Weaving Culture: Anna Boghiguian’s residency

The Yerevan-based curatorial practice AHA collective is launching a weaving residency to welcome Egyptian-born Armenian-Canadian artist Anna Boghiguian for her first residency in Armenia. Constantly on the move between continents, Boghiguian has developed a thoughtful and expressive body of work reflecting on political narratives, human geographies, and transnational exchanges of culture, knowledge, and materials.

As a weaver of stories that transcend spatial and temporal boundaries, Boghiguian travels the world on her flying carpet, carrying wisdom and poetry. And it is precisely the carpet that takes her home to Armenia, where the production of high-quality handwoven rugs and use of natural indigineous dyes have been prized and spread across Eurasia since ancient times.

Building on AHA collective’s ongoing curatorial projects, which work closely with women weavers to reactivate indigenous textile practices, the “Weaving Culture” residency fosters a dynamic exchange between Boghiguian’s explorations and the living heritage of Armenian weaving practices. Curated by Nairi Khatchadourian, founder of AHA collective, the residency becomes a space for dialogue between an artist, a curator, and women weavers, unearthing the potentiality of the art of Armenian carpet making: “This contact I assume will broaden my perspective on how woven image can be viewed in texture form and design as a floor or wall hanging. It will broaden my views on colour as well as how to prepare dyes or learn from those who are specialised in dye making, the different plants that are from Armenia or on the migration of plants from different regions that are part of Armenian soil but shared with other countries. It will also put me into contact with different weavers from Armenia, bringing me closer to Armenian culture and history. As part of the Armenian diaspora, it will be a healing factor to know more of the nation and its art that somehow, I am part of it”, shares Boghiguian.

The residency is rooted in fieldwork in the weaving and dying workshops across the region of Yerevan and the southern region of Syunik, one of the cradles of Armenian carpet tradition. “As an embodiment of home and generational memory, Armenian carpets have transcended their sole purpose of covering floors, becoming carriers of history, identity, and cultural continuity. Each handwoven piece is like a woven text that inscribes the territory from where it originates, embedding the landscapes, symbols, and narratives of its creators. Boghiguian’s engagement with Armenian women weavers marks a significant development of her practice”, shares Khatchadourian.

The “Weaving Culture” residency is implemented by AHA collective in collaboration with the Delegation of the European Union in Armenia within the framework of the “Rapid Response Mechanism”. The program supports targeted actions directed to empower displaced Armenian women weavers of Nagorno-Karabagh through economic support, local and international socio-cultural recognition, and revival of carpet-making traditions in new host communities in Armenia. As a curatorial practice engaged in integrating historical narratives with salient contemporary issues, AHA collective’s “Weaving Culture” residency marks an organic continuation to its engagement with textile traditions and contemporary art practices. After decades of world exploration, Boghiguian orients her Mappa Mundi towards Armenia to highlight on the world cartography the indigenous knowledge, geopolitical perspectives, and human stories finely woven into the fabric of the Armenian Highlands.

The “Weaving Culture” residency is launched in June 2025 and the resulting research and artworks will be exhibited in an inaugural exhibition in Yerevan in 2026 by AHA collective. A bilingual publication will be edited with the support of Gulbenkian’s “in view” Western Armenian language program.