Areg Kozmoyan: BACKandFORTH, Centennial Gifology

July 12, 2023 – August 06, 2023 The Cafesjian Center for the Arts, in partnership with the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, is proud to present the exhibition, Areg Kozmoyan: BACKandFORTH, Centennial Gifology, celebrating the centennial of Armenian cinema.

It’s fair to say that cinema is a beautiful fusion of almost all art forms: visual, spatial and temporal. While a traditional museum setting may not be fully equipped to capture all the layers of film art, the cinematographic language itself is an infinite field of various "translations" and interpretations. Cinematographer Areg Kozmoyan has found his key to open the doors of one hundred-year-old Armenian cinema: GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). On the Internet and modern social networks, this format has a phenomenal spread for its simple, engaging and accessible international visual language.

Areg Kozmoyan's BACKandFORTH project serves as a unique visual archive celebrating the centennial of Armenian cinema. It features GIFs retrieved from a selection of one hundred films spanning ten decades. By reversing the motion of each episode, Areg achieves an uninterrupted loop of images. Alongside the emotive musical arrangements by Van Sarkisyan and sound mixing of the project by Rodion Nikitinskikh, the exhibition guides us on a nostalgic journey through the paths of Armenian cinematography.

The exhibition which will be open to public at Sasuntsi Davit Garden Gallery of the Cafesjian Center for the Arts from July 12 to August 6, 2023. The admission is free of charge.