Mono, photo, poetry / Book and art festival: multi-genre cultural programs

Vahan Stepanyan's exhibition "Yerevan: Positive Negatives" features images of Yerevan that many of us may not have seen before. Some may have only seen it in archive photos. Yerevan, whose features may have faded with time, might have been forgotten. What did Yerevan look like before Alexander Tamanyan, and how it changed in the first decade of Sovietization?

The exhibition will include historical photos of Yerevan from the mid-19th century to the 1930s. All images are from Vahan Stepanyan's archive.

This exhibition marks the launch of a new joint project by Vahan Stepanyan, co-founder of PAN Photo agency, creator of RAMBALKOSHE, and Newmag: a book-notebook featuring exclusive photos of old Yerevan. It will be the first of its kind in Armenia. The photos will be accompanied by brief stories. Vahan Stepanyan, who has had exhibitions in more than 20 countries and authored 3 books-albums with photos from the Cannes Film Festival and about the Armenian Genocide, shared his excitement about this project.

"I have been involved in photography since 2000, and my photos have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Esquire, Time, Vogue, and other international publications. I have collaborated with Universal Music, ECM Records, Levis, Microsoft, and other companies. In 2007, together with Gnel Nalbandian and our colleagues, we founded Newmag magazine, where I served as the art director."

On June 22 at 8 pm at Newmag Summer Fest, a monodrama will take place in the Performance Zone of Yeraz Park: Jack London's "The Straitjacket." This performance will provoke contemplation on life, death, past, present, and eternal love. It will provide a fresh perspective on the environment, people, and religion, inviting the audience to experience the character's emotions and feelings. The protagonist finds himself in a detention center, facing imminent execution, enduring daily torture, and reflecting on life and death.

The monodrama is presented by the Artsakh Drama Theater named after Papazyan, directed and performed by Arman Tovmasyan, and produced by Hayarpi Asoyan.

On the second day of the festival, June 23, at 6 pm in the Performance Zone, the popular actress and presenter Nazeni Hovhannisyan will host a poetry evening entitled "When Love Becomes the Poet of Life," during which she will recite the works of famous Armenian poets and contemporary writers on the theme of love. This event will feature a blend of classics and modern poetry, complementing each other and expressing the language of love.

Nazeni Hovhannisyan introduced the poetry-performance format in December 2023 at the "Goi" theater, receiving a warm reception from the audience. In addition to Armenia, she has toured the United States, Greece, and Belgium with this format, and she has upcoming performances planned in Russia and France. A large-scale presentation of the project in a larger format is expected in Armenia in the fall.

According to the actress, she does not merely recite or perform poetry; she lives through it for a few moments. She connects the poets, their feelings, loves, yearnings, emotions, and the audience. "And who said that a human being can't fly? Soaring in the Poetic Universe is endless. At the book and art festival, the words of classical and modern poets, the soul and heart, love and passion, will resonate. Let's soar together through the Poetic Universe."

These cultural events, beginning on the summer solstice, will last two days and one night.