Search and Destroy (Mekhitar Garabedian °Aleppo (SY), 1977 lives in Ghent (BE)

120822 / gent search and destroy

Mekhitar Garabedian is of Armenian origin, was born in Syria and currently lives in Belgium. His grandparents fled Armenia after the 1915 genocide and his family has since lived separated from their roots. Garabedian often takes his family history as a starting point for his work. He questions the position of the individual and the development of his identity in contemporary societies that have been shaped by migration. Using a wide variety of media he examines how language moulds the position and psyche of the migrant.

For his contribution to TRACK, Garabedian has composed the words ‘Search and Destroy’ using the empty letter casings of a neon advertising sign. Large, weathered and ‘dumped’ against the historical façade of the Butcher’s Hall, the words are in sharp contrast, both in appearance and content, to the renovated splendour of the tourist-oriented city centre. ‘Search and Destroy’ is not only the title of a hit by the 70s nihilistic American punk band The Stooges, but also a military strategy first employed in the Vietnam War. To Garabedian, this phrase refers to the way the history of a place is handled and the way a fracture in the past continues to torment the present.

http://track.be/en/index.php/kunstenaars/detail/mekhitar_garabadian