Achot Achot

ACHOT ACHOT was born in Armenia in 1961. Achot left Armenia shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993 and moved to France. With his discovery of the Vedic philosophy Achot Achot began his mature period where all the works are titled AFACTUM - a word created by the artist from factum for event, and his own private prefix.

aChot aChot

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One of two Paris-based Bunker painters, ACHOT ACHOT relies on a familiar device in late 20th century painting – the grid – but engages it in unprecedented ways. The repetition of specific shapes – normally a blot-like form whose irregular contours are repeated exactly at regular intervals – would suggest American Pattern Painting, but references more directly the Support-Surface “banner” approach of Claude Viallat, as well as the rote recurrences of standardized shapes found in the work of the BMPT group (especially Niele Toroni and Michel Parmentier). Achot Achot in fact began working in this manner while still in Armenia, practicing it as a visual manifestation of his meditative chanting. Further, he distinguishes himself from his fellow Parisians artists by varying his physical approach broadly; where the others suppress almost all evidence of handwork and texture, Achot Achot revels in such anti-minimalist qualities. Indeed, he sets up a kind of inner conflict between severely regulated, even regimented shape and rhythm on the one hand and, on the other, a free-form, even agitated surface with strong evidence of weathering and soiling, all casting an endearingly gritty spirit of rough-hewn abjection over the lockstep rows. As it is for his Bunker allies, Minimalism for Achot Achot is a condition to pass through rather than to settle into.

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aChot aChot'S afaCtuM

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Asked what led him to abstract art and eventually to the Bunker Group, Achot Achot said it was not an arbitrary turn. “I first started experimenting with abstract art in the 70’s when foreign art books began to show up in Armenia and I became inspired by Mondrian, Miro, and Kandinsky. Then, when we had nude classes in art college, I fell in love with it because it enabled me to do what I wanted: present people without their different dressings and societal masks. I wanted to show their inner world. I was more interested in presenting my inner point of view than realistically precise images. I called it ‘inner realism.’”

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Achot Achot's spiritual growth contributed to his artistic development. First his art reflected his Christian beliefs in a series of angelic figures in the 80’s. By the beginning of the 90’s, when he began to read the Bhagavad Gita, his belief in Christianity had come to a standstill, and the style of his art changed too.

“Vedic philosophy gave me a very broad view of life and art, and the inspiration to draw biomorphic forms that looked like seeds in a state of germination or drops of water. Painting for me was a meditation, a spiritual immersion – a way to get in touch with God. I used the principle of repetition as an element similar to mantras, and the structure revealed itself in my paintings. I followed my heart and it returned me to abstract art.”

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For some period Achot Achot belonged to the internationally-known art group Third Floor Art Group, but eventually felt that most of the group's artists were too interested in the social aspect of art. "Art was as pure as a prayer to God,” he said, and so in 1991, with the support of his friend Kiki, he left the group. “Kiki supported me very much during this difficult period – I felt that I was not alone. He was very uncompromising, as were all his artist friends at the time, and I was very attracted to it. It helped me to remain true to pure conceptual abstractionism.

“Nonconformism united us in the group that later was called Bunker. During this period we came to the attention of our eventual sponsor Sergei Djavadian. At first we thought he would sell our art, but he collected it instead. In so doing

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he has preserved the trail of our creative sparks in the unique key artworks of the different painting periods that now have important historic value for us and, I hope, for the art world. We could not have saved them ourselves, especially considering that all of us eventually emigrated from Armenia.”

After leaving Armenia, Achot Achot found a second motherland in France and continued to be productive in many artistic directions. From 2004 to 2011 he worked with photographic images, and also turned to filmmaking. “I wanted to show in these art forms the polarity between soul and body, the stages of soul development.” I named my art series Afactum from factum, the Latin word for fact, because every fact causes a consequence. To describe the spiritual world, I came up with the word afactum, because in matters of soul there is no cause and effect – everything is possible!"

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Achot Achot is still working on the Afactum series. “It was a seed that I started to paint in Armenia, it sprouted here in France where it continues to develop in different directions.” From his base in Paris Ashot Ashot frequently travels abroad to New York, Toronto and London and many other cities where he discusses with his students the psychology of spiritual and creative development.

Asked whether he misses being in a group of like-minded artists, Achot Achot answered, “Of course, there is the nostalgia for the Bunker period! Now, residing in three different countries, we have only infrequent chances to communicate, but the inner connections remains, the spirit that united us then still exists. We still have disagreements with societal principles and beliefs about the significance of the material world, but we don't want to fight using their methods. Painting is our weapon."