Kareyan Explores Politics Through Performance: Armenian Artist in Residence at SUNY

NEW PALTZ — David Kareyan, a performance, video and installation artist from Armenia who is in residence at SUNY New Paltz, will discuss his work on Wednesday, November 20, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lecture Center, Room 100. Kareyan’s talk is part of the Student Art Alliance lecture series.

Kareyan is in the midst of a five-week stay at SUNY New Paltz as part of the ArtsLink international exchange program, which brings Eastern European artists to American non-profit institutions. During Kareyan’s residency, which runs from October 30 through December 4, he is constructing an installation in Smiley Art Building, Room 118a. All are welcome to visit and speak with the artist on weekdays from 12 to 5 p.m.

Kareyan creates atmospheric, video-based installations investigating political structures and their impact on the human spirit. His work, which juxtaposes news footage, nature films and a variety of soundtrack material, was shown at the 2001 Venice Biennale and the East/West Festival in Die, France. Through his ArtsLink residency, Kareyan hopes to observe the American political landscape up close and, specifically, to examine how the ideas of philosophers Eric Fromm and John Locke have been realized in the contemporary United States.

He is also studying the differences between American and European art. “I think that multi-culturalism is not a mere thought,” Kareyan says. “I would like to know how it is realized.”

ArtsLink is administered by CEC International Partners in New York, a group seeking to use the arts as a means of improving understanding among citizens of the United States and the former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe. The ArtsLink Residencies place artists from these countries into American schools and other non-profit organizations, and cover the cost of their stay. Since 1992, 313 foreign Fellows have traveled to 165 American organizations in 30 states.

ArtsLink is supported by CEC International Partners, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Ohio Arts Council, with additional funding from the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Kettering Fund, and the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation.

David Kareyan’s lecture is free and open to the public. Its sponsoring group, the Student Art Alliance, is a funded member of the Student Association. For more information, call 257-3872.

An image by David Kareyan is available online at http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/kareyan.html

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