"One Hundred Years of Silence" exhibition of painter Mushegh Mkhitaryan held in early October in Yerevan was a great success. Dedicated to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, the exhibition tells about the revival of the Armenian people, their return to art and peaceful life. A total of 54 paintings were exhibited.
Mkhitaryan's family like thousands of other families suffered from the tragedy of 1915 - Genocide of Armenians. His relatives migrated from Mush and Kars surviving the Genocide and bringing with them some relics that were also exhibited at the event and described in the artist's paintings.
"The exhibition presents not only the story of my family that survived the Genocide, but the story of all our families that faced the tragedy of 1915," Mkhitaryan said talking to ArmInfo. In the painter's words, in his paintings he tried to show not only the sufferings of the people that survive genocide, but also their revival and return to peaceful life.
"People passed through the Hell during the Genocide, but they have not lost their human features. They remain human beings, preserved their values, managed to rise up again, and educate the new generation. What a powerful faith those people had! It helped them not to break and find strength to live," the painter said.
The exhibition consists of three parts: origin, testing (Genocide), and revival.
"We have an opportunity to create, we have our national language, statehood. This means that the Armenian people is experiencing revival," Mkhitaryan said.