On November 14, 2015, the first personal exhibition of a profoundly gifted, talented master Armen Hovhannisyan named “World of Puppets” was opened in the Calouste Gulbenkian Hall of the Hayartun Center at the Armenian Diocese in Georgia. The cultural attaché and Second Secretary at the Armenian Embassy in Georgia, Elina Mkrtchyan, the Counselor at the RA Embassy in Georgia, Karen Melikyan, Co-chairman of Writers’ Union of Georgia, Baghater Arabuli, editor-in-chief of “Tsiskari” magazine, Amiran Gomarteli and many lovers of art honored the event with their presence.

On tables along the hall were placed highly recognizable heroes of different ages, status and posture, of different epoch, faiths and nationalities, characters from films and books. Puppets created by rich imagination and skillful hands of Armen Hovhannisyan, who is a poet, artist and puppeteer at once, were put on public display.

Attendees looked at “real” Nazar the Brave and Ustian, Pupala and Khanuma, Sergo Parajanov and Frunzik Mkrtchyan, the Lady of the Camellias and the Dreaming girl, Komitas and the family members who had survived the Genocide, Violinist and Karachokheli, Natalia, Anush and Saro, - with undisguised amazement and admiration, love and respect.

The Head of the Cultural Department at the Armenian Diocese in Georgia and Director of the Hayartun Center, Levon Chidilyan spoke about Armen Hovhannisyan’s creative process, which includes accurate depiction of literature and painting, national, ethnographic and classical art, household and personal items, and as a result, we can see the spirit of the time and true image of a hero.

Co-chairman of Writers’ Union of Georgia, Baghater Arabuli, artist Giovanni Vepkhvadze, Nina Seropova, the Coordinator of the Youth Activities of the Diocese, writer Monika Kurkchyan and others delivered a speech. They highly appreciated Armen Hovhannisyan’s creative process, assessed it as incredibly meticulous and precise work, devoid of excess and unnecessary details, which begins with clay and gypsum, gradually takes shape, and thanks to the skillful creativity of artist becomes a character and is dressed as a puppet’s hero.

The talented puppeteer expressed words of gratitude and mentioned that puppets are the product of imagination, they are created without picture and sketch, without study and patterns, with the inner imagination, by inspiration, through conversation and understanding of their feelings and state of mind, in the end the puppet obtains the look, is being dressed and gets different utensils.

The exhibition was accompanied by the performances of the Saint Nerses Shnorhali Youth Choir (Choirmaster – Maria Abulyan and Pianist – Karen Mirzoyan), duduk and dhol classes of the Center (teachers – Ivane Mkrtchyan and Robert Kashavanidze), as well as footage of different movies reminding of embodied characters.