WISDOM KEEPERS 10/08-09/11/2025 Sardarapat Museum

On August 10 - opening: 14:00 hrs - the Sardarapat Memorial Complex will host the premiere of WISDOM KEEPERS: Living Symbols of the Armenian Highlands.

 

This international exhibition blends art and archaeology bringing together myth, heritage, archaeological data, and contemporary vision to reimagine one of Armenia’s most enigmatic cultural phenomena: the vishapaqar or dragon stone.

The result is not a return, but a continuation - where symbolic meaning and living systems reflect one another in a shared rhythm of presence, perception, and becoming. In this evolving grammar, in a time of global uncertainty, WISDOM KEEPERS reclaims the vishap not merely as a relic of the past, but as a transmitter of meaning across time a signal from the deep past that speaks to our future.

 

“Seek not the paths of the ancients;
 Seek that which the ancients sought.”

 quote: Matsuo Basho (Japan, 1644 - 1694)

 

The framed tapestry Threat (2022), designed by Jan Doms and realized in collaboration with Juliane Schreiber and with the support of the International TextielLab, Textielmuseum Tilburg, plays a central role in this special exhibition.

Threat offers a view of Armenia's northern mountain landscape, the site of the dragon stones, contrasted with a low-flying jet fighter. The present is connected to the past in this threatening way.

Download: Threat Jan Doms & Juliane Schreiber.jpg.pdf