On February 22, the European stage of the art residency started in France, in which visual artist Lilit Stepanyan and musician, kamancha player Armen Zargaryan participated from Armenia.
The art residency took place in the small town of Mont-Dauphin, known for its architecture and rich cultural heritage. And despite its small size, Mont-Dauphin constantly hosts various cultural events, including festivals, concerts, and exhibitions.
During the residency, the musician Armen Zargaryan, together with French contemporary dancers, held a co-creation workshop with Armenian kamancha music.
Lilit Stepanyan conducted a co-creating workshop, by inviting the community members of Mont-Dauphin, Embrun, and surrounding communities to participate in a creative process that included writing and knitting personal memories and feelings about their city. It engaged participants in the process of creating, weaving, and mapping a thread that connects and shapes memory and creates a community artwork that represents their collective memories, experiences, feelings, and perceptions of the city.
The residencies took place within the framework of the project ‘#Pariahs: Performing Europe’s Historical Memory,’ which is funded by the Creative Europe programme and aims to reveal the unspoken and collective memories of #marginalised people who unintentionally shaped the community and gradually sculpted its historical memory.
More about the project: