Phantoms. © Davit Nersisyan
28 Oct
Mirzoyan Library
Phantoms by Davit Nersisyan

This multimedia is a view that depicts the transition of a state between a presence that struggles to be recognized and a phase of going into extinction. The remains of the latter are scattered in the form of memories throughout the world that its people are inhabiting.

 

In 2023 I was scanning the color slides from the archive of an Armenian photographer who documented the first Karabakh war and at the same time looking at the television screen showing the people fleeing from their homes. The disturbed feeling of the time flow later brought forward a lot of relics from the events I did not take part in. 

 

The land itself serves as a connection between different experiences that took part before and dropped its shadow on today. In the medical world, the expression phantom limb describes the sensation of an amputated limb being still attached because of a shattered body scheme in the brain. One of the ways to fix it is a mirror where a doctor simulates the healing of an existing limb while cheating the brain. Can photography serve as a tool not only for documentation after the occurrence of the event but also to look from the side searching for recovery?

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