“Kukia Alphabet” in Tbilisi

 

Tigran Amiryan has a PhD in Literary Studies and is an independent curator and researcher of contemporary culture. For many years, his primary interest has been the narrativization of individual and collective memory in contemporary culture. Tigran’s current research and curatorial projects examine both the narrativization of personal/individual experience, artistic (fictional) representation and the history of the Self, and biographies as well as the urban space and environment which preserves the memory of peoples’ lives despite being constantly subjected to oblivion and destruction. 

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In the framework of GeoAIR residency, Tigran Amiryan worked on the art doc project “Kukia Alphabet.” It researches the aspects of multi-ethnicity in Tbilisi and looks at its dynamics through particular sites of memory – cemeteries. The project explores pantheons of famous people, and graveyards of ordinary people belonging to particular ethnic or religious groups; how these places emerge and move within the city. While some of them are associated with specific groups, there are also those, which unite people with different backgrounds. Kukia is one of such examples that show how the diversity of the city can be observed through the headstones in various languages and alphabets.

As a result, publication “Kukia Alphabet” and an accompanying poster were created. The presentation of the publication and results of the research took place on the 9th of June at the Caucasian House in Tbilisi.

 

«In future, I would like to expand my research on the memory of urban space in the context of multicultural studies as well as to make this art-documentary project a part of the alternative kaleidoscopic guide to Tbilisi». 

 

Watch: TV interview with Tigran Amiryan about the «Kukia Alphabet» project : http://1tv.ge/ge/videos/view/185371/622.html

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