Golden Apricot/Parajanov
Sergey Parajanov (1924-1990) experienced that a museum was being built in his honour. ”I must be the only one who is alive when a museum is set up”, he is said to have joked.
The museum is there, in Yerevan, you enter a courtyard, from where you go to a two-floor house full of the artist’s wonderful collages, where he is using all kind of available material, which he actually had to as he spent 10 years of his life in Soviet prisons. (He critised the regime and ”they” did not like his homosexuality! Scrubbers and brooms, he was regularly given the cleaning job in these locations, are among others requisites often seen.
There is no end to the stories that Parajanov gives the visitor with his collages and assemblages (his leather suitcases transformed into the sculpture of an elephant!, dolls, drawings, (ladies) hats – all very unsentimental as are the photos (with funny comments) of his family. Joyful. Playful.
There are reconstructions of a couple of rooms from his home in Tbilisi Georgia, with walls full of art works, colourful they are as his work as a filmmaker – at the museum there are clips from his films and costumes and drafts for scenography.
I bought three of his films, hopefully good quality, to substitute the old vhs copies in poor condition. First in line: The Colour of Pomegranates (1968) (Photo).
