f56e18db7f10b6_56e18db7f10f3.thumb There was a time we used to say Armenia is an open-air museum. Do you remember those times? May I remind you of them? Those were the times when books had value and there were even bookstores. Man was reading and respecting the book, he was searching for ideas and finding them. Those were the times when Man was the Book.

Then the “symbolism” period arrived, when the bookstores, aside from several accessories and exhibits under the Sun, began to die out and became just “symbols”. With less than five bookstores, Armenia became the World Book Capital. Those who complain about disappearing monuments and destroyed buildings, receive a question as an answer, “How can you think of buildings and monuments, when Man himself is being destroyed and disappears from Earth?”

This is a rather good question. Man is a builder and a creator. When valued, Man is useful. With his creations destroyed, Man himself is destroyed. The memory of who he was is lost, and he gets used to it and his heart becomes blunt. A useless Man cannot stand tall.

What remained in Yerevan? Whatever remained became mended facades. Yerevan – a museum of façade exhibitions. Onward we march to “Old Yerevan” Expo-museum-expensium.

Due to few numbers, everything eventually becomes a museum exhibit: World Nature Museum, World City Museum, World Book Museum, World Man Museum. Museum of Tamanian and Urban Development. What a joke!

The nature, books, professionals, people become exhibits – just exhibits, and now what? They should fight to become a little more than that. They can’t be more, they’re just exhibits. Everything is useless without display. Word display, charity display, display of a fight for Women’s rights.

In a hundred years, we’ll be closer to the country-museum model transforming Armenians into exhibits, won’t we? We certainly will, as we are making reports and statistics out of our lives.

Yet we wanted to live in a country, not a museum. An Armenian living in a museum wasn’t exactly our dream; it was the dream of our enemy who wish for our destruction.

Museums Unite Us is the slogan of the European Night of Museums 2014 event which this year attracts around 100 museums in Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

At a news conference on Friday, Director of the Alexander Spendiaryan House-Museum Marine Otaryan said the event has established its unuique place in the museums’ life, helping them build stronger bridges with the society.

“People often come to the museum on that day not in order to get familiarized with the exhibits but to take part in interesting events. If you ask the visitors, ‘do you remember anything?’, they will find it difficult to answer. We will start the events at 19:00 in the yard, and the museum will be open from 22:00,” she said.

Hasmik Melkonyan, the Avetik Isahakyan House-Museum’s director also attending the news conference, said they were among the first to join the initiative, adding that she feels very happy to see the people’s flow on that day.

“We just want to be remembered not just on that single day, because one day is not enough for getting familiarized with the museum materials. I call upon parents to bring up their children with museums from an early age. Our museums are really interesting, and there is definitely a lot to learn,” she added.

Melkonyan said the museum will start the events at 6:00 pm local time with the readings of the great writer’s poem Abu La La Mahari. Isahakyan’s literary pieces in the poet’s voice and the songs composed based on his writings will be played during the event.

“The museum will also feature expositions kept in the stocks. And after 23:00, documentaries dedicated to Isahakyan will be presented,” Melkonyan added.

Armenia – My Country of Museums?

100 Museums in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh to join pan-European museum night