In the Details

Cultural Armenia is in the details, in the way the curve of the land is captured on splashes of paint, in the mournful mountain air of a duduk played next to a river stream, the clasp of hands in stone, the culinary delights of an Armenian Kitchen. It is somehow born anew each generation, as children etch their dreams on paper, with large, bold strokes of color, and adults do the same with their smiles.

To talk in Armenia is to dance with gestures, these gestures captured on stage, in taverns and dinners, for the grandest fetes and the lonely walks down alleys. It is an event to be Armenian, and in song, dance, acting, sculpture, painting and film they capture their essences again and again.

Cultural Armenia is in song, in frames and on stage, it is a caress of the long night on the hot streets of Yerevan waiting for the air to stir in August, in the laughter of children dashing through sweaty leaves, or in snowy mountain villages, in the bold colors of canvas, the weave of elegant hand, the plaintiff song on stage.

Long here, in this place, Armenians have felt the pulse of life and sought to capture it. In words, on stone carvings, and in ancient ways forgotten in their origins, but lived out all the same.