By Lyuba Milyokhina
At the Armenian conference considerable attention was paid to culture and art, its development and significance in the country’s society. The Media Dialogue co-organizer Mkrtich Tonoyan is an artist himself and he is also a member of the Artist Union of Armenia. He invited different keynote speakers to give the participants deeper insight into the role of art and media in the current situation.
Authentic culture and art are extremely valuable for Armenians. In this difficult period, when everyone should not give up and unite, art can become a consolation and an inspiration for the people. Mkrtich Tonoyan said that now people need more positive things, because today’s way of consuming life brought to lots of crisis. So, art helps to overcome this drama and all negative effects that wars brings to countries.
One of the speakers was Syuzi Ginosyan — representative of GURBAN, an international artistic platform and community based in Armenia. She spoke about the activities of the project, about their view of Gyumri (the cultural capital of Armenia) from a creative perspective and how they contribute to public life in the city. She also showed works by prominent Armenian photographers like Khachik Eloyan, Gurgen Ginosyan and Arsen Mirzakhanyan.
Another speaker in the field of media and art was Mstyslav Chernov, a war journalist at Associated Press. He shoots videos from places where hostilities are taking place. Mr. Chernov showed his impressive films about the war in Ukraine and Armenia, not a single shot left the conference participants indifferent. He also notes that the visualization of all problems, including war, is very important. If the older generation perceives information often through text, the younger generation is the generation of technology. It is more usual for them to perceive information through pictures.
In addition, people are more interested in watching bad news, no matter how annoying it may sound. Therefore, such videos arouse considerable interest in people and vivid emotions. Also, the visualization of hostilities gives a better understanding of what is really happening in the country and how dangerous it is.
Concluding on the role of art during the war, it is worth mentioning the touching performance of the students of the Arts Academy of Gyumri. They painted on the backs of each other the events or emotions that evoked in them such words as: life, culture, media, war, soldiers, death, peace, politics and others.
So, art and culture are extremely important aspects for the people at any time, and especially in times of political conflicts. After all, on the one hand, when there is much negative around, everyone needs emotional relief. On the other hand, through art you can also convey important messages that will find a response in everyone’s subconscious.
