REMAINS CONNECTED

Drawings, lenticulars and models
Silva Ajemian with Aslihan Demirtas

Commissioned for ‘Blind Dates‘, exhibition curated by Neery Melkonian & Defne Ayas, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 2010-11, New York City
models by Richard Tenguerian
photos by Silva Ajemian

At Ani, a bridge once connected the two banks of the Akhurian/Arpaçay river. Today, of the now collapsed bridge, only the abutments on the two sides of the river remain, one in Turkey and the other in Armenia. As the remains of the bridge exist in two territories, Ani exists in two worlds, at once an important historic Armenian capital and an archeological ruin in a military zone in Turkey at the border with Armenia.

Two architects are seduced by the collapsed bridge.

Their project consists of a series of visual, graphic and tectonic ‘conversations’, set up to investigate and interpret the multiple existences of Ani, the river and its disconnected bridge. The ‘conversations’ start by revealing the lenticular existence of the place and develop by interweaving the resulting existences, references and projections.