Poems and Lullabies of the Post-Nostalgic

"Poems and Lullabies of the Post-Nostalgic is a performance and installation that questions the politics of memory and highlights the urgency of remembering endangered cultures threatened by genocides, specifically the Armenian genocide (1915-16). Embodying the figure of a nomadic troubadour, a living museum of culture, Marie Tirard transforms her Armenian ancestors’ poems into improvised songs, critically examining archives and their role in collective memory through theatre and music.

The installation features a handmade silk dress with the designer’s grandmother’s handwritten poems projected onto it, symbolising the fragility of culture as it passes from generation to generation. Marie’s voice, traveling through a four-channel speaker system, mixes with ambient sounds of the Armenian landscape, ancestral instruments and electronic music. Through this process, the project creates new, trans-cultural songs from past poems, ensuring their future survival."