Lisbon hosts first ever Armenian Culture Week

Lisbon hosts first ever Armenian Culture Week

PanARMENIAN.Net - The first ever Armenian Culture Week (from Oct 12 to 19) at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation generated much excitement and interest in Lisbon, Portugal. Sixteen events took place in eight days, including concerts, lectures, seminars and exhibitions, Asbarez reports.

“It was an intense week,” said Razmik Panossian, the Director of the Armenian Communities Department, “as we brought to Portugal various aspects of Armenian culture and history. I was truly and pleasantly surprised at the great interest the Week generated among the general public and among my colleagues at the Foundation.”

Five concerts highlighted traditional and classical Armenian music as the sound of the duduk and other Armenian instruments filled the packed the 1000-seat Grand Auditorium on several occasions, including: Shoghaken Ensemble’s “Road to Armenia” concert; Armenian chamber music concert given by Gulbenkian Orchestra soloists and their guests, performing pieces by Arno Babajanian, Tigran Mansurian and Komitas.

The week also included a roundtable “More than Mr. 5%: The Early Life of Calouste Gulbenkian” focused on the Founder’s early life and his example, as well as the “Networks of Circulation and Exchange: Armenian, Portuguese, Jewish and Muslim Communities from the Mediterranean to the South China Seas” conference.

The documentary film “ARtMENIA,” directed by Ricardo Espírito Santo (Terra Líquida Films), in collaboration with Helena Araújo ws screened. The movie artfully introduced Armenian history, culture and traditions to the Portuguese audience, weaving it through the music of Tigran Mansurian.

Two key exhibitions accompanied the Armenian Culture Week. The first is an exhibition focusing on the early life of Calouste Gulbenkian, based on his personal papers, entitled More Than Mr.5%: The Early Life of Calouste Gulbenkian. Among the first visitors was the illustrious novelist Orhan Pamuk. The exhibition opened on Oct 2 and will run until Nov 3.

The other exhibition, Arshile Gorky and the Collection is at the Foundation’s Modern Art Centre, and runs until May 31, 2015. It focusses on Gorky’s surrealist work “in conversation” with other modernists of his period, including prominent Portuguese artists.

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