We are honoured to announce the opening of ՎԵՐԱԴԱՐՁ – RETURN, Zadik Zadikian’s first exhibition in Armenia. On 6 May 2025 the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan opened its doors to a homecoming nearly six decades in the making. It was made possible by the Armenian community and by our sponsors.
The journey home
Zadikian left the Soviet Union in the 1960s and built his career in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. His return to Armenia is a personal homecoming, and an artist’s work coming back to the country that formed him.
The work: Foreigners, reimagined
For this exhibition Zadikian remade Foreigners, first created in Los Angeles, as a site-specific installation for Gallery One.
The monumental wall became a black void, part of the work itself. Thousands of gilded faces, shaped by gravity, hang across it like constellations of memory.
Set in a public space with a constant flow of people, Foreigners reaches beyond its frame. The golden faces begin to mirror the visitors walking past, until the line between viewer and image, stranger and self, dissolves.
Dedicated to the fallen
The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of the Armenian soldiers who fell in the 2020 Artsakh war. Their sacrifice runs through the work’s themes of loss, displacement and the search for home.
With thanks
RETURN was made possible by our sponsors:
- The Ourfalian family
- The Khudikyan family
- The Sarafyan family
- Gabriela Voskerician, PhD
- Armenia Fund
- The Torosyan family
- The Setrakian family
- The Keosian family
- Edward Demirjian
Our deepest thanks to Armen Yesayants, Director of Exhibitions at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, whose vision and curatorial guidance brought the project to life, and to the photographer Asatur for the photographs of opening night.
ՎԵՐԱԴԱՐՁ – RETURN
Zadik Zadikian
Opening: 6 May 2025
Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Gallery One, Yerevan
Curator: Armen Yesayants