GOHAR MARTIROSYAN

Being with Time – Bivanje s vremenom

Sedimenti vremena – Mikrotemporalne ekologije

5. – 26. veljače 2026.

Otvorenje 5. veljače 2026. / 19 sati

I. NAČIN PAŽNJE

Bivanje s vremenom imenuje specifičan način pažnje koji prožima izložbu. Umjesto da se vremenu pristupa kao nečemu što treba mjeriti, čime treba upravljati ili što treba prevladati, radovi predlažu stav suprisutnosti – spremnosti da se ostane s trajanjem dok se ono odvija. Biti s vremenom znači prihvatiti njegovu neujednačenost, njegove povratke i suspenzije te njegov otpor narativnom zatvaranju. Namjera je ispričati priču bez linearnog slijeda, te tako stvoriti uvjete za promatranje. Vrijeme se ovdje ne ubrzava niti usporava, nego se produžuje: omogućuje da se slojevi pojavljuju postupno, da se krajolici čitaju kroz zadržavanje. Izložba se tako uspostavlja kao ritual pažnje i ponovnog učenja strpljenja.

II. VERTIKALNA OS I GEOLOŠKO TRAJANJE 

Razvijajući se duž vertikalne osi i kroz geološko trajanje, izložba se kreće od podzemnih dubina prema uzdignutim terenima. Riječ je o krajolicima koji nisu samo udaljeni ili zabačeni, već su postali nepristupačni uslijed eksploatacije, toksičnosti i geopolitičkih podjela. Njihova nedostupnost upućuje na ustrajnost materijalnih procesa koji se nastavljaju neovisno o ljudskoj prisutnosti ili upotrebi. Geološko trajanje djeluje kao racionalna, više-od-ljudska struktura koja nadilazi antropocentrične povijesti a pritom ostaje materijalno čitljiva.

III. LJUDSKA MJERA / PREKID

Ljudsko je postojanje oblikovano bezbrojnim pokušajima razumijevanja svijeta koji nas okružuje. Ta je potreba za spoznajom okoliša ukorijenjena u preživljavanju i orijentaciji, ali se kroz povijest često pretvarala u sredstvo osvajanja, mjerenja i dominacije. Znanje o krajolicima rijetko je neutralno: ono istodobno omogućuje suživot, ali i proizvodi oblike kontrole i prisvajanja. Kako primjećuje skladatelj Nicolas Jaar u razgovoru s AM Kanngieser, „mi stalno polažemo vlastiti svijet na Zemlju — postavljamo sloj preko svakog njezina aspekta — i zato više ne možemo pogledati planinu a da u njoj ne vidimo rudnik bakra.”

IV. KONKRETNI PROSTORI

Izložba se oblikuje kao putovanje koje stvara uvjete za trajanje, tišinu, strah i kozmičku ravnodušnost. Kroz spekulativnu i umjetničko-poetsku perspektivu, radovi nas uvlače u krajolike koji nadilaze ljudsku mjeru. To su prostori koji traju dulje od naših pitanja, prostori u kojima se talože traume, toksični plinovi, ljudska očekivanja. 

Le Mont A

Rad Le Mont A oblikuje se kao filmski dijalog između planine Ararat i imaginarne planine iz Daumalova romana Mount Analogue, promišljajući paradoks njihove istodobne vidljivosti i nedostižnosti. Ararat zauzima iznimno mjesto u armenskoj kulturnoj i povijesnoj svijesti: planina koja je stoljećima bila orijentir, mitološko uporište i simbol kontinuiteta, a koja je početkom 20. stoljeća, uspostavom modernih državnih granica, postala fizički nedostupna iz Armenije. Ona ostaje trajno prisutna na horizontu i u kolektivnoj imaginaciji.

U tom kontekstu Ararat nije tek geografski objekt, nego kondenzacija povijesnog iskustva raseljenosti, prekida i prepisivanja povijesti. Martirosyan planini pristupa kao mjestu gdje se preklapaju osobna i kolektivna memorija, geopolitika i geološka dubina vremena. Umjesto izravnog fizičkog susreta, planina se gradi posrednim sredstvima: satelitskim snimkama, arhivskim fotografijama i digitalnom rekonstrukcijom. Taj posredovani pristup odražava stanje trajne udaljenosti, ali i uporne mentalne prisutnosti.

Film se pritom oblikuje kao dijalog između stvarnog i imaginarnog krajolika, dijalog koji se odvija na granici vidljivog i nedostižnog, povijesnog i spekulativnog. U tom sloju rada Martirosyan povezuje geologiju, mit i kozmičko znanje, oslanjajući se na drevne prakse obraćanja planini, pretkršćanske petroglife i simboliku bezoarske koze, nekoć svete planinske životinje Kavkaza. Planina se pojavljuje kao sugovornik i metafizički konstrukt: monumentalna, emotivno nabijena i trajno izmaknuta neposrednom dodiru.

Mjereno u odnosu na geološko vrijeme, postojanje Ararata radikalno nadilazi ljudske vremenske okvire i političke režime. Upravo u toj napetosti između dugog geološkog trajanja i povijesnih prekida nastaje vremenski režim koji umjetnica opisuje kao „ne sporo, nego dugo“ trajanje koje dopušta da se prostor postupno razotkriva, da se slojevi razdvoje i da se atmosfera registrira kroz vrijeme.

Inaccessible Depths

Mnogi krajolici izloženi eksploataciji prošli su kroz duboke i često nepovratne transformacije. Inaccessible Depths bavi se prostorima obilježenima industrijskom intervencijom i nametnutom odsutnošću, okolišima koji su, nakon iscrpljivanja svoje nametnute funkcije, postali fizički nepristupačni. Rad se usredotočuje na napušteni podzemni kamenolom Romainville na rubu Pariza, zatvoren već više od pola stoljeća zbog toksičnih uvjeta u zraku koji onemogućuju izravan ulazak, kao i na bivši trgovački centar New World u Bangkoku, arhitektonski ostatak neuspjele urbane ekspanzije.

Budući da su oba prostora nedostupna, Martirosyan ih gradi posrednim sredstvima: arhivskim dokumentima, svjedočanstvima bivših radnika i istraživača, povijesnom građom koju je ustupio paleontolog koji je u kamenolom ušao prije nekoliko desetljeća, te CGI rekonstrukcijama koje prostore ponovno aktiviraju, ali ih ne pokušavaju obnoviti. U kamenolomu Romainville, obilježenom poviješću rizične eksploatacije gipsa i smrtonosnih urušavanja, odjekuju tragovi rada, ekstrakcije i napuštanja. U slučaju New Worlda, urušavanje infrastrukture i dugotrajna prisutnost vlage doveli su do formiranja nepredviđenog vodenog ekosustava, nastanjenog ribama, okoliša koji se razvio izvan svake ljudske namjere.

Rad se može čitati kao primjer onoga što Traci Brynne Voyles opisuje pojmom wastelanding (pustošenje): procesa u kojem se krajolici aktivno konstruiraju i označavaju kao marginalni, onečišćeni i potrošni kako bi se drugdje opravdali režimi industrijske proizvodnje. U tom smislu, Inaccessible Depths ne prikazuje krajolike kao napuštene ostatke prošlosti, već kao trajna stanja. To su okoliši koji nastavljaju metabolizirati kontaminaciju, sjećanje i zapuštenost, postojeći kao svjedoci eksploatacije i kao mjesta susreta ekološke nepravde, materijalne ustrajnosti i vremenske dubine.

Rekonstruirani bez pokušaja romantizacije ili povratka u uporabnu funkciju, ovi prostori postaju protagonisti vlastitih vremenskih procesa, krajolici koji, iako oblikovani ljudskom rukom, više ne pripadaju ljudskoj mjeri, kontroli ni prisutnosti.

V. TRAG

Završni sloj izložbe čini serija ručno crtanih radova Terrestrial Turns, koja djeluje kao tiši, ali integralni registar Martirosyanine prakse. Ovi radovi nisu pripremni materijal ni dokumentacija, već samostalni spekulativni prostori u kojima se sjećanje, mašta i geološko razmišljanje susreću kroz gestu i liniju.

Radeći u drugačijoj mjeri i ritmu od radova s pokretnim slikama, crteži bilježe trajanje kroz akumulaciju, ponavljanje i brisanje. Linije se pojavljuju okvirno, slojevito i često nepotpuno, ostavljajući tragove procesa umjesto dovršenih formi. Postavljeni uz Le Mont A i Inaccessible Depths, ovi radovi ne zaključuju izložbu, nego je zadržavaju otvorenom – prevodeći vertikalno kretanje od dubine prema vrhu u kontinuiranu, neriješenu gestu.

– Sabina Oroshi

Životopis  
Gohar Martirosyan armenska je umjetnica sa sjedištem u Parizu čija se umjetnička praksa bavi krajolicima oblikovanima brisanjem, raseljavanjem i ekološkim nestajanjem. Radi u mediju pokretne slike, proširenog filma i instalacije te istražuje prostore koji nisu dostupni. Oslanjajući se na arhivsku građu, usmena svjedočanstva, zvuk, fotogrametriju i satelitske snimke, njezini radovi oblikuju prostorna okruženja u kojima se isprepliću sjećanje, odsutnost i geološko trajanje.

Martirosyan je rođena u Gyumriju u Armeniji, a školovala se na Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts (FR). Sudjelovala je u rezidencijalnim programima u Cité des Arts, Fondation Fiminco i Fondation Carré sur Seine u Parizu. Dobitnica je više nagrada, među kojima su Art Éco-Conception Prize u Palais de Tokyo (2025), Studio Collector Prize (2022), Enowe–Artagon Prize (2023) te In View Prize Zaklade Calouste Gulbenkian (2024).

Izložba se može pogledati radnim danima od 16 do 20 sati.

BEING WITH TIME
Gohar Martirosyan

I. MODE OF ATTENTION

Being with Time names a specific mode of attention that permeates the exhibition. Rather than approaching time as something to be measured, managed, or overcome, the works propose an attitude of co-presence—a readiness to remain with duration as it unfolds. To be with time is to accept its unevenness, its returns and suspensions, and its resistance to narrative closure. The intention is to tell a story without linear progression, thereby creating the conditions for attentive observation. Time here is neither accelerated nor slowed down; it is extended—allowing layers to emerge gradually and landscapes to be read through sustained presence. In this way, the exhibition establishes itself as a ritual of attention and a re-learning of patience.

II. VERTICAL AXIS AND GEOLOGICAL DURATION

Developing along a vertical axis and across geological duration, the exhibition moves from subterranean depths toward elevated terrains. These are landscapes that are not merely distant or remote, but have become inaccessible through extraction, toxicity, and geopolitical divisions. Their inaccessibility points to the persistence of material processes that continue independently of human presence or use. Geological duration operates here as a rational, more-than-human structure that exceeds anthropocentric histories while remaining materially legible.

III. HUMAN SCALE / INTERRUPTION

Human existence has been shaped by countless attempts to understand the world that surrounds us. This need for knowledge of the environment is rooted in survival and orientation, yet throughout history it has often transformed into a means of conquest, measurement, and domination. Knowledge of landscapes is rarely neutral: it simultaneously enables coexistence while producing forms of control and appropriation. As composer Nicolas Jaar notes in conversation with AM Kanngieser, “we constantly lay our own world onto the Earth—we place a layer over every aspect of it—and that is why we can no longer look at a mountain without seeing a copper mine.”

IV. CONCRETE SPACES

The exhibition takes shape as a journey that creates conditions for duration, silence, fear, and cosmic indifference. Through a speculative and artistic-poetic perspective, the works draw us into landscapes that exceed human scale. These are spaces that outlast our questions—spaces in which traumas, toxic gases, and human expectations accumulate.

Le Mont A

Le Mont A unfolds as a cinematic dialogue between Mount Ararat and the imaginary mountain from René Daumal’s novel Mount Analogue, reflecting on the paradox of their simultaneous visibility and inaccessibility. Ararat occupies an exceptional place in Armenian cultural and historical consciousness: a mountain that for centuries functioned as an orienting point, a mythological anchor, and a symbol of continuity, yet which became physically inaccessible from Armenia in the early twentieth century with the violent establishment of modern state borders. It remains permanently present on the horizon and in the collective imagination.

In this context, Ararat is not merely a geographical object but a condensation of historical experiences of displacement, rupture, and the rewriting of history. Martirosyan approaches the mountain as a site where personal and collective memory, geopolitics, and geological depth intersect. Instead of a direct physical encounter, the mountain is constructed through mediated means: satellite imagery, archival photographs, and digital reconstruction. This mediated approach reflects a condition of permanent distance, as well as persistent mental presence.

The film unfolds as a dialogue between real and imaginary landscapes—a dialogue that takes place at the threshold between the visible and the unreachable, the historical and the speculative. Within this layer of the work, Martirosyan connects geology, myth, and cosmic knowledge, drawing on ancient practices of addressing the mountain, pre-Christian petroglyphs, and the symbolism of the bezoar goat, once a sacred mountain animal of the Caucasus. The mountain emerges as an interlocutor and a metaphysical construct: monumental, emotionally charged, and permanently withdrawn from direct contact.

Measured against geological time, the existence of Ararat radically exceeds human temporal frameworks and political regimes. It is precisely within this tension between long geological duration and historical ruptures that a temporal regime emerges—one the artist describes as “not slow, but long”: a form of duration that allows space to gradually reveal itself, layers to separate, and atmosphere to register over time.

Inaccessible Depths

Many landscapes subjected to extraction have undergone deep and often irreversible transformations. Inaccessible Depths engages with spaces marked by industrial intervention and enforced absence—environments that, once their imposed function has been exhausted, have become physically inaccessible. The work focuses on the abandoned underground quarry of Romainville on the outskirts of Paris, closed for more than half a century due to toxic air conditions that prevent direct entry, as well as on the former New World shopping centre in Bangkok, an architectural remnant of a failed urban expansion.

Because both sites are inaccessible, Martirosyan constructs them through indirect means: archival documents, testimonies of former workers and researchers, historical material provided by a paleontologist who entered the quarry decades ago, and CGI reconstructions that reactivate the spaces without attempting to restore them. In the Romainville quarry—marked by a history of hazardous gypsum extraction and fatal collapses—traces of labour, extraction, and abandonment continue to resonate. In the case of the New World, infrastructural collapse and prolonged exposure to humidity led to the formation of an unforeseen aquatic ecosystem inhabited by fish—an environment that developed entirely beyond human intention.

The work can be read through what Traci Brynne Voyles describes as wastelanding: a process by which landscapes are actively constructed and designated as marginal, polluted, and expendable in order to justify regimes of industrial production elsewhere. In this sense, Inaccessible Depths does not present these landscapes as abandoned remnants of the past, but as ongoing conditions. These are environments that continue to metabolize contamination, memory, and neglect, existing as witnesses to extraction and as sites where ecological injustice, material persistence, and temporal depth intersect.

Reconstructed without romanticization or a return to functional use, these spaces become protagonists of their own temporal processes—landscapes that, although shaped by human intervention, no longer belong to human scale, control, or presence.

V. TRACE

The final layer of the exhibition is formed by the series of hand-drawn works titled Terrestrial Turns, which function as a quieter yet integral register of Martirosyan’s practice. These works are neither preparatory material nor documentation, but autonomous speculative spaces in which memory, imagination, and geological thinking converge through gesture and line.

Working at a different scale and rhythm than the moving-image works, the drawings register duration through accumulation, repetition, and erasure. Lines appear tentative, layered, and often incomplete, leaving traces of process rather than finished forms. Positioned alongside Le Mont A and Inaccessible Depths, these works do not conclude the exhibition but hold it open—translating the vertical movement from depth to peak into a continuous, unresolved gesture.

— Sabina Oroshi

Biography

Gohar Martirosyan is an Armenian artist based in Paris whose artistic practice engages with landscapes shaped by erasure, displacement, and ecological disappearance. Working with moving images, expanded cinema, and installation, she explores inaccessible sites. Drawing on archival materials, oral testimonies, sound, photogrammetry, and satellite imagery, her works construct spatial environments where memory, absence, and geological duration intersect.Martirosyan was born in Gyumri, Armenia, and studied at Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts (FR). She has participated in residency programs at Cité des Arts, Fondation Fiminco, and Fondation Carré sur Seine in Paris. She has received several awards, including the Art Éco-Conception Prize at Palais de Tokyo (2025), the Studio Collector Prize (2022), the Enowe–Artagon Prize (2023), and the In View Prize from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2024).