Haig Aivazian’s You May Own the Lanterns but We Have the Light brings together three episodes from a cartoon mini-series screened in a continuous loop. Each episode comprises found cartoons and animations from a wide array of sources, all redrawn and re-animated with varying degrees of alterations to the original source material, with the help of various animators, music producers and other actors in Lebanon and the region. The plot of the trilogy sets up the night as a contentious space, where its attempted colonisations by unknown forces are countered by practices of escapism, fugitiveness and confrontation.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Haig Aivazian’s (b. 1980, Beirut) practice grapples with the metamorphic nature of three technologies: artificial light, computation and law. He examines the ways in which the administration of light and darkness makes and unmakes persons, and transforms material conditions of architecture and geography – how they are inhabited and moved through by humans, animals, objects, machines and other strange creatures. His solo exhibitions include All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes, The Showroom, London (2022) and All of the Lights, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2021). His work was also exhibited in The Cyprus Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024); the 5th New Museum Triennial, New York (2021); 7th Yokohama Triennial (2020); the Armenia Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015).
EXHIBITED WORKS
Haig Aivazian (b. 1980)
You May Own the Lanterns, but We Have the Light
Episode 1: Home Alone, 2022
Episode 2: Eyeshadow Dark as Night, 2024
Episode 3: Children of Darkness, 2025*
*Co-commissioned by Istanbul Biennial, Thailand Biennial Phuket: Eternal [Kalpa], and Aranya Art Center
Single-channel video animation, 16:9, black and white, stereo
Episode 1: 12:36 min, Episode 2: 10:45 min, Episode 3: 20:35 min
Courtesy of the artist
