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Varoujan Mardirian is a contemporary sculptor marked by his vision, his perception of forms, and his unique and artistic sensitivity. His sculptures, executed in the marvelous matter of wood, make you feel the tremors and the warmth of the human body. At the same time, they make you think about the abundance of the human soul’s light, so intrinsic to his fantastic figures which are half real and half imaginary.
Varoujan Vartanian Sovedagan Arvesd
Varoujan Mardirian certainly knows wood. He knows all about its softness or hardness, its grain or color. He knows how to carve it with impeccable and sensitive skill solely by hand, with chisel, rasp and sandpaper, without any mechanical tools at all. The 34 pieces on exhibit are produced in about 12 types of wood, many of them strikingly unusual in color. Mardirian’s rhythmic, graceful curves do indeed invite touch. Female nudes, bordering on the abstract, rise into space in singing sweeps of movement. Body proud and audacious in expression, they promise durable visual pleasure.
THE DAILY STAR By Helen Khal May 8, 1997 |
Mr. Mardirian’s work is inspired by the beauty of women…woman…the life giver…protectorate…flowering…food bearer…at the same time Mardirian obviously sees trees and their wood as yet another life giver…They too being a protectorate…flowering…food bearer…All kinds of them as all kinds of people… Mr. Mardirian is one of Lebanon’s finest sculptors and I am pleased to see that his work reflects life, movement and with that, of course, comes the sound of beautiful music. THE PRESIDENT OF EUROPEAN PATENT CENTER DR.LILLIANE MEYERS MAY 1999 VIENNA, AUSTRIA
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Mardirian works mainly in wood. An architect and civil engineer by profession, he expresses the influences of his Armenian cultural heritage in his sculptures. Many are abstractions based on the female form
New London Day, May 2000
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“HIS APPEARANCE IS THAT OF LEBANON, UNRIVALED AS THE CEDARS”. SONG OF SONGS 5:16
“THEY TOOK A CEDAR FROM LEBANON TO MAKE YOU A MAST” EZECHIEL 27:5
I recalled these two verses from scriptures when I first saw the works of the Armenian Lebanese sculptor Varoujan Mardirian. I smelt the strong perfume of the wood, I felt their vitality through their veins, I saw matter elevated to the heights of intense poetry. While balancing between the abstract and the figurative, Varoujan Mardirian in his plastic research has an exceptional capacity in synthesizing what cannot be expressed into (through preconstructed plans) geometric models, in and with free space; the natural and the world of dreams resulting thus into an intensely good aesthetic quality permeating the semantic values and blinding them to the most profound pulses of humanity: to femininity, to sexuality and maternity.
DR. PAOLO GHEDINA DIRECTOR OF CIVIC MUSEUM IN ABANO TERME, PADOVA, ITALY AUGUST-1998 |
Yellow Leaf in a Blue Sky
If I were a poet, I would dedicate a poem to Varoujan Mardirian. Varoujan is not a poet or composer either; that is why he expresses the poetry and music stirring his soul through his sculptures. The fame’s magical dance enlivens Varoujan’s sculptures. These intangible, constantly changing, elusive, forever waning and resurging tongues of fire impart a dynamic plasticity to Varoujan’s sculptures. The sound of a violin, Modigliani, philosophy, a coiled spring, ocean waves, passion, love, though, a church organ, a flute, song of songs…the feelings that enthrall and enchant the visitors of Varoujan’s exhibitions are manifold.
Sergey Vartanian “Pnorran,” No. 1-2, 1999 – Yerevan
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