TATEV HOVAKIMYAN

At around 13 or 14, I felt a need for a parallel world—something beyond the environment and space in which I lived. I gradually discovered the world of cinema, then later theatre, and eventually, painting began to fascinate me deeply. These worlds became the parallel realities that offered me self-affirmation, born from my search for identity.

The realities I experience through film, theatre, or even a single painting—like one of Botticelli’s works—have profoundly shaped me. Some films have changed my life; there are many. The world has created countless parallel realities for people like me who are searching for themselves. Works that transformed my understanding of how the world is built and how people can be perceived include Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, the films of Lanthimos, Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Nolan, and Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, as well as Sorrentino—many, many others.

Theatre is a transformation of reality that happens right before your eyes. And I became one of those who transform reality—whether on a small or large scale, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I realized that, at some point in my youth, I dreamed of creating my own realities, and now I truly am creating them.

Photographers: Harut Tashjyan | Lilit Uni