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The Armenian
Memorial Project
Interview with
Ste"Phane Kristensen
Les Réverbères
about it in the local press, and after
the Genocide a number of orphans
Q: You are the co-ordinator and survivors found refuge in the
for Les Réverbères. Could you region, which can be recognized as
tell us about this project? a second wave of building up the
local Armenian community. It's an
Les Réverbères [Street Lamps] interesting story, rather diverse,
is a project to erect a public art and this was the starting point for
monument to mark the common this project.
memory of the Armenians and
the citizens of Geneva. We share Secondly, it was a challenge. The
way, but there are a lot of other
a common history going back initiative came from the Armenian
people who have experienced exile
more than a century. There was an community, and a proposal that I and collective wounds. So the idea
Armenian presence in Geneva as made with my wife, Anna Berigian,
early as the 188os. For example, who is also an artist. The idea was is, from this singular experience,
between 1896 and 1908, i.e. for to innovate by coming up with an to exhibit a form of universality, to
share this type of experience, and
approach to a monument different especially to get out of the "victim"
from those that one finds around
status - and that of revenge.
the world.
Of course, the story of what happe-
We wished to get out of the logic of
ned is not completely absent from
revenge, and therefore proposed a
the project, but this is not the only
different, non-traditional approach
aspect nor the central issue. Focu-
where a monument becomes a work
sing only on the past is a trap that the
of art in itself. A worldwide compe-
Armenians have often fallen into,
tition was launched addressed to a
as if the world had stopped tur-
number of international renowned
ning since the First World War.
and contemporary - not neces-
In any case, there is a history of
sarily Armenian - artists. The best
Armenian exile and Diaspora that
piece was chosen by an internatio-
was going on throughout the nine-
nal jury. The idea was to abandon
teenth century, even if it is story of
the logic of revenge, get out of the
chaotic dispersion. It is also worthy
community logic. We have had a
of being represented because it is
productive partnership with the
a story of contact and sharing with
city, particularly the Service for
others. This cannot be the history of
more than ten years, the western Culture and Public Spaces.
a single event. This is another rea-
headquarters of the Armenian re-
son why we wished to have a formal
volutionary party was located in Q: Therefore, it is not neces-
monument of both a national and
Geneva. The party was banned in sarily a memorial for the
international character, not neces-
the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Armenian Genocide as most
sarily taking the form of the tradi-
Abdul Hamid II after the great mas- people might think?
tional Armenian cross carved on
sacres of 1894-1896, and shortly
stone or wood, as if we are a sepa-
after its creation it went into exile. At It is a memorial that is not loo-
rate group of humanity - which
that time there were already many king to the past, but it has a theme. is absurd. It is a little more com-
students and Armenian activists It demonstrates an experience plex because it also represents the
in Geneva, and there was genuine that we often find among others
intricacy of the history of the last
sympathy for them among the local in Geneva, not only among the
population. During the Genocide, Armenians. The Armenians suffe- century.
for instance, much was written red this experience in a very intense
28 Armenia
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