Community and transformations of public cultural space in post-Soviet Armenia on the example of border settlements

The main goal of the project is to study transformations of public space in border settlements of Armenia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. We aim to examine public and state perceptions of sacral and secular culture after independence and their impact on changes to public, cultural spaces. The focus of our investigations is twofold: First, we focus on the ways in which Armenian publics and governments have reinterpretated and recycled Soviet cultural structures: houses of culture, village clubs, palaces of culture, creative unions, regional and community museums, and art schools. Second, the proposed research examines new cultural processes that have emerged in Armenia since independence, such as the widespread installation of illuminated and metal crosses, modern khachkars (cross-stones), and post-Soviet practices that seek to transform cultural landscapes into sacred space. To address these two topics, we propose to conduct field research in the settlements of Tavush, Gegharkunik, and Syunik marzes that received border status as a result of the 44-day Artsakh war.