Meri Karapetyan

Meri Karapetyan is a graduate of Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts and Sorbonne University (Paris 1). She is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Beaux-Arts de Paris. Her current series Recollected Borders problematizes the notion of the border itself. Karapetyan “conjugates”  the border as if it were a verb, examining the border from a wide variety of angles ranging from the physical to the psychological and metaphysical. She thus deconstructs the notion of borders –from everyday borders that we experience in almost every aspect of our daily lives to the borders between states and nations. As she mentions in her artist’s statement in a nod to Richard Serra, her artwork “speaks the language of space.” Karapetyan’s brilliant appropriation of barbed wire in Blooming Barbed Wire – wherein delicate black flowers take the place of the barbs themselves – are also a nod to her native Armenia’s troubled geopolitical situation.

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Meri Karapetyan had artist residencies and solo exhibitions in Yerevan, New York City, and Paris. Most recently she was invited to create work for the 17th Lyon Biennale. Entitled "Les voix des fleuves, Crossing the water," this edition of the Lyon Biennale asked artists to explore the subject of the relationships that are formed between beings and their environment. Karapetyan, a native of landlocked and war-torn Armenia, created a site-specific artwork by repetitively twisting 40 kilometers of thin aluminum wires and shaping them. Suspended and elevated, arched in the middle of the room like a wave, or flat on the floor, Karapetyan’s piece deconstructs the notion of division. The viewers may walk through the arched elevation as a passage from conflict to peace, both, internal and external.