LA to host exhibit on Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - The "Requiem For the Forgotten: The Armenian Genocide" exhibition featuring works by Sophia Gasparian, Kaloust Guedel, Arpine Shakhbandaryan and Zareh will open as part of NELA Gallery Night October 8, 2011 in Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA.

“Armenian Genocide graves do not exist. Armenians were deported to the desert to rot, which saved the Ottoman government the expense of ammunition and mass grave clean-up. Regardless of the fact that 43 of the 50 U.S. states have made individual proclamations recognizing the events of 1915 to 1923 as genocide and the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs has recognized the massacres of 1915 as 'genocide', The United States Government continues to maintain a multi-billion dollar military base in Turkey and remains 'politically correct' about atrocities committed against humanity,” says a publication in The Open Press.

"Requiem For the Forgotten: The Armenian Genocide" includes Gasparian's collaborations with Los Angeles based fellow artists Lydia Emily, Terri Berman, Daisuke Okamoto, Douglas Alvarez, Farzad Kohan and LeNic, addressing Native American Genocide, the current AIDS epidemic, a terrorist feared world and the declaration of Jihad (holy war) on ignorance and institutionalized oppression. Harmonic collaborations amongst these artists, the gallery and the audience are a form of a non-violent discourse.

When your ancestors come from a land of genocide and oppression, you have no choice but to fight for your survival and contribute to securing equal human rights worldwide, Gasparian said in an Artist Statement.