Visual artist Garush Melkonyan joined the Foundation in March for a residency in the glass workshop. His multidisciplinary practice (video, sculpture, installation) explores the contradictions of our societies and analyzes in particular the invisible codes structuring communication, speech and language.

At the Foundation, he will continue to explore the image and its lures. His residency will allow him to make his own filming tools in preparation for the production of his next film. With the help of glass craftsmen, he will develop shooting objects, such as lenses, optical filters, masks or screens. As many devices that will allow him to act on the materiality of the image in a physical way during the shooting rather than by using now more traditional techniques such as editing or special effects

He is also working on a series of glass sculptures that will be worn by the actors. The forms and the actions operated on the glass of these objects, artefacts, that are a mix of mask, glass, helmet and visor, are intended to deform the face of the characters wearing them to make them unrecognizable and therefore anonymous. These elements will be used in a video that deals with the need for anonymity in an individualized society.

GARUSH MELKONYAN

Born in 1993 in Abovyan, Armenia, Garush Melkonyan is a visual artist who works primarily with moving images, installations and sculptures. He graduated from Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2017 and from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2016. His DNSAP diploma, entitled “The Interview”, received the Thaddaeus Ropac prize from the Friends of Fine Arts.

Much of his work delves into the invisible codes that structure communication, speech and language. His works have been presented in group exhibitions, screenings and festivals in places such as the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); The Panacea, Montpellier (2018); Nordenhake Gallery, Mexico City (2021); La Villette, Paris (2018); Aggregate Space Gallery, Oakland (2016), Salon de Montrouge (2018), Museum Romeinse Katakomben, Valkenburg (2016). He has presented personal exhibitions at the Jean Claude Maier gallery, Frankfurt (2022) and at Lasecu in Lille, as part of Lille3000 (2019).

In 2021, Melkonyan benefited from the residency “At work!” at Lafayette Anticipations and in 2023. He is currently working on a new film project produced by Mondes Nouveaux, support program of the Ministry of Culture.

His projects have already been produced and supported by French organizations such as the Ministry of Culture and the Ateliers Médicis. His works were included in the collection of the Armenian Photography Foundation Lusadaran.