Achot Achot
Painting, photography, video. Yerevan, 1961 — Paris.
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The non-fact
factumafactum
A word he made from the Latin factum, a fact or an event, and the privative prefix a.
Since 1990 every work bears this name: painting, photograph, video, installation.
“I named my art series Afactum from factum, the Latin word for fact, because every fact causes a consequence. To describe the spiritual world, I came up with the word afactum, because in matters of soul there is no cause and effect – everything is possible!”
1982–1984
Endorealism
Figurative oil paintings: nudes in landscapes wrapped in white drapery, lone male figures.
“I was more interested in presenting my inner point of view than realistically precise images. I called it ‘inner realism.’”
1985–1988
The Gospels
He finds the Gospels, mostly the apocrypha, in spite of the Soviet ban. Red and yellow. Angelic figures, human or triangular. Form and ground are no longer told apart.
Third Floor
1987–1991
1987, the House of Artists in Yerevan. The official Union keeps the first two floors. The young artists get the third, an awkward floor to show anything. The group takes its name from it and signs a manifesto the same year.
Performance, video, installation. Open provocation, aimed at sex and social conventions. The artist himself is at the centre of the work.
1988: Hail to the Union of Artists from the Netherworld: the Official Art Has Died, a performance.
He leaves the group in 1991.
Archive images of this period are being gathered.
«Это движение помогло нам, армянским художникам, высказать в искусстве всё, что нам хотелось, но так как не существовало ни общей философии, ни художественного языка, в скором времени это движение стало терять свой вес и я очень скоро покинул ее.»
translation This movement helped us, Armenian artists, say in art everything we wanted. But there was no shared philosophy and no artistic language, so it soon began to lose its weight, and I left it very soon.
«Если раньше я писал и сочинял только для себя, то с этого момента я посвятил всё своё творчество служению Господу Кришне. Это началось с 1990-ого года.»
translation Before, I painted and wrote only for myself. From that moment I dedicated all my work to serving Lord Krishna. It began in 1990.
since 1990
afactum
With Vedic philosophy comes the work of maturity. He repeats, like a meditation, one original motif: an appendage emerging from a circular form. The repetition itself carries the energy of life.
“Vedic philosophy gave me a very broad view of life and art, and the inspiration to draw biomorphic forms that looked like seeds in a state of germination or drops of water.”
«Духовная жизнь в своей форме не отличается от искусства, или правильнее сказать, искусство по своей форме не отличается от духовной жизни.»
translation In its form, spiritual life does not differ from art; or rather, art in its form does not differ from spiritual life.
Acrylic, oil on canvas · 75 × 75 cm
Acrylic, oil on canvas · 75 × 75 cm
Acrylic, oil on canvas · 80 × 80 cm
Acrylic, oil on canvas · 80 × 80 cm
Acrylic, oil on canvas · 80 × 80 cm
“Painting for me was a meditation, a spiritual immersion – a way to get in touch with God. I used the principle of repetition as an element similar to mantras, and the structure revealed itself in my paintings.”
since 1994
Photography
Staged photographs, mostly in the studio: still life and nude, the genres of painting. Conceived as a painting, each photograph is a unique print, and it is also called afactum.
“I wanted to show in these art forms the polarity between soul and body, the stages of soul development.”
2007
Video
The same contemplative field as a photograph, with time added.
Afactum, 2007. Single-channel colour video projection, without sound, 3 min 58 s. Edition of 5. Sotheby’s London, 2013.
- 1992AFACTUM, Modern Art Museum, Yerevan. A purification: he cuts a boy’s hair, sprinkles flour on his head, washes him. The hair is kept with a water basin as an installation. on YouTube
- 2006AFACTUM + 15, ACCEA, Yerevan. White roses as the pure tool of purification, spoiled in the process. on YouTube
«Музеи удивительные места: в них можно даже жить.»
translation Museums are amazing places: you can even live in them.
since 2007
Van Gogh, «Afactum» (after Achot Achot)
He paints his own photographs in Van Gogh’s expressive manner. The old frames and the museum labels are part of the works, presented as works by Van Gogh himself.
installations
Flour, sugar, jam, honey
In the early 1990s in Yerevan his cooking entered his installations.
«Кулинария такое же искусство, как и живопись. Кухня моя вторая мастерская: там я орудую цветом, формой, вкусом, запахом и вкусом.»
translation Cooking is an art just like painting. The kitchen is my second studio: there I work with colour, form, taste, smell and taste.
«На моей персональной выставке, состоявшейся в городе Гапе (во Франции) в своей инсталляции я использовал 120 кг кускового сахара.»
translation At my solo exhibition in Gap, France, I used 120 kg of lump sugar in my installation.
1988–2011
Manifestos and books
- 1988ՊԵՐՄԱՆԵՆՏ ԱՐՎԵՍՏԻ ՄԱՆԻՓԵՍՏManifesto of permanent art · Yerevan
- 1989ԴԱՏԱՐԿ ՄԱՆԻՓԵՍՏEmpty manifesto · Yerevan
- 1994–95АфактумAfactum · Paris
- 1995Последнее наименование абстрактного искусстваThe last denomination of abstract art · Paris
- 1997La révolution pour l’art spirituelThe revolution for spiritual art · Paris
- 2008МИМИКРИЯMimicry · Berlin
- 2011Balance thermo-chromatique humaineHuman thermo-chromatic balance · Paris
- 1998afactum. Méditations brèveswoodcuts
- 1999âmescreen prints
- 2002Tous les désirs de l’âme, poèmes d’ArménieAlbin Michel, illustrated by the artist
«1. Никогда ничего не делайте для себя. 2. Живите, чтобы доставить удовольствие объекту вашей любви. 3. Господь, единственный кто может вас полностью удовлетворить 4. Слава это — яд, Господь — нектар.»
translation 1. Never do anything for yourself. 2. Live to please the object of your love. 3. The Lord is the only one who can fully satisfy you. 4. Glory is poison, the Lord is nectar.
Achot Achot Աշոտ Աշոտ
Born Achot Kazarian (Աշոտ Ղազարյան) on 24 October 1961 in Yerevan. Studied at the Terlemezyan art school (1977–1981) and the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts and Theatre (1981–1986).
Left Armenia for France in 1993. Lives and works in Paris. Lecturer at the Centre Yoga Lyrique – Bhakti Loka.
Public collections
- National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan
- Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia
- HAI ART Contemporary Art Museum, Yerevan
- Modern Art Museum of Yerevan
- Panevėžys City Museum, Lithuania
- Ministry of Culture of Armenia
- Gyumri Center of Contemporary Art, Armenia
- FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille
Selected exhibitions
- 1987Third Floor, House of Artists, Yerevan
- 1989The Avant-garde from Armenia in Paris, Chapelle de la Salpêtrière
- 1992«9», Modern Art Museum, Yerevan, with the AFACTUM performance
- 2006Afactum + 15, ACCEA, Yerevan
- 2011Triple saut, with Pierre Maraval and Frank Dituri, Seine 51, Paris
- 2013Sotheby’s London, video Afactum (2007)
- 2019Աֆակտում, National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan
- 2024New Matter, National Gallery of Armenia
- 2025–26Topographies of Dissent, Zimmerli Art Museum
“It was a seed that I started to paint in Armenia, it sprouted here in France where it continues to develop in different directions.”
Portrait
PORTRAIT #19: Achot Achot. A film by Cédric Barbier, Videaste.eu, 2021. 17 min, in French. on YouTube
Works
Works by Achot Achot are presented on Singulart.
Back to the beginningImages: Singulart; Wikimedia Commons, Achot Achot, CC BY-SA 3.0; Наша Среда; Sotheby’s. Temporary reproductions while the originals are being prepared.