Fiery Eyes; Memory of the Armenians

As the world commemorated the 96th anniversary of the Armenian genocide which occurred in Turkey in 1915, a photo exhibit of the memories of the Armenian Genocide by French photographer of Armenian descent, Antoine Agoudjian has opened in Istanbul Turkey (it will stay open from April 26 to June 5).

The exhibit entitled “Fiery Eyes; Memory of the Armenians” is a unique exhibit for it enables the Turkish public the ability for the first time to discover what official government propaganda has buried for nearly a century; the collective memory of the Armenian soul forever wounded by the genocide of 1915, integrated in an exemplary manner through photographs of faces, landscapes and ruins.

Agoudjian Anthony was born in Saint-Maur, France in 1961 in a French family of Armenian origin who survived the genocide. Since 1989, every April, Agoudjian has visits the Armenian communities in various countries: Georgia, Karabakh, Lebanon. Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Turkey, to learn and document their life experiences. Continuing to put his talents to the memory of his people, Agoudjian has made several trips to Turkey over the recent years, in search of territories formerly inhabited by his ancestors, to hunt down the last traces of Armenian presence which span over two millennia.

“Fiery Eyes; Memory of the Armenians” is on display at the “Tütün Deposu: gallery (Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No.12), in Istanbul and will also be exhibited in Paris, from September to October 2011, at the gallery Jansem Jany, 18 Avenue Matignon 75008 Paris. A bilingual Armenian-Turkish Volume Photo book “Fiery Eyes” (published in French in 2006), will be published in Turkey, with an introduction by the famous Turkish photographer of Armenian descent, Ara Güler.