PLAKT:
Mekhitar Garabedian
Mekhitar Garabedian’s work explores identity through the lens of migration and cultural heritage. Using diverse media—such as drawing, video, photography, and installations—he reflects on his experiences as an immigrant. His work plays with the mix of languages, cultures, and histories he has encountered, finding poetry in the overlaps. Just as his personal diasporic history is layered, his art is rich with references to literature, music, philosophy, and visual arts. Through these influences, Garabedian demonstrates that identity is not fixed, but shaped by memories, traditions, and the world around us.
Born in Aleppo (Syria) to an Armenian family that had already faced displacement due to the Armenian genocide, Garabedian moved, at a young age, with his parents to Belgium. This experience of movement between geographies and histories is central to his work. He explores themes of belonging and displacement, often using the Armenian language, old photographs, and written texts to preserve and reinterpret a past that is both personal and collective. His work illustrates that identity is not just about where you come from, but about the connections you make along the way, between inherited traditions and contemporary realities.
Garabedian also examines how cultures evolve over time. By blending personal stories with references from art and philosophy, he challenges ideas about where people belong and who they are. For many with migrant backgrounds, ‘home’ is not a single place but a mixture of memories, languages, and influences. Garabedian’s work encourages us to think about identity as a fluid, multifaceted concept, shaped by many factors, all of which contribute to making us who we are.
Alep (Bronze Lamp) features a Syrian stamp depicting a bronze lamp shaped like a horse, overlaid with “par avion,” “Alep” (in both French and Arabic), and the date 27.08.’81. This date marks a personal history—Garabedian was born in Aleppo and emigrated with his family to Belgium in 1981. The stamp comes from a letter sent to his father in Antwerp, where the family lived during their first year in Belgium. Part of a series issued in Syria in the late seventies, the stamp depicts heritage objects from National Museums. Garabedian alters the image, making it feel distant and unreal. By inverting the colours of the original stamp, he removes it from view, emphasising its inaccessibility—just like aspects of the past that remain out of reach, preserved yet transformed by time and memory.
Just as the stamp represents a fragmented connection to the past—altered and partially obscured—its placement as an image in public space, as part of the PLAKT series, mirrors the transient nature of memory, migration, and cultural identity. Passersby may or may not recognize the stamp’s origins, just as the histories carried by migrants often go unnoticed in public spaces. The altered colours reinforce this sense of distance—what was once a personal marker of communication is now a ghostly imprint. This challenges viewers to consider what is lost, preserved, and reshaped over time.
PLAKT invites artists to create works printed as blueback posters, which are pasted across the city. This is done by professionals who typically distribute event advertisements, giving them control over when and where the artworks appear. Embracing spontaneity and unpredictability, the posters pop up in unexpected spots, disappearing just as quickly—reflecting the uncontrollable, fleeting nature of city life. PLAKT is about creating unexpected encounters—brief moments of joy, curiosity, or reflection. Whether it’s a quick pause during a busy day or a smile on a familiar street corner, these artworks aim to connect art with the everyday, reminding us to live in the moment and embrace the unexpected nature of life.
We are spreading over 300 copies of each artwork across the public spaces of Brussels and Flanders. Exactly when and where? We don’t know—that’s part of the beauty.
Mekhitar Garabedian €265
Alep (Bronze Lamp)
We saved 15 pristine copies of this print to present as a limited edition – signed and numbered by the artist.