Things to see in London this summer‏

Documentary film
“From Ararat to Zion”
Narrator Aidan Quinn, Director Edgar Baghdasaryan
Film Score Lisa Gerrard, Writer & Producer Fr. Mesrop Aramian
19 May 2010; 7.00 pm
Brunei Gallery Theatre (London WC1H 0XG)
(Nearest Tube: Russell Square)

This 70-minute documentary film produced by Vem Media Arts pays tribute to Armenian pilgrims over the last 2000 years,

who have contributed to the preservation of spiritual traditions and Christian legacy in the Holy Land.
The film presents the stories the pilgrims brought with them and the imprint they left in some of the holiest places of Christianity.
It follows the paths taken by Armenian pilgrims as they travelled between two focal points in history: from Mt. Ararat to Mt. Zion,

from A to Z.
Striking scenes of the Church of Holy Sepulchre by night, the colourful spectacles of Easter in Jerusalem, the Ceremony of Holy

Light, Mount Sinai in Egypt, the Monasteries of the Judean Desert, and the summit of Mount Ararat provide exquisite visual

tapestries on every level of the story.

(see trailer at http://fromararattozion.com/en/trailer_and_synopsis.htm)

ADMISSION IS FREE
(first come first serve)

Email: info@stsarkislondon.org

British Library

MAGNIFICENT MAPS: Power, Propaganda and Art.

30 April – 19 September 2010

The above titled exhibition has opened in The British Library. Sourced from one of the greatest map collections in the world, many

of the visual delights will be completely new even to experts, that comprises of over 130 ‘ magnificent’ examples ranging from Ancient

Rome (AD 200) to modern period.

Most people are unaware of the impact originally created by wall maps, and painted maps because so few have survived. They used

size and beauty to convey messages of status and power. This exhibition focuses on re-establishing manuscript, painted and printed

mural maps as a major cultural medium particularly in early modern Europe.

The British Library’s map collection contains fifteen maps in the Armenian language. For a description of these see Dr. Vrej

Nersessian, Catalogue of Early Armenian Books, 1512-1850.The British Library, 1980, entries 677-691, pp.150-152].

This Catalogue provides a description of the early Armenian printed books in the British Library and the Bodleian Library. Of special

significance is the ‘magnificent’ Armenian atlas called Hamatarads Ashkharhatsoyts Meds [Atlas of the world in double-hemispheres,

BL Map Room 920.(89)] printed in the printing press of Archbishop T’ovmas Vanandetsi Amsterdam in 1695.The engravings of the map

are by “Amsterdam’s most renowned engravers” brothers Adrian and Peter Schoonebeck and the Armenian text by the nephew of

Archbishop T’ovmas Ghoukas Nurijanian Vanandetsi. The eight- sheet map measuring 126 x 158 was a ‘prohibitively expensive for all

but the wealthiest of patrons’.

The description and evaluation provided by the curators of the exhibition in their catalogue of this spectacular map is well short of being

competent [124]. The full and comprehensive provenance of the map is provided by the 12 line Armenian inscription on the map which the

curator’s have not consulted. To facilitate the use of the Map Ghoukas Nourijanian,Vanandetsi in 1696 published his Banali Hamatarads

Ashkharhatsutsin in the same press as the Atlas. In order to ensure the full benefit of the Map and Key for the Armenian merchants who

held influential position during the heyday of the Dutch East India Company, the headquarters of which were in Amsterdam,Ghoukas

Nurijanian produced a third manual called Ganj Tchapoy,kshroy,tevoy ew dramits vorov bolor ashkhari vacharakanoutiwnn vari…[ A

manual of the measures,weights,numbers and currencies by which the world’s entire trade is done], issued by the T’ovmas Vanandetsi

press in Amsterdam in 1699.According to the colophon the patron of this volume was Khatchatur of New Julfa, son of Petros.

The catalogue refers to ‘the Armenian Archbishop Warthabeth’ giving the impression that Warthabeth is the name of the archbishop. In

fact warthabeth is the Armenia term vardapet by which celibate or unmarried priests are know in the Armenian Church. These errors

could have been avoided if the curator’s had consulted British Library’s Catalogues of its holdings.

In May 1707 the two important figures of Armenian printing T’ovmas Vanandetsi ,Archbishop of Goghtn province in Van and his nephew

Ghoukas Nurijanian founders of the Armenian press in Amsterdam visited Oxford. On the 29th of May in the renowned Theatro Sheldoniano,

Archbishop T’ovmas Vandandets was rewarded a Doctorate of Divinity ,and his nephew ,Ghoukas Nurijanian was given the award of

Master of Arts. In connection with the conferment of these honorary degrees, a pamphlet was printed. One of the testimonials appended

to the narration gives a list of the books printed at the Vanandetsi press in Amsterdam up to that date, which were the Archbishop’s gift

to the Bodleian Library and are kept in the collection under a press mark which bears the initials ‘Th’ for T’ovmas’{see Nersessian,pp.41-43].

The second exhibit of timely interest is Fred.W.Rose’s Serio-Comic Map for the year 1877(size 55.5 x 71cm;BL.Maps*1078.(45).Russia

threatened to invade the enfeebled Ottoman Empire in support of its fellow Christian Bulgarians who had been the victims of a Turkish

massacre(indicated by a skull).Britian and Germany were determined that Russia should not conquer Constantinople and thereby gain

direct access for its fleet to the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Rose shows Russia as an octopus with two eyes (representing St Petersburg and Moscow).It is throttling Poland and nearly strangling

Finland, while its tentacles threaten the shah of Persia, Central Asia, Armenia, the Holy Land and Constantinople, shown as the Sultan’s

gold watch. Greece, portrayed as a crab, is ready to join the Russian attack on Turkey. The old German emperor, Wilhelm I, tries to push

back the octopus, and Hungary wants to intervene but is restrained by Austria, while England and Scotland look on anxiously .In the event

Germany and the united Kingdom made a common cause at the Berlin Conference in 1878 from where the British Prime minister Disraeli

returned holding the ‘Peace with Honour’ document subsequently satirized by Fred. W.Rose.
Well worth a visit.

Rev.Dr. Vrej Nersessian
The British Library
Head of the Christian Middle East Section
.

Serpentine Gallery, W2,

Sat to 13 Jun

Nairy Baghramian and Phyllida Barlow, London

Phyllida Barlow came of age in 1960s London alongside Anthony Caro's heavy metal gang, but nowadays her hulking paint-daubed sculptures

are made of junk, their materials recycled to create further artworks. After years steering the likes of Douglas Gordon, Rachel Whiteread and

Bill Woodrow through the Slade art school where she teaches, Barlow has edged into the spotlight in recent years with several significant UK

shows. Here her work is coupled with that of rising European sculptor, Nairy Baghramian, whose pared-down forms in aluminium and rubber

strike up a dynamic contrast with the older artist's tumbledown creations.