Caucasus Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Ajam Media Collective

Ajam’s Mehelle: Recording Everyday Life in Endangered Neighborhoods

Posted on October 10, 2016January 23, 2017
4 comments
byRustin Zarkar

Ajam Media Collective has created Mehelle— a new project dedicated to preserving the sights, sounds, and memories of rapidly-changing neighborhoods from Eastern Anatolia to Central Asia. It will serve as a multimedia resource for local inhabitants, community organizers, and urban researchers long after such neighborhoods have been demolished, gentrified, or transformed by private and state-led construction projects.

View Post

Things Left Behind: Art Left to Burn

Long Form

The Bard of the Caucasus: Armenian, Azeri, and Georgian Legacies of Sayat Nova

Posted on June 28, 2016February 27, 2019
7 comments
byKamyar Jarahzadeh

If Sayat Nova wrote hundreds of songs in Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian, then why are the cross-cultural celebrations of Sayat Nova so few and far between? Gaps in the historical record and contemporary political environment make a pancultural perspective of the legendary bard of the Caucasus more difficult.

View Post

Photo Essay

(Red)Framing Baku: Photographing Urban Change in Azerbaijan’s Capital

Ahmad Muxtar’s Red Frame not only documents Baku’s rapid urban transformation, but also explores the ways our perceptions of urban space are framed by social, political, and economic forces.

View Post

Long Form

Constructing a European Azerbaijan: The ‘Quasi-Religious’ Spectacle of the Tour d’Azerbaidjan

Posted on August 17, 2015January 20, 2017
No comments
byAsher Kohn

Ajam MC interviews Patrick Redford of Vice Sports about his participation in the Tour d’Azerbaijan and the theatricality of sports in the young nation-state.

View Post

Ajam Archive

Ajam Digital Archive: Recentering Personal and Communal Histories

Posted on August 4, 2015January 16, 2017
No comments
byAjam Media Collective

The items collected for the Ajam Digital Archive will allow us to document and record history from below—how it was actually lived, experienced, and understood. It is precisely these histories that were ignored in favor of tales that focused exclusively on wars and revolutions, rarely giving us a sense of how life was lived amidst it all.

View Post

Blog

100 Years After: Remembering the Armenian Genocide Through The Culture that Persists

Posted on April 24, 2015January 20, 2017
4 comments
byAjam Media Collective

One hundred years on from the Armenian Genocide, we highlight but a few Armenian cultural organizations and producers in hopes of both remembering the past, and supporting Armenians who continue to build a better future.

View Post

Ajam Records

Ajam Mixtape #10: Music for Weddings

Posted on February 9, 2015January 16, 2017
No comments
byKamyar Jarahzadeh

Kamyar Jarahzadeh aka Yavaran brings us to the dance floor once again, this time with a wedding-themed mixtape in time for Valentine’s Day. This mix highlights the shared happiness and culture that surrounds the region’s marriage celebrations.

View Post

Blog

Lived Cosmopolitanisms: An AjamMC/THE STATE Zine

Posted on September 29, 2014January 20, 2017
One comment
byAjam Media Collective

Ajam Media Collective recently worked with THE STATE, a Dubai-based publishing practice, to make a ‘zine. We provided the words and art while they provided the design to make a wonderful collaborative document. We are also publishing the work on our site, beginning with this introduction.

View Post

Long Form

Landmarks, Heritage, and Sites of Remembrance: The Armenian Churches of Iranian Azerbaijan

Posted on September 29, 2014May 11, 2017
3 comments
byRustin Zarkar

As UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran act as a celebration of the past, but not an examination of it. One may ask: where are the Armenians who lived here, if only their buildings remain? As landmarks are indoctrinated into the cult of heritage, we are able to consecrate something that speaks to cosmopolitanism without actually having to live it, or ask the question why the past no longer resembles the present.

View Post