APO TOROSYAN ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Apo Torosyan was born and raised the son of an Armenian father and a Greek mother in Istanbul, Turkey, the old Byzantic city of Constantinople.  At an early age he started working on canvas and discovered texture.  The surface of a stained and weathered wall; the bark of a tree; an old manuscript; a mosaic; a fresco; a Hellenistic or Etruscan temple or an icon – all fascinated him.

Apo’s artwork has his personal history, which is similar to many others under similar circumstances.

The bread, which is the staff of life, was taken away from his ancestors.  It represents victims of oppression.  They died in starvation, including his grandparents during the Armenian Genocide.  Apo immortalizes the bread within his concepts.  It is an organic metaphor.  It is the cycle of life.

The form is expressive.  If you look closely, you can never find one single slice of bread similar to another.  This accelerates one’s imagination.

Apo uses his ethnic background as a source of his creativity.  The Byzantic, the Armenian culture, the formation of a manuscript, the historic texture of the walls of the city where he was born.  In the Orthodox and Gregorian Church, the Holy Book is immortalized with gold or silver.  Apo does the same thing with his “Bread Series” of paintings.

What Apo tries to do with the “Bread Series” is to picture the life cycle itself within his interpretation.  The found object he uses is bread, which is symbolic, textural, and ordinary.  The earth is part of the organic cycle, which represents peace and life.

Apo says: “If my work remains in someone’s mind, and touches someone’s heart and soul, my statement is complete.  I am grateful for the opportunity to share my work with you”.

“IMMIGRATION” INSTALLATION

Description of the Installation: A floor partially covered with mounds of earth. Viewers walk through a clear pathway in between. Newspapers from different countries with loaves of bread on them lie scattered on the earth. In the background is the soundtrack of bare hands making dough.

On the walls hang the "Bread Series" of paintings on canvas. I choose bread today because it includes all three elements of my statement: texture, symbolism, and the ordinary object. Texture symbolizes time, and bread and soil symbolize life and the ordinary object.

The story of this installation is immigration. It is symbolic. The location could be any place. The environment provides a cultural shock value akin to what an immigrant would face. The newspaper represents the tablecloth of the poor man, and indicates time and history. The mounds of earth symbolize the obstacles in the immigrants' new life.

The viewers walk into an environment where, finding earth, they familiarize themselves with their previous environment, their "homeland", the outside world. In one area bread, wine (or grape juice), and olives, are shared by the viewers. By talking to each other, breaking the bread, writing their own impressions or dislocation experiences, the viewers are creating new memories. By doing this, the comer becomes their new home, their new settlement. They become the new immigrants.

Participation of Visitors: Everyone has a travel or new environment story, which could be included in an immigration or migration concept. I incorporate these writings into the installation.  All visitors are asked to write down their immigration or new settlement experiences using the pads and pens provided. With the permission of the writers, these writings are exhibited on the walls to share with other visitors.

Films by Apo Torosyan

The four films by Apo Torosyan will be shown continuously during the exhibition:

Voices (2007)

In 2006, Apo Torosyan interviewed three survivors of the Armenian Genocide and a survivor of the Greek Genocide.
Yeghsapet Giragosian remembers how her mother died from thirst, and her brother died from starvation.
Luther Eskijian helped Armenian freedom fighters in Ainteb, Turkey at the age of six.
Of Hovhannes Madzharyan’s family of ten, only three survived the desert of Der el Zor.
Sossos Delis was born in Asia Minor.  Members of his family were massacred in Smyrna (Izmir) in 1922.
Running time:  40 minutes.

Witnesses (2005)

In 2005, Apo Torosyan interviewed some of the last remaining survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
Marie Lousarrarian was born to a well-to-do family in 1914 in Bandirma, Turkey.  The events she witnessed took place in 1922, during the final wave of the Genocide.
Zabel Asadoorian was born in 1904 in Basmasen Village, close to Harput in Central Eastern Turkey.  She witnessed the horrors of the 1915 Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Running time: 27 minutes.

Discovering My Father’s Village- Edincik (2003)

In 2003, Apo Torosyan traveled to his father’s village, Edincik, Turkey.  He interviewed the children of witnesses of the Armenian Genocide, and filmed the surroundings where his father, Hrant Torosyan, was orphaned at age five.  He also interviewed his 90-year-old aunt, Nazik, the last survivor from the village.

Apo now cannot go back to visit his homeland, until Turkey recognizes the Armenian Genocide.  In speaking up about the truth of what happened to his family, he is endangering himself should he return to his much-loved birthplace.  The events today mirror the fate of Armenian ancestors in many ways.

Go and see my city
Go and see my grandfather’s garden
Go and see my friends
Go and see my islands
Go and see Boncuk
Go and smell the salty water
Go and see

Running time: 30 minutes.

This is a 30-minute film about the concept behind the “Bread Series.” 

---

Apo Torosyan is a second-generation survivor of the Armenian Genocide, a filmmaker, and an artist. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey and now lives in the United States. His work is in the permanent collections of several museums. He has also had many solo and group shows all over the U.S. and Europe, and his work has appeared in private and corporate collections in Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, Armenia, Canada, and the United States.