WSD The Color of Pomegranate by Sergei Parajanov / Armenian censored movie from the ’60s

Some years ago I found a pirate copy of Sergei Parajanov’s film Sayat Nova. Regardless the enormous gap of time, space and culture, I suffered an unexplainable attraction to it and was captivated by the power of its form. I was pulled into Armenia by this film, with an expectation of understanding more its context and learning why I felt such a familiarity with it. This expectation was never met. Nevertheless I sustain that Parajanov’s Sayat Nova is giving me some important answers that I can not formulate in words, neither thoughts or content, but that I can certainly understand with the body. Accordingly, I decided to confirm this phenomenon by using the language of gesture, composition and intention to establish a visual dialogue.

Media: expanded cinema / video-performance

Duration: 60 Min
Year: 2014
Premiered: Festival Divadelní Flora, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Performed in: Festival Divadelní Flora, Olomouc, Czech Republic
NPAK Centre for contemporary experimental art, Yerevan, Armenia
Theatre Alfred ve Dvoře, Prague
Black Box, Münster, Germany

Keywords: mysticism, visual collage, gesture

Concept / Visuals: Cristina Maldonado
Sound intervention: Marcus Beuter
Voice: Laureline Koenig
Support: Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, México
Grant Creadores con Trayectoria 2012-2014, FONCA
Jedefrau.org
Theatre Na cucky (DW7 o.p.s.)
AKOS Art residency program,
Mkrtich Tonoyan, Jerevan, Armenia,
NPAK (Armenian centre for contemporary experimental art)
Co-production: Jedefrau.org, Theatre Na cucky (DW7 o.p.s.)

Press:

divadelni-noviny.cz: Zmuchlat a roztrhat [CZ] / To crumple and to tear

"In Sayat Nova, Cristina works mainly with the motif of the media itself. She is not very interested 
in the possibilities of the image, but rather in what happens to it in the process of projection. 
The result is all sorts of bending and especially tearing, cutting and curling of the image, which can 
resemble the artwork of Jiří Kolář. In fact, the resulting visual-acoustic collage, or rather its 
spirit, is what remains in the viewer at the end, taking the form of an experience of a work of art."


Dominika Široká, POJMY NOVÉHO DIVADLA: Video-sochárstvo Cristiny Maldonado [SK] / 
Video-sculpture of Cristina Maldonado

"Maldonado seeks her own expression of aesthetic throughout the film, and uses it mainly as material 
to study the potential of live animation on stage. The film is projected on different projection 
surfaces (canvas or different structures and sizes of paper), which the artist manipulates during 
the performance and is deformed with scissors or through overlapping of patterned materials in 
various ways."


divadelniflora.cz, INTERVIEW: V Olomouci jsme měli otevřené dveře [CZ] / In Olomouc we were welcome

"Mexican performer Cristina Maldonado talks about the role of multimedia in contemporary theatre, 
the audience's surprised reactions and her special sense of humor."


artmap.cz: SAYAT NOVA / C. Maldonado (MEX), L. Koenig (FR), M. Beuter (DE) [CZ]