The Armenian Institute held the worldwide premiere of An Armenian Triptych: Retracing Our Steps, a new multimedia collaboration between Aram Bajakian, Kevork Mourad, and Alan Semerdjian, on Sunday, June 27th 2021, followed by a discussion with the 3 artists, moderated by the AI director Tatevik Ayvazyan.
The collaboration is inspired by German writer Heinrich Boll’s notion that “the artist carries death with him like a good priest his breviary,” Armenian Genocide recognition, and 2020’s 44-Day War in Artsakh. This is the artists’ second collaboration. The first, a video made in conjunction with the release of Bajakian and Semerdjian’s The Serpent and The Crane in 2020, garnered hundreds of thousands of views and streams on various platforms and was supported on social media by a wide range of cultural and educational institutions and notable personalities such as Kim Kardashian and musician/activist Serj Tankian.
Aram Bajakian is a guitarist and composer who has toured and recorded with John Zorn, Lou Reed, Diana Krall, and Madeleine Peyroux.
Kevork Mourad is a performance and visual artist and member of The Silk Road Ensemble whose work has been exhibited all over the world.
Alan Semerdjian is an award-winning writer, musician, and educator.