From catastrophe to survival: memory and materiality in Melik Ohanian's PULP OFF

As part of the monthly seminar Etudes arméniennes organized by Inalco and the Société des études arméniennes.
A room in a museum where works of art are displayed
Melik Ohanian, Pulp Off, 2014. View of the exhibition Stuttering, Galerie Chantal Crousel and La Douane, Paris, 2014. © PH:M.ARGYROGLO © MELIK OHANIAN‎

Intervention by Varduhi Kirakosyan, curator and PhD student in art history at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Varduhi Kirakosyan is a curator and PhD student in art history at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, attached to ED 441 and the HiCSA, Histoire culturelle et sociale de l'art (UR 4100). A lecturer since 2024, she is co-founder of the QUILT research group, devoted to art and mobility. She co-curated the exhibition program for the Weekend à l'Est Festival in Paris in 2024.

This talk analyzes Melik Ohanian's PULP OFF (2014), examining how the Armenian catastrophe is addressed without recourse to representation. Based on the installation's device and materiality, it shows how memory is inscribed in remains and fragments, placing destruction and preservation, testimony and the impossibility of transmission in tension. The work thus configures a "third" space where transgenerational memory unfolds in suspense rather than narrative.

 

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