Pieces

An exhibition and installation for the 150th anniversary of the composer Komitas, made with the artist Anush Ghukasyan, with whom Galstyan shares a studio.

Ghukasyan’s installation draws on the ceramics of Kütahya, the town where Komitas was born, once known for its pottery workshops. Galstyan made a five-minute film from her installation, and the film became part of the work: painted fragments laid out on dry, cracked earth, gathered and sorted by hand.

The installation brought together ceramic fragments that recall the pottery of Kütahya, a text and Galstyan’s film. It links Komitas’s method, built from fragments of Armenian folk music, with the attempted destruction and fragmentation of Armenian culture in the Ottoman Empire.

In 2020 the project received the Boghossian Prize, formerly the Prize of the President of the Republic of Armenia.