Following the publication of Nairi Khatchadourian's manifesto I Have a Vision. Let the River Unite in EVN Report in Summer 2025, AHA collective is pleased to invite you to the first public conversation dedicated to the vision of the Արաքս ارس Araks River Bridge-Museum.
The project on the Armenia-Iran border is grounded on AHA collective’s curatorial approach of placemaking. Its point of departure is the Araks River, a shared waterscape that has connected neighbouring communities, cultures, and ecologies for millennia. It is a river ecosystem that has been inhabited, cultivated, and cared for across generations, yet the political boundaries have increasingly divided its banks and local communities.
The project originates in the city of Meghri, at Armenia's southern border. Today, this geopolitical frontier is marked by fences and barbed wires from Armenia’s side, while pomegranate and fig trees on both sides of the riverbank continue to be nourished by the same current flowing across Armenia, Iran, and the wider region.
This grassroot curatorial initiative proposes transforming the Araks river ecology in Meghri from a closed geopolitical border into a contemporary art ecosystem through the creation of a bridge from Armenia to Iran. As an architecture of connection, the bridge could become a binational institution for contemporary art, reimagining a closed border as a shared artistic, social, diplomatic, and ecological environment.
The bridge-museum would become a place of convergence and engagement with the art histories and practices of Armenia, Iran, and the wider region. The bridge could be conceived as a suspended garden, evoking the mythical Garden of Eden, often associated with the Armenian Highlands, or referring to the Persian pardis (garden), from where the Greek paradeisos and Latin paradise come from. Accessible from both sides of the river, the bridge would invite visitors to its two mirroring riverbanks, which could host exhibition and performance spaces, educational centres, libraries, and research laboratories dedicated to the intersections of art and ecology.
As utopian as this vision may appear within the current geopolitical context, as urgent the first steps should be initiated today through context-sensitive actions rooted in Meghri, its local community, and its river ecology.
During this conversation, Nairi Khatchadourian will introduce this vision and engage in conversation with women from diverse artistic and curatorial backgrounds: Anna Boghiguian, visual artist, currently exhibited at the National Gallery of Armenia, Catherine David, former Deputy Director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou and curator known for her extensive work on contemporary art from the Middle East; artist, curator Anna Barseghyan and philosopher Stefan Kristensen, co-founders of Utopiana, whose practices explore the intersections of art and ecology.
The conversation will be held in English and will be moderated by Melika Safaei, Iranian curatorial intern at AHA collective. The conversation will be live broadcasted on AHA collective's official instagram account.
