The film of David Sarkissian "To Die Is To Live" tries
to release Armenian filmo-matography from
theatrical language-thinking, which
has taken on itself the culture of literal-art
supported by soviet states opposites the culture of scientific-techniques
for a long
time. In
post-soviet
Armenia the cognitions of Art are arrived
in the cross-roads of oppositions and mutually exclusiveness. All
the things
that were
created
before
discovering electricity and its mass usage
(in our case it appropriates with establishment
of soviet state) opposites the unilateral
but dominant
cognition of national culture, which defines our national
being as an opportunity
to return
to the world of cattle breeding and agriculture.
For its being the Film Art owes electricity. But, being considered
as an independent
way of art,
Film goes on searching for its special
language elements. The film, which is being released from literature
narrative,
sees itself
in
painting.
David Sarkissian understands painting as
a performance which is
cleaned from narrative. In the context of
this film you can find abstract expressionism presented as the finish
of
Romantic
Movement
started
since19th century.
Film “To Die Is To Live” considered
to be a non-finished project which is completely
opposite
to the idea of narrative.
The romantizm in 20th century was able to
get the second life by completely including
feature
film as well as serials nowadays. Art creation
for David Sarkissian is reveals of transcendental
strengths.
Refusing increasing script
Sarkissian chooses more radical step. He
refuses to see film as a
completed,
finished
work. Under the same title, he already
has 5 different versions. Comparing film
with painting,
it cannot have
original and copy
versions, all
the
copies are original. By playing-transferring
this idea to the special adult psychiatric
state, which,
as it seemed , stopped to
be the
question agitating only youth, and today
it transferred to nervous state, when
a human not only aims to satisfy his biological
claims, but also gets new feelings. With
this approaching he goes on the traditional
art
cognition, where the author, in this case
and as a rule, is the man ready to self-reproduction.
The admire and drama are sent to the first
plan,
as an echo of lost world.
In the film “To Die Is To Live” director used frames from
the documental film (we can say also staged) which made Jackson Pollock
famous, and also frames of Yves Kline’s famous performance as well
as performances of four late soviet union artists, which fight against “the
mourning of philology”. The stills are being paused with working-constructing
and ruining-destructing views. Using opportunities of television and internet
David Sarkissian tries to release them from the services of consumption
world. He gives us back the memories of people inspire in the times of
technical sunrise. It was as an single opportunity to change the world.
This time, far from grace of advertisings and clips, we meet a warning – to
preserve the originality of every single
living individual.
As the theme of soundtrack range he takes the subject which agitates
the youth, questions about life and death as well as the questions concerning
the meaning of life. Sarkissian presents it as the hardness of being related
to ideals of peace and love. This gives chance to artist to avoid negative
cognition of the society which is overloaded with moral-psychological
problems.
Showing expressive gesture as resurrection
of new and sporadic, David Sarkissian remains,
that “the thing was promised since its born
time must be done yet ”.
