Yervant Gianikian, Artist Who Helped Win Armenia the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion, Dies at 84
Italian filmmaker and artist Yervant Gianikian died at 84, according to Italian press reports; he was born in 1942 in Merano, Italy, to Armenian parents. Working frequently with his partner Angela Ricci Lucchi (who died in 2018), Gianikian made experimental films that repurposed archival footage—often slowed down and visually altered—to examine dispossession, colonialism, and historical trauma, including the Armenian genocide and the mass killings of Roma people during World War II. Their work appeared in major art contexts including the Venice Biennale (main exhibitions in 2001 curated by Harald Szeemann and in 2013 curated by Massimiliano Gioni) and Documenta 14 in 2017, where “Journey to Russia” combined multi-screen film with extensive watercolors. At the 2015 Venice Biennale’s Armenian Pavilion, where they were among 18 participants, their video “Return to Khodorciur: Armenian Diary” (1986) and hundreds of related watercolors contributed to the pavilion winning the Golden Lion, a gesture tied to the genocide’s centenary.
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