Hrair Sarkissian- The Other Side of Silence / Editors: Omar Kholeif and Theodor Ringborg

CONTENTS: -- Foreword / Stijn Huijts, Hoor AlQasimi, Theodor Ringborg -- In Between -- Unfinished -- Where Do Pictures Live? / Omar Kholeif -- Zebiba -- Execution Squares -- Dream Color / Marianne Hirsch -- City Fabric -- Sarkissian Photo Center -- My Father & I -- Background -- Not Salt, Light / Hannah Feldman -- Homesick -- Last Scene -- Travel with Fear - Returning to Armenia with Hrair Sarkissian / Todd Reisz -- Final Flight -- Transparencies -- Trauma and Trace in the photography of Hrair Sarkissian / Vali Mahlouji -- Last Seen -- Deathscape -- The Stillness of an Image / Theodor Ringborg

The Other Side of Silence is the first mid-career survey in the Netherlands by the Syrian-Armenian artist Hrair Sarkissian (born 1973, Damascus, Syria) - one of today's leading conceptual artists working with photography. In The Other Side of Silence, Sarkissian reveals the muted wounds behind scenes of conflict, which are often realised in his signature life-sized photographs. This cerebral book of multi-disciplinary essays and images explores histories of disappearance, the architecture of violence, and the potential of the medium of photography itself. While encompassing the moving image, sculpture, sound, and installation, Sarkissian's practice is rooted in his photographs. His lifelong use of a large-format camera relates to the artist's interest in the role that chance plays in capturing hidden narratives of conflict, trauma, and displacement. Acting as an archaeologist and a storyteller, the artist draws upon personal and collective memory to reveal stories that official records cannot tell.

English