A Gift to Birobidzhan, 2009
The artist shows himself in a premature birth state, turning, hiding, revealing himself and decomposing, multiplying his body. When you focus more on the body, you think that the young man is either in state of unrest or discomfort. “We have no sex” was the Soviet motto, which they used to try to shape people’s bodies and make society function under that influence.
Haroutioun Simonian is a video/performance artist whose work deals with the body as a subject in endless negotiations with failed systems or constraining regimes. He lives in New York and Yerevan, Armenia, where he studied sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy of Yerevan. In recent years he has been making installations using mainly video and his body. He had been awarded residencies for his work at KulturKontakt Vienna, Austria; Centre pour l’image contemporaine Saint-Gervais, Geneva, and STUK Leuven, Belgium. He has worked with Georg Schollhammer [editor of "springerin" end curator] on "ein topografisches Projekt" TANZQUARTIER WIEN and with Hedvwig Saxenhuber [independent curator]. He was invited to “XLIX” Viennese International Art Biennale. With artist group called "Geo-kunst Expedition" he was invited to the " Documenta X " for comments. With German contemporary choreographer Nik Haffner he has been developing a continuing project collaborating with several artists of various disciplines called "tangent views".