Summary The PhD thesis discusses the phenomenon of representation of the Armenian national traditional culture and the so called “Armenianness” through symbols of identity at the two Yerevan Vernissages.The thesis consists of...
moreSummary The PhD thesis discusses the phenomenon of representation of the Armenian
national traditional culture and the so called “Armenianness” through symbols of
identity at the two Yerevan Vernissages.The thesis consists of Introduction, two chapters, Afterword, Conclusions,
Bibliography, Photo Catalogue, and maps’ attachments.
Chapter One addresses the history of formation of the two Vernissages inYerevan that have played very different roles in urban culture and public life of thecity. The first one, the so called Sarian Vernissage, was formed in 1986 as a minicultural-artistic center of Yerevan. From the very beginning the Vernissage wasconceived as a place, where artists could oppose their art the mainstream officialSoviet art and freely exhibit works usually not accepted by the Soviet culturalpolicy. In this chapter the further transformation of this first Yerevan Vernissagefrom an open-air fine art exhibition-market into a trade fair and flea market isdiscussed. In this chapter, the changes in mentality and social perceptionsconcerning public spaces are outlined, which occurred in the period before and afterthe collapse of the Soviet Union. This brings us to the idea of urban space as atheoretical concept according to which space is shaped through actions, can bedeemed as the outcome of synthesis and positioning of practices and somehowshows semiotic and symbolic constructions of urban identity. Therefore, we arguethat the urban public spaces such as the Yerevan Vernissages are a product of recenttransformations of urban culture and specifics of social life. After the independenceof Armenia, amateur artisans and vendors of domestic and other household goods,handicrafts and souvenirs gradually appeared in the outskirts of the SaryanVernissage. However, the process of transformation of an artistic Vernissage into a
goods’ market was prevented and the nascent flea market was moved from the space
that claimed to be a cultural cent
er of the city. The “rejected” participants of the
Saryan Vernissage were moved in 1993 to the new Vernissage and a flea-marketthat were formed on a boulevard located in the vicinity of the official center of Yerevan, the Republic square. The new marketpl
ace inherited the title “Vernissage”
and later on became one of the most popular public places in Yerevan. The newlyformed Vernissage has been turned into the first souvenir market in Yerevan, visitedby numerous tourists and local residents. The new Vernissage has displayed a
growing activity of customers of handcraft goods, and being presented at theVernissage has become economically attractive for sellers from different markets.On the other hand, the Vernissage has also been transformed into a public place where one may pass his/her leisure-time. In fact, nowadays the YerevanVernissage is a mixture of a handicraft art culture, a leisure-time place (for bothforeign visitors and local residents) and a market.
Т
he thesis summarizesdifferent sociocultural aspects of the Yerevan Vernissage as a public space withemphasized characteristics of a trade fair.The second chapter discusses the main trends in representation of the Armeniannational culture and “Armenianness” through identity symbols at the newVernissage. My own observations have showed that almost all my interlo-cutors/informants consider the Vernissage as a micro-environment, which exposessymbols of Armenian traditional culture as the art for tourists. The Vernissageartisans perceive this cultural space in the same way. However, most of them are notmainly involved in re-using the traditional symbols, but rather in their re-shapingand re-interpreting. The existence of the “Vernissage brand” could be understood intwo ways: on the one hand, the Vernissage as it is becomes the brand of Yerevan,and on the second hand, it brands the symbols of Armenia and Armenianness. The branding of Armenianness in the Yerevan Vernissage takes place through asouvenirs’ assortment. A question may rise why these particular symbols or motivesare considered traditional for Armenians. We tried to give some clues to thisquestion as well, though we have not intended to address this issue in detail in this particular work. In any case, as a result, the Vernissage has got a reputation of a place where one can obtain samples of national culture. The majority of thesymbols and themes used in souvenirs reflect and represent the most important periods and key events, monuments, manuscripts, personae of Armenian historyand culture. Also, the souvenirs’ assortment tends to involve some rare andunique symbols of the Urartian and ancient (Hellenistic) period.The Vernissage culture also creates a local souvenir market network. Thisresults in a situation that I suggest to call local globalism. Souvenirsdisplaying Armenian identity symbols move from the Yerevan Vernissage tosouvenir shops at the Armenian historical-cultural monuments. In differentregions of Armenia tourists come across the same souvenirs originating fromthe Yerevan Vernissage that are considered to represent national and traditionalsymbolism of cultural identity. This may create a visual impression that thissouvenir symbolism is common for Armenia in general and thus a common(locally globalized) image of the Armenian culture is being created.To conclude, we argue that the Yerevan Vernissage does not only preserve thenational culture, as it is commonly thought, but also engenders standardized patternsand stereotypes representing the Armenian culture and the “Armenianness” ingeneral.
