what if a building could speak? artists inhabit soviet ruin in armenia for site-specific project

Architecture: Ghostly Past and Unrevealed Present occupied the abandoned Soviet-era Palace of Culture in Jermuk, Armenia as a site-specific art program. Over a one-week residency in April 2025, three Armenian artists—photographer Armen Ter-Mkrtchyan, sculptor Manvel Matevosyan, and printmaker Sophie Musoyan—created work directly within the building. The artists used salvaged materials, dust, light, and shadow to engage the palace's fragments: chipped tiles, rusted frames, and weathered textures. Ter-Mkrtchyan focused on time through shadows and reflections. Musoyan employed cyanotype to record textures and faint shapes on paper. Matevosyan constructed sculptures from found materials, linking artwork to the building's current state. The exhibition After Silence at Jermuk Gallery presented the works. A short documentary by Marat Sargsyan documents the process and was selected by the LINA European Arch.

The abandoned, Soviet-era Palace of Culture in the spa town of Jermuk, Armenia, hosts Architecture: Ghostly Past and Unrevealed Present, a site-specific art program by ToC Cultural Organization that explores architectural abandonment as a form of ongoing presence. Over the course of a one-week residency in April 2025, three Armenian artists, photographer Armen Ter-Mkrtchyan, sculptor Manvel Matevosyan, and printmaker Sophie Musoyan, inhabited the building, creating works directly within its walls using salvaged materials, dust, light, and shadow.

Ter-Mkrtchyan's photographs explore the passage of time by using shadows and light reflections. Musoyan uses the cyanotype process to create images that record textures and faint shapes on paper. Matevosyan builds sculptures from materials found inside the palace, creating a physical connection between the artwork and the building's current state. The exhibition After Silence, held at the nearby Jermuk Gallery, featured the artists' works.

Architecture: Ghostly Past and Unrevealed Present stands apart from typical reuse or heritage projects because it's based on the idea that a building is still empty until someone enters it, moves through it, or speaks inside it. Armen Ter-Mkrtchyan, Manvel Matevosyan, and Sophie Musoyan worked with this idea when they entered the Palace of Culture, allowing the building's materials, surfaces, and feeling to guide their work.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine