Antique Head/Achot Achot

Antique Head

Author: Achot Achot (Achot Ghazaryan)

Place: Arates, Armenia

Year: 1989

The performance was realized in the abandoned village of Arates (located in a region known for its medieval ruins), where the author organized a festival of outdoor performances with his students and friends. The performance stages the burial of a plaster copy of an antique head. A few days later, the head is unearthed to look at the effects of time on it.

The performance is both an iconoclast act of burial of ancient culture, leading to a potential tabula rasa, and a look at how time can give a certain weight to the most meaningless objects. Indeed, the cheap plaster copy of the antique head may acquire value with time passing and the burial's erosion.