Mekhitar Garabedian is a Belgian-Syrian artist with Armenian roots. He works on a diverse but coherent oeuvre that includes drawings, text, installations, photographs, sculptures, sound works and neon. His work alludes to the language, culture and history of Armenia, the country his grandparents fled in 1915 to escape the genocide.
The artist lives in Ghent since his youth and explores the position of the individual and the development of his/her identity in our society shaped by migration. Using very diverse media he examines how the split that migration creates continues to determine the present and how, accordingly, 'language' forms the position and the psyche of the migrant. Garabedian reflects on the conceptual possibilities of the artwork. His work is layered, as is his personal history as a migrant. It contains many references to literature, music, philosophy and visual art.
