TO FORGET
by Ilya Moshchitsky
by Ilya Moshchitsky
photos: Aleksandr Grebeshkov
theater
PAST
Language: Armenian with English subtitles
Duration: 110 min
TUE, 19 NOV, 19:30 (21:30 - Panel discussion)
Performers:
Andranik Mikaelyan
Zhanna Velitsyan
Maria Seyranyan
Aelita Gevorkyan
Katya Kramarenko
Author of the performance:
Ilya Moshchitsky
Costume designer:
Sergey Kretenchuk
Producers:
Dmitry Simonov,
Viсtoria Bagoyan
Lighting designer:
Benjamin Vetluzhskikh
Sound engineer: Rodion Nikitinskikh
Literary translator: Anna Avzan
Supported by
the Armenian Museum of Contemporary and Experimental Art
Andranik Mikaelyan
Zhanna Velitsyan
Maria Seyranyan
Aelita Gevorkyan
Katya Kramarenko
Author of the performance:
Ilya Moshchitsky
Costume designer:
Sergey Kretenchuk
Producers:
Dmitry Simonov,
Viсtoria Bagoyan
Lighting designer:
Benjamin Vetluzhskikh
Sound engineer: Rodion Nikitinskikh
Literary translator: Anna Avzan
Supported by
the Armenian Museum of Contemporary and Experimental Art
WED, 20 Nov, 17:00
Four performers lay out books on stage, thus referencing a scene from Parajanov’s film “The Colour of Pomegranates,” where books lie on the roof of the Sanahin Monastery, drying after a rain. Actors lay out the books and talk about life, art, death, love, grief, God, tenderness, and eternity. The book pages rustle in the wind. It is beautiful.
“To Forget” (“Moranal” in Armenian) is a performance celebrating the life and art of Sergei Parajanov, who was a performance artist and a queer man living in the time of Soviet dictatorship long before these terms came into use. “To Forget” is an attempt by some people from Armenia to understand their individuality, preserving their identity and worldview in the face of omnipresent imperial pressure and colonial practices.
Parajanov was a creator of beauty in the dystopia of the Soviet regime. This performance borrows and adopts his belief that the world is a work of art in itself. It takes a reverential approach to Parajanov’s rules of life and his talent to recognise beauty, to create it in the most monstrous conditions, and to find salvation from grief or injustice in beauty.
“To Forget” (“Moranal” in Armenian) is a performance celebrating the life and art of Sergei Parajanov, who was a performance artist and a queer man living in the time of Soviet dictatorship long before these terms came into use. “To Forget” is an attempt by some people from Armenia to understand their individuality, preserving their identity and worldview in the face of omnipresent imperial pressure and colonial practices.
Parajanov was a creator of beauty in the dystopia of the Soviet regime. This performance borrows and adopts his belief that the world is a work of art in itself. It takes a reverential approach to Parajanov’s rules of life and his talent to recognise beauty, to create it in the most monstrous conditions, and to find salvation from grief or injustice in beauty.
Performers:
Andranik Mikaelyan
Zhanna Velitsyan
Maria Seyranyan
Aelita Gevorkyan
Katya Kramarenko
Author of the performance: Ilya Moshchitsky
Costume designer: Sergey Kretenchuk
Producers: Dmitry Simonov, Viсtoria Bagoyan
Lighting designer: Benjamin Vetluzhskikh
Sound engineer: Rodion Nikitinskikh
Literary translator: Anna Avzan
Supported by the Armenian Museum
of Contemporary and Experimental Art
Andranik Mikaelyan
Zhanna Velitsyan
Maria Seyranyan
Aelita Gevorkyan
Katya Kramarenko
Author of the performance: Ilya Moshchitsky
Costume designer: Sergey Kretenchuk
Producers: Dmitry Simonov, Viсtoria Bagoyan
Lighting designer: Benjamin Vetluzhskikh
Sound engineer: Rodion Nikitinskikh
Literary translator: Anna Avzan
Supported by the Armenian Museum
of Contemporary and Experimental Art
Contributors
ILYA MOSHCHITSKY
theater director
theater director
Graduated from the St. Petersburg Theater Academy in 2005 as a theater director, Ilya Moshchitsky has been a resident of the Vsevolod Meyerhold Center in Moscow. He creates cross-genre, transgressive performances in academic state theaters, on independent and experimental stages, and even in circuses. Moshchitsky is a laureate of the "Breakthrough" award for Best Director for the performance The Trial of John Demjanjuk. Holocaust Cabaret, and was nominated for the Golden Mask award for the performance The Book of Disquiet. He is also the founder of the theater company "Chronotope. Temporary Association." Since March 2022, Ilya Moshchitsky has been living and working in Yerevan.
SERGEY PARAJANOV
film director, screenwriter and artist
film director, screenwriter and artist
One of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema, Parajanov was born in Georgia to Armenian parents. After graduating from VGIK in 1952, he began working at the Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kiev. World fame came to Parajanov after he directed the cult films Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) and The Color of Pomegranates (1968), which are considered among the most important films of all time. These works established him as one of the founders of "poetic cinema." Parajanov had legendary admirers such as Fellini, Godard, and Tarkovsky, but his films did not conform to the strict socialist realism preferred by Soviet authorities. Parajanov openly criticized the government's cultural policy and opposed censorship, which led to his arrest three times. In 1973, he was arrested on charges related to homosexuality and spent four years in prison. After his release, he was banned from living in Kiev and making films, and was forced to return to his hometown of Tbilisi. In addition to films, Sergei Parajanov created two dozen screenplays, most of which were not destined to become films. Sergei Parajanov also created many fine works, including drawings, collages, installations, assemblies of sculpture, hats, dolls.
