Christopher Atamian

Christopher Atamian is a writer, translator, filmmaker and multiplatform artist, and the co-founder of Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice. A recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, his videos and short films have screened internationally, and he has been nominated for a National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Christopher currently writes the leading column on the Armenian art world, Art Speak, for EVN Report and writes for other leading media outlets, including the Brooklyn Rail and the Armenian Mirror Spectator. Among other distinctions, his 2011 video "Sarafian's Desire" was included in the 2011 Venice Art Biennale as part of the Armenian Diaspora pavilion Voulu/Obligé, curated by Silvina der Mguerditchian, along with fellow artists Emily Artinian, Archi Galents, and Achot Achot and der Mguerditchian.

 

This current series of photographs, titled "Trndez, 2024" celebrates the Armenian fire festival. Celebrated each february, Trndez was originally a pagan festival honoring the God Vahakn, God of war and thunder, and slayer of dragons.The festival was then taken up by the Armenian Apostolic Church, which today celebrates it as a festival of purification. During the festival, Armenians jump back and forth over a fire. Atamian's "Trndez" series was shot indoors at Atamian Hovsepian gallery on 24th Street in New York City: he and artists Jack Ji and Selena Ma jumped back and forth indoors over a makeshift fire. Particularly notable, is the fact that each person's personality comes out in the manner in which they negotiate their (here not-so) perilous jumps.