Silvina Der-Meguerditchian

The Artist is a hoarder and a cartographer. Her finds – as heterogeneous as they may seem at first glance – are all signs, de-signations of the complexity of identity. The artist’s nomadic approach, frequently her microscopic scrutiny, transform details – model-like portrayals of human DNA or fragments of a city street map into idiosyncratic, inimitable landscapes and textures. She creates a cartogram which constantly suggests new ways to relate and depict the intimate relationships between collective memory and individual experience.The images presented by Silvina Der-Merguerditchian tell stories – either through a bold synthesis of various codes and techniques or as a sober inventory in the esthetic tradition of an archive.The artist commutes between several cultures and identities. She grew up in Argentina and lives in Berlin. But her own biography is not the only reason why she plays an intermediary role. Silvina is of Armenian descent and describes the Armenians as a bridge which links Europe and Asia geographically and moreover as a persecuted people whose self-perception as mediators and communicators gives them a desperately needed raison d’être.Silvina pursures the knot-tying theme, the meshing of unlikely combinations by superimposing various layers and structures and combining extremely heterogeneous techniques such as marrying computer printouts with wool to create newer and newer and bolder and bolder material syntheses. Identity is a constant patchwork of collective and individual memory, a puzzle of unequal, mismatched parts. But never random, always inimitable.

Barbara Höffer

2011 Auch Bäume können fliegen, ECCHR, Berlin

2010 Aferim Yavrum, Little Gestures of Cooperation, BM SUMA, Istanbul, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin, KARDES, InteriorDAseinNET, Berlin

2009 Gallery K9 Aktuelle Kunst, Hannover, Germany

2006 Siempreviva, Klosterruine, Berlin,

2005 RECONOCER, Galerie ELSI del RIO, Buenos Aires

2004 The dream collection, Laboratorio Berlin, Instituto Cervantes, Berlin

2003 Galerie Raskolnikow, Dresden, A.L.M.A Museum, Watertown MA, U.S.A;

2002 The texture of the identity, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires

2001 Subjektive Eindrücke, C.C. Borges, Buenos Aires; Migraciones urbanas, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires

2011 Runnerspoint, InteriorDAseinNET, Berlin

2010 Whatch the gap, InteriorDAseinNET, Berlin

2009 Thisplaced, real, virtual, In between, Tallinn City Gallery, Filmmor Film Festival Istanbul, Voulou/Obligé at Krossing, Collateral Event in the 53rd Venice Biennial

2008 “Obscurum per obscurious”, Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia, Biennial Teheran, Istanbul

Tehran roaming biennale, Istanbul; New Berlin Festival, Berlin

Kahvehane, Theaterproject Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin

2007 Visual Dialog: Under_construction, Mekhitarist Monastery, Venice, „Reality crossings”, 2. International Photo Festival, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg

2006 Artfair ARTEBA 06 with Gallery Elsi del Rio, Buenos Aires, 9. Biennale Gyumri, Armenia/ Zona de Trânsito, Cervantes Institut, São Paulo, Zona efímera  

2005 Las lloronas del arte, Performance/Film with lab Berlin, Prima Center Gallery, Berlin, ARTEBA05, Buenos Aires, “The free will”, Bunker in the Arena, Berlin, Urban realities: Focus Istanbul,Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, “Heimat: Inbetween”, Hamburg, “Corrosión”, Uberlandia, Brazil,“Always visible”, Sao Paulo

2004 Evita: un Escudo, Senate from Buenos Aires, “Ciclo” with Imaginary Line, C.C. Sao Paulo, Brazil, Print Triennial, InExile, Center for Contemporary arts, Tallinn, Eastland, Paradies Projekt, Kunstsalon, Berlin, Armenian linking, Prima Center Gallery, Berlin  

2003 A.L.M.A Museum, Boston, U.S.A., Presentation evening, “Getting closer” IFA Galerie, Berlin, ARVEST, Blue Whale Building,Los Angeles, Escape Point Project with “Imaginary Line”, Galeria Marta Traba, Memorial de America Latina, Sao Paulo, PARADISE, Bunker am Alexander Platz, Berlin  

2002 ARVEST, Blue Whale Building, Los Angeles, Significans, NGBK, Berlin

2001- Argentinian artist on the mirror, coop. project between the Goethe Institut/ Argentinian Embassy, Berlin

2011 Presentation at the Event: Conflict Intervention through artistic actions? IFA Zivik, Berlin

2010 Organisation Workshop Aferim Yavrum, Istanbul

Performance The texture of Absence at the Hrant Dink Memorial Workshop, Istanbul

Presentation “Flowing Remanents- Integrating the absence” at the Workshop “What is Left Behind: The Remnants of Past Inhabitants and their Place in Turkey’s Present”, Sabanci University, Istanbul

2008 Participation in a Face to face Meeting in Amsterdam, organized by Ong Keng Sen and the European Cultural Foundation

Presentation in the conference “Speaking Beyond Living Room Walls: The Armenian Diaspora and its Discontents” at the Columbia University, New  York;

Organization of the Face to face meeting in Berlin for the project “Underconstruction Tallinn connection”

Presentation in the Conference Hackfem-East in the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin