Sesil Artuç
“This is a mountain story”
SAR by dancer and choreographer Mihran Tomasyan and musician Saro Usta, which was first staged by the Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası in 2015, was performed again a few weeks ago. We believe that the performance itself and the Q&A session afterwards speaks a great deal about the experience of being an Armenian from Turkey and we would like to share the discussion we, three of the Parrhesia members, had with Agos readers.
Zaven Biberyan: From treasures to cemeteries
Biberyan describes Jammal's hair, skin, back, shoulders, elbows, muscles, strong arms, chest, unbuttoned shirt. He makes us feel that Jammal is a man who can only participate in life with his body, whose mind no one is interested in. Jammal will open his mouth almost exclusively in the moments when he cries out "Ya allah" while digging in the earth. Jammal has Allah and a shovel and a spade. Later we learn that he does not ask for money if the treasure is found, all he wants is for them to marry him off. Since Jammal is poor, he could not pay the bride price and could not get married. It makes no difference to Jammal whether the girl he marries is blonde, brunette, beautiful or ugly, except for widows. Jammal wants a young girl. Isn't that his "right"?
"If this is not a cemetery, what is it?"
We know with almost certainty that Gomidas stopped seeing and rarely spoke to his old friends, especially those who had caused his institutionalization. However, it is not true that Gomidas never spoke. So why is this narrative taken so much for granted?