Diana Markosian - 1915
24 April-22 May 2016, Depo, Istanbul
Curators: Refik Akyüz, Serdar Darendeliler
Armenian-American photographer Diana Markosian’s '1915' is a series of photographs and videos that explores the lives of Movses, Yepraksia, and Mariam, three survivors of the Armenian genocide who fled their homes and sought refuge in Armenia, and who were still alive in 2015. The project traces their long lives and their attempts to reconnect with the places they were forced to leave behind. Born in Moscow during the final years of the Soviet Union, Markosian emigrated to the United States with her mother and younger brother at an early age. She later sought out three genocide survivors, all born in different parts of the Ottoman Empire and all over 100 years old, and asked them about their last memories of their former homes.
Travelling to their lost homelands, Markosian attempts to fulfil their wishes, such as finding their churches and leaving their portraits among the ruins, or bringing back handfuls of earth to be placed on their graves. Seeking to evoke and reconstruct their experiences through photography and video, she photographs the present-day sites of their villages, has the images printed at large scale, and then photographs Movses, Yepraksia, and Mariam in front of these images, creating a space in which they can revisit and reactivate their memories.
'1915' offers both a glimpse into the present lives of Movses, Yepraksia, and Mariam in Armenia and a documentation of what Markosian discovered during her journeys to their former villages, guided by the stories they shared with her. The project is further accompanied by documents such as telegrams, photographs from old family albums, family trees, and maps, as well as objects that evoke the atmosphere of the environments in which the three protagonists now live. Together, these materials form a subjective record of their longing for the homes they were forced to flee a century ago, the connections they have sought to preserve, and what they have retained and lost.
