Films

Galstyan began filming his work with clay in 1996, when he was lent a video camera for two weeks. He later studied film directing in Moscow and made documentaries for television. Today he makes video art and video installations.

Video art

Borders of the Clay, film 11999
Borders of the Clay, film 21999
Borders of the Clay, film 31999
Event in a Long Shot, film 12002
Event in a Long Shot, film 22002

Collapses, 2021–

During the 2020 war Galstyan began a series of video works, each filmed in a single close-up of one clay element as it is destroyed: a head, a brain, hands, an Armenian inscription, an ornament. Sculpted in clay and filmed under water, the series looks at what happens to the mind when a population is conditioned by those in power, and at the planned erasure of cultural heritage.

Five clay heads under water seen on a camera monitor
Vahram Galstyan arranging small clay elements in a water tank in front of a light
A clay head in a water tank, with the camera monitor in the foreground

Documentary and film