The Alexander Tamanyan museum/institute of Armenia has taken the initiative of conducting an open photography contest entitled “Tamanyan’s legacy”. The contest was announced in December and will conclude with an awards ceremony at the end of the year. The contest is aimed at emphasizing the role of the structures of the architectural school of Tamanyan, their place in Yerevan, and instilling compassionate feeling towards them. The event organizers, including art critic Ruzan Saryan, literary critic Avik Isahakyan, film director Tigran Khzmalyan, artist/font creator Ruben Hakobyan (Tarumyan) and architect/director of the A. Tamanyan museum Hayk Tamanyan caution that our city “is each day deprived more of its aesthetical and historical identity.” In our days, many buildings of monumental status are destroyed or substituted by and/or turned into deformed and distasteful, agglutinative structures. The event organizers mention that it is primarily the facades of buildings that are subjected to petty bourgeois transformations and destroy the link between people and their environment. Calling on people to not be indifferent towards the fate of their city, the initiators of the “Tamanyan’s legacy” photo contest wish to motivate photographers, state bodies and individuals to focus on the image of the city. The city’s image is not only the residential and administrative buildings or the buildings of businesses and educational institutions, but also the bridges, monuments, fountains, and parks that create an environment, and a comfortable and beautiful environment plays a huge role in aesthetics and discipline.
