Armenia proved to be a place where relationships do not form quickly, but once established, rest on solid foundations. This journey was not a closed project, but the beginning of a process: building trust, planning joint international artistic initiatives, and searching for a language of cooperation between cultures that—although geographically distant—meet within similar historical experiences and sensitivities.
Particularly significant was the establishment of contact with staff members of the Komitas Vardapet Institute–Museum, dedicated to the most important figure in Armenian music—a composer and ethnomusicologist whose work remains foundational to Armenian musical identity. It was there that in-depth research on Armenian music was carried out, resulting in the article “Song Instead of a Cry,” prepared for publication in Ruch Muzyczny.
Music was also present in practice. Two concerts were performed—one intimate, home-based event built on direct contact with a small audience, and another at Cafe Ilik, an artistic café in the center of Yerevan that serves as a meeting place for visual artists, musicians, and intellectuals. The concert in this space became a symbolic entry into the local cultural circulation—one rooted in relationships and dialogue rather than institutional distance.
Parallel to the concerts, short recital recordings were made in selected Armenian monasteries—places where acoustics, history, and spirituality form an inseparable whole. This was a threshold experience in which sound ceased to be merely an artistic form and became a carrier of memory.
The culmination of the stay was participation in the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on April 24. Taking part in these events as a representation of Poland carried deep symbolic meaning. It was a time of silence, shared presence, and attentiveness that completed the sense of the entire journey.
One of the key moments of the stay was the establishment of contact and a conversation with Armenian film director and former Minister of Culture, Gars, which focused both on the condition of contemporary Armenian culture and on the role of international artistic projects in building dialogue across borders. Equally important was the meeting with the president of the Armenia Foundation, during which issues related to the functioning of non-governmental organizations in the country, their development potential, and possibilities for cooperation with partners from Central and Eastern Europe—including Poland—were discussed.
A special place in this journey was occupied by meetings with people of word and sound. The interview with Tatew Khachatarian, an Armenian translator of Polish poetry, became a moving conversation about language as a space for cultural bridges. Polish literature, transferred into the Armenian context, revealed itself as surprisingly close to local sensibilities—raw, restrained, yet deeply emotional.
An important aspect of the visit was also conversations with musicians and film directors, during which several interviews were conducted about the contemporary Armenian artistic scene. The relationships established were informal but highly intensive—based on shared creative experience and a similar understanding of the role of art in society.
Between Song and Memory. An Armenian Journey of Building Relationships.
Between April 16 and 28, Armenia became for us not merely a travel destination, but above all a space of intense encounter—with the country, its history, its cultural figures, and with sound that carries a particular weight in this place. The journey was undertaken by Piotr Damasiewicz—musician, composer, and traveler—and Justyna Miguła—musician, linguist, and traveler. It was a time of research, conversations, concerts, and relationship-building, very likely to result in long-term artistic and social cooperation.
Armenia welcomed us with its characteristic calm, but also with a palpable tension rooted in the country’s history and current geopolitical situation. This is a place where culture—especially music and the arts—does not function as a background to everyday life, but as a tool of memory, identity, and survival. In this context, Polish–Armenian cultural relations gained particular depth. Shared historical experiences, trauma, migration, and the role of culture in sustaining community became natural points of reference in nearly every conversation.
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