USA, 2000, 100min.

The film screening and the following discussions have been shot, edited, and archived by Utopiana Media Lab. The actual film, as well as the screening and discussion in Yerevan, are available at Utopiana.

The project was carried out in collaboration with the French Embassy in Armenia, and with the participation of AFG Film Club.
less...

Objectives of the project were:

- to emphasize women’s participation in bicycle tour and traveling independently

- to agitate the bicycle as an environmentally clean and healthy vehicle 

- to spread information and raise awareness about hot environmental issues in Armenia with cross-border effect to Georgia (particularly issue of Teghut forest)
- to shoot a film about the tour

Participants:

Tsomak Oga – Project director – artist, musician
Astghik Melkonyan – artist

Adrineh Ter-Poghossian – photographer

Nazik Manukyan – Physiotherapist and referee

On the presentation, participants watched a film (33 min) about the bike tour made by the team during their journey.  Afterwards, they discussed the movie and share opinions about the project and its implementation.  The project was supported by Swiss Embassy in Tbilisi (covering Armenia and Georgia), as well as by individuals who contributed technical, financial and other support (Anna Barseghian, Arpine Galfayan, Lusine Chergeshtyan, Lilia Khachatryan, Ovsanna Hovsepyan).

All technical and administrative assistance was provided by Utopiana.   The film was edited and subtitled by the participants at Utopiana’s medialab.  The film is available at Utopiana Medialab, in Armenian language with English subtitles, and is open to public.
less...

The artist presented his biography and works.  Yeznikian is particularly interested in old instruments such as theorb, clavecin, viola da gamba etc and creates music for such instruments.  Recently he is interested acusmatic music as well.

As a researcher, his interests touch the microtone music and the usage of 4th 8th and 16th tones in music as well as the relation of image and sound in creation of music. Yeznikian has written a research paper related to Georges Didi-Huberman.

Utopiana carried out this event in collaboration with the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (IDHR) office in Yerevan, who kindly provided with a space for the meeting and workshop at their premeses.

Earlier, Utopiana's negotiations with Yerevan State Conservatory, for arranging the meeting in the conservatory premises, failed because of absolute absence of interest from their side.
less...

The project aims on one hand, to help young artists understand the important impact of modern technologies on our artistic and natural environment, and on the other hand, it helps them not to be marginalized from the world and drawn into virtuality, but work for creating thinking tools and artistic positions coherent to the developments of the time.

MediaLab 2009-2010 project was developed by Utopiana, in cooperation with Armenian Open University, Department of Fine Arts. The program includes film shooting and editing, sound workshops as well as a creative projects and lectures.

This initiative has been implemented in two stages:

Theoretical and practical activities, when the artists are introduced to and learn to master basic technical skills of video shooting and editing, sound editing, music creation.

Creative process, when the artists are involved in the creative process and produce projects by using the technical skills they have obtained.

The first, theoretical and practical phase of the project is being implemented since December 2009.

Background to video filming - 1-28 December 2009
_____________________
Trainer Arpine Zakaryan*: camera woman; born in 1981 in Yerevan. Since 1999, she has worked as a film operator in different television companies in Armenia, most recently, in AR, Kentron (Centre) and Public TVs. In 2007-2008 she has also worked in Moscow, in Rusfilm studio.

Introduction to editing program Final Cut Pro- 11 January – 15 February 2010
_____________________
Trainer Katie Saunders: graduated with a Batchelor of Visual Arts (Hons)in 2006 at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia. Her main practise is painting and sculpture. Whilst at university she served on the board for Darwin Visual Arts Association (DVAA) as a general member. Since graduating she has participated in numerous group shows and has had two solo exhibitions. From 2006 she worked for three years as a video editor and production assistant for Cutting Edge, a leading post-production company in Australia with facilities in Darwin, Brisbane and Sydney. She is currently participating in a residency program in Yerevan with ACSL (Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory) where she will exhibit the works developed in Yerevan at the end of the residency in February 2010. Artists webpage.

Sound workshops: Culture of creating, recording and editing of sound and music – 1-26 March, 2010
________________________
Tainer: Tsomak Oga* (born Armine Oganezova) is a musician and artist born in Yerevan (1980). From 1995 to 1999, she studied in the Design Department at P. Terlemezian Yerevan Art College. In 1999, she founded the first all-female Armenian rock band called INCEST. In 2008, Tsomak founded a new band named Pincet. In 2001, 2006 and 2007, Tsomak curated the annual Alternative Youth Festival, organized by the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (ACCEA; NPAK in Armenian). She has participated in various exhibitions, including the Venice Biennial and an artists’ international workshop in Warsaw. In 2009 she participated in “Apartment Project”, Istanbul (Iran, Azerbajian, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey) Tsomak has been working with Utopiana since 2008. In the freamwork of Utopiana’s Artistic Lab - Sound and Music department in 2009 she made series of Sound Workshops for young artists and musicians.  Her artistic work explores poliformic synthesis of image and sound.

The second stage of MediaLab project is ongoing since 15 April and will be finalised by 15 December, 2010.

Creative process: the course proceeds online /by internet/, individually with each student.

The students are developing individual projects using the technical skills they have already gained from the previous workshops /shooting, editing, sound/. The project is implemented in collaboration with the students of the Department of Fine Arts, Armenian Open University.  The project participants are 7 students and young artists representing the mentioned university.  Some of the artists’ works will be presented in Utopiana’s “Eat and Work” project.
________________________
Trainer: Anna Barseghian is an artist and cultural activist born in Yerevan (1969). She graduated from Yerevan architectural and construction institute (1991), then worked as an architect (Armenian State Design Institute, 1991-1993). Afterwards, she continued her artistic experience in the field of visual arts. She settled in Geneva in 1998 and earned a degree in information systems with a specialization in computer graphics visualization and communication from the University of Geneva in 2001. Barseghian then together with Stefan Kirstensen designed and produced Utopiana international exhibition-conference in HayArt Centre (Yerevan), and went on to establish this organization of the same name. Anna Barseghian is co-author and co-curator of a number of exhibitions and art projects. She combines her creative work in Utopiana in both Yerevan and Geneva.
less...