Silvina Der Meguerditchian

"Treasures"

Featured at "The Mediterranean: A Round Sea"

Curated by Marina Fokidis with the advice of Bouchra Khalili, Hila Peleg and Pedro G. Romero

The work ‘Treasures’ of Silvina Der Meguerditchian was first presented at the exhibition ‘Armenity’ at the Armenian Pavilion (Golden Lion Award for National Participation) in the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Focal point of the series are prints of the hand-written notebook with folk health remedies, written in Armenian script in Turkish language, which the artist inherited by her maternal great-grandmother, Hripsime. 

Der Meguerditchian builds around this note-book a mixed media installation- partly presented on the wall and partly inside a vintage table-vitrine - which includes materials and objects related to the health remedies (photographs, cards, seeds, silver vessels et al). 

‘Treasures', with an emphasis on treatments for the eyes, serves as a metaphor for the critical stance against socio-political reality. At the same time, it raises questions about issues of displacement, history, personal and collective memory and healing processes.