MANTRA by Armen Agop

Installation of MANTRA 60 at Flora Bigai Arte Contemporanea, Italy

“Armen Agop unites sculpture and painting in a meditation on the power of darkness to generate light. The complete synergy of body, mind and spirit lies at the core of Agop’s practice, for whom art is a spiritual form of asceticism. If the three- dimensional black granite recalls the pure monumentality of ancient Egyptian sculpture, the works on canvas start from the smallest graphic element – the point – to unveil, in a gestural mantra, the mysterious fountains of light that are born out of complete darkness”

Claudio Scorretti

Praying and ritual often comes with the repetition of sounds or phrases or in my case, gestures. Practicing these gestures over an extended period of time, allows me to unite with the material and, ultimately, with myself.

By getting acquainted with these manifold aspects of the “point” I have become fascinated by the contradicion, the depth of soberness, the greatness of the smallest of elements. Above all, it is the practice that is inspirational. In the granite sculptures, I work for a long time to capture and carve out the form and the raised “point”. In the process there are a lot of repetitive movements between carving, grinding, and endless shaping to capture a “point”, it is a meditative practice.

The paintings and drawings are a natural development of my ascetic approach.They have developed into a meditative process in which a “point” becomes a personal mantra, a gestural mantra, being repeated endlessly without lofty plans or pretentious claims. The “point” transcends from being a solitary entity, as in the sculptures, to a member of a cosmic society, without losing its soberness or dignity.

Installation of MANTRA 02, 04, 08, 2019
Acrylic and ink on canvas, 100 x 100 cm each

Installation of MANTRA series, 2019
Acrylic and ink on canvas, 100 x 100 cm each