Susanna Gyulamiryan born in Yerevan, Armenia, is an art critic and a curator, who has been working in Armenia and internationally. Her current fields of interest include the epistemological, philosophical issue of the other, examination of biopolitics, gender and feminist issues in contemporary art practices, and the issue of “East-West” with mapping and research on “imaginative geographies”. 

 

In 2007, she collaboratively founded the “Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory” (ACSL), where she was the appointed president until nowadays. In 2008, she was an initiator of founding the “Art Commune” International Artist-in-Residence program in Armenia. Since 2006, she is a board member of AICA – Armenia (International Association of Art Critics). More than ten years, Susanna Gyulamiryan has held courses in Cultural Studies at the Armenian Open University, Department of Fine Arts (International Academy of Education). She was a co-editor of the CinemArt magazine where she was leading the monthly columns “Art Situation” and “the name of Art” with simultaneous collaboration critical articles making in other periodics in Armenia. She is an invited, associated nominator of the International Biennial Prize Council for outstanding achievements in Art and Politics by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, New-York and nominator of the Price Council for the Annual award of the best article of Art Criticism launched by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia.

 

Petra Hultman is a Sweden-based artist and a student at Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, 5-year university program in fine art (Ba-Ma). She uses her previous background as a project co-ordinator when working with a socially engaged practice where through collaboration, involvement, dialogue, workshops and provocation she interacts with society. By using both new and traditional techniques, Petra is exploring different forms of participation and creative procedures, as well as structures for collective and collaborative practices. Her work is usually process oriented and as a mixed media artist she has a broad range of practice including animation, installation, video, performance, photography, sculpture and text based works. Fields of interest are: structures in general and in particular those concerning gender, construction of memories and its relation to documentation, psychology, human relations and group-dynamics.

 

Susanna Gyulamiryan & Petra Hultman - open doors day at the GeoAIR residency:

Susanna Gyulamiryan’s talk “Function and Functionality of Participatory Art” evolved on the artistic orientation towards the social, which has been shared as the set of desires to overturn the traditional relationship between the art object, the artist and the audience. General theoretical discussion was followed by the examples of participatory art, in Soviet times and nowadays, in post-Soviet contexts. Also, Susanna presented community-based, participatory art projects that were developed within “Art Commune” International Artist-in-Residence Program (ACSL) and its In-LAB Platform [Theory and Practice] that have been operating in Armenia and abroad.

Petra Hultman gave a short talk and introduction on the use of textile craft within feminist movement and contemporary art, as well as presented her participatory art project "CO:lab" - a participatory run platform, open studio and continuous work-shop which is right now taking form within the “Art Commune” residency program. "The sewing circle" is a planned structure within the structure, a participatory art project in collaboration with NGO's in Armenia and focusing on the sewing circle as a forum for important conversations and feministic statement in society, as well as art.

In addition to this talk, Petra also made a long duration embroidery performance in Tbilisi.