Monday, April 1, 2013
AJZ was founded in October 2009 as a non-commercial artist-run space by Nvard Yerkanyan and Harutyun Alpetyan. Events taking place in AJZ are various in formats – from exhibitions, presentations, artist talks, and screenings to educational programs like workshops and lectures. In many cases it was done in collaboration with local art institutions like AICA Armenia, Utopiana.am, AFG film club, Art & Cultural Studies Laboratory, Suburb Cultural Center and others. AJZ is supported by its founders and by donations received from friends.
 
Originally one of the basic intentions of this initiative was the possibility for an alternative exhibition space in Yerevan, which would be available for artists and curators of local and international scene. But soon it has become apparent that there is no such a notable deficiency in representational spaces but rather a need for certain changes in conditions for artistic production. Yet this did not mean that AJZ changed its course though some intrinsic transformations could happen in time.
 
During its short existence AJZ could form a curatorial collective of sort, which appears time after time with different initiatives. The last project Economy of Hope was implemented in the frames of 8th Gyumri Biennale. Nine artists were proposed to explore the phenomenon of hope not only as it appears in our mind emotionally, but also a commodity of sorts, a product of the gap between desire and its (im)possibility. It was an attempt to deconstruct those systems that complete the production, sale and consumption of hopes in certain socio-economic condition, such as one can experience living in Armenia.
 
Nvard Yerkanian is a cultural worker based in Yerevan. Graduated from Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction as well as from year-long course Art Criticism and Curatorial Training School "Job of Exhibition and Cultural Criticism" conducted by AICA-Armenia. Co-founder of AJZ space - an open art space for artistic and curatorial projects. Since 2005 Nvard was an active member and co-initiator of different civil movements, mainly touching the issues of public spaces, urban transformations, gentrification and civil society in general. From 2012 Nvard is the program manager at ICA (Institute Contemporary Art - Yerevan).
 
Harutyun Alpetyan is a freelance cultural worker based in Yerevan, engaged in both curatorial and artistic practices. Co-founder of AJZ space (an informal non-commercial art space in Yerevan, founded in 2009). Social activist. Largely interested in current trends in performing arts. Working at the Institute of Contemporary art in Yerevan as project lab coordinator. One of the recent projects, namely Economy of Hope was accomplished in the frames of 8th Gyumri Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2012. Currently working on a project Camera Futura: storage for (im)possible realities. 
 
AJZ invited artists from Georgia to collaborate within the project - CAMERA FUTURA: storage for (im)possible realities.
 
"Attention, the future is here!
The future you’d never imagine. the one you could never think of. imagining has never been easier.

So long arrangement. hello curiosity. explore the world as it could have never been otherwise.

you are encouraged to become a co-author and architect of camera futura, a storage for (im)possible realities.

Submission rules:

There are no rules. any work that can be a piece of mosaic of the brightest future you can imagine.
 
Format/duration/materials/media are also unconditioned. please send the materials to ajzspace[at]gmail.com
submitted works or even their mere concepts will be examined in terms of their relevance to the implicit idea of camera futura.
submitted works will be put online for considering them as part of a show.
the show(s) can be realised and initiated everywhere and by everyone attracted by the idea of camera futura and the content of the storage.
the works included in each show should be selected from the storage.
 
Conception
There is concern that there is a possibility of a different life.
There is concern that there is a real possibility of living a different life.
There is concern that we constantly miss the possibility to live a different life.
There is concern that we constantly miss the possibility even to imagine a different life.
There is concern that we constantly lose even the capacity to imagine a different life." 
 
CAMERA FUTURA - a provisional title for an initiative that grounds on these concerns and aims at reviving this very capacity to imagine a different life. 
 
Residency stay was supported by Open Society Institute, Arts and Culture Network Program.