The famous Lumière fac­tory, whose gates are por­trayed in the orig­i­nal Work­ers Leav­ing The Fac­tory in 1895 is today a museum of cinema. The former fac­to­ries have been turned into exhi­bi­tion spaces but they still remain a space of pro­duc­tion – in this case of social rela­tions, knowl­edge exchange, but also of exploita­tion and badly paid work. At the same time the gal­leries, muse­ums, cura­tors and artists have gained cer­tain magic powers –they are able to trans­form every­thing they touch into art.
 
By moving Le Guern Gallery to the Siekierki Allot­ments, Tomek Saciłowski is fol­low­ing the same logic. The wooden hut of his uncle becomes an art space, the garden a working field for the artists and a way for intel­li­gent relax­ation.
 
The Allote­ments Gia­r­dini Bien­nale 2009 is a game of imag­i­na­tion which will trans­form the whole area of the allote­ments into gar­dens filled with national pavil­ions. The Siekierki Allot­ments are, like the Gia­r­dini in Venice, a bit archaic, a somewhat roman­tic and wild area with its own rules. Vis­i­tors get­ting lost in the bushes will be able to map the little huts rep­re­sent­ing Cen­tral Asia, Mexico, Russia, a now non-​existcnt Czecho­slo­va­kia, the United Arab Emi­rates and many others.
 
The Bien­nale con­tin­ues through August 15, and during its run you are also invited to sev­eral talks in the var­i­ous National Pavil­ions
 

The issue of the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of con­tem­po­rary art in Arme­nia is a quite com­plex, with many cul­tural, his­tor­i­cal, and polit­i­cal layers. How is Arme­nia is rep­re­sented to the rest of the world? Above all as a country that expe­ri­enced a genocide, now having a enormous Dias­pora, whereas in the field of con­tem­po­rary art we find our­selves in another con­text, mostly related to the not-so-distant Soviet times. In this regard, artist Vahram Aghasyan will talk about his most recent projects, where he presents what he calls ‘objects of unfin­ished, there­fore not fully arrived, modern architecture.’ We will also dis­cuss the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Armen­ian Pavil­ion in Venice, as we both were part of it, and explore the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of con­tem­po­rary art in Arme­nia in gen­eral: its ille­gal exis­tence, the activ­ity of insti­tu­tions, and rela­tions between artists and insti­tu­tions.
 
Vahram Aghasyan has shown inter­na­tion­ally at the Tenth Inter­na­tional Istan­bul Bien­nial, Kiasma in Helsinki, Ghost City and the First Con­tem­po­rary Art Bien­nale ofThes­sa­loniki. Ghost City, one of his solo exhi­bi­tions in Arme­nia, was hosted by the ACCEA, the Armen­ian Center for Con­tem­po­rary Exper­i­men­tal Art. He recently com­pleted a residency at the Kun­stler­staette Schloss Bleckede in Ger­many. He lives and works in Yere­van, Arme­nia.
 
Eva Khacha­trian is a freelance cura­tor and member of AICA-​Armenia. From 2003 to 2008 she worked as a curator at the Armen­ian Center for Con­tem­po­rary Exper­i­men­tal Art and from 2006 to 2008 as co-​director of the Depart­ment of Fine Arts there. Her recent work, such as Women’s Dia­logue, the group exhi­bi­tion Alter­na­tive Vision (Art Point Gallery, Kul­turKon­takt, Vienna), and the inter­na­tional women’s exhi­bi­tion All and Now! (Suburb Media Center, Yere­van), has mostly focused on women’s issues and new media in con­tem­po­rary art.