Pratt Manhattan Gallery presents a group exhibition, Blind Dates: New Encounters from the Edges of a Former Empire, guest-curated by Defne Ayas and Neery Melkonian.

Tracing what remains of the peoples, places, and cultures that once constituted the vast Ottoman geography, “Blind Dates” instigates a series of interdisciplinary “match-made” encounters to mediate ruptured pasts and to consider their effect on life today. At the heart of the exhibition are research-based artistic collaborations that bring together practitioners from Armenia, Bosnia, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey, with their transnational counterparts in Europe and the United States. These newly produced projects explore attachments to images, voices, and histories that collide with existing taxonomies of nation-states, art histories, and identities. On view is a cluster of sensibilities that nest at the verge of remembering and forgetting, truth and fiction, real and imaginary.

Participants include:

Silva Ajemian and Aslihan Demirtas Karen Andreassian with Citizen Walker Sergey Hrayr Anmahouni Eulmessekian with Professor Anahid Kassabian Michael Blum and Damir Nikšic Jean Marie Casbarian with Professor Nazan Maksudyan Özge Ersoy with Taline Toutounjian Linda Ganjian and Elif Uras Aram Jibilian with Aaron Mattocks as Arshile Gorky’s ghost Nina Katchadourian and Ahmet Ögüt Karine Matsakian and Sona Abgarian Stefanos Tsivopoulos with dancers Ursula Eagly, Carlos Fittante and Christopher Williams Jalal Toufic with Professor Selim Kuru as translator xurban_collective