jumbo by Armen Patvakanyan

G I A N T S IZE S T R E E T S T R I P

JUMBO LOOP COMICS PROJECT actual art

LONGEST COMIC STRIP IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

HOW

this unique story came to be written is, in October 2011, the Back tO tHE BOOk National Festival, a primary event for book interest rehabilitation, found itself in need of publicity. and so 2 cartoonists were gathered at the khnko-aper National children’s’ library in Yerevan to draw the 27 meter long 1.60 meter wide comic strip named Warning: Doors Are Closing! – the longest strip ever to be completed in one setting in South caucasus. the basic script and the art work were penned by levon Gyulkhasyan and tigran arakelyan, a new who's who of armenian comic movement. the story itself chronicles a journey of a man and a woman, a metro passengers through books that finally brought them back to the starting point of the story. this strip reads like no other comic book, as it is made on roll of plastic banner and is wrapped over four poles outdoors, in the library Garden, making readers to read panels walking around a square of 7 X 7 meters. the ending of the story mirrors the beginning, so that panels at the end of the story are smoothly adjusted to the very first panel, making it a never-ending continuous story. authors coined this concept as a loop comics. But the story, an odd mix of humor, speculation, and psychedelics, is definitely worth reading, not only for the tale it has to tell, but for the big scale of it, making you physically to wander throughout the story feeling the excitement of participation. this concept is approved by the fact that spectators, mainly children and youth started to color the banner immediately after it was exposed to public.

GYUMRI PUMPKIN FESTIVAL

December 2011 the same group was invited to the second largest city of armenia Gyumri to participate in the Pumpkin Fest. this time levon Gyulkhasyan, tigran araqelyan and Mkrtich Matevosyan decided to elaborate even larger Jumbo loop comics. the group have made homework and came to Gyumri with a ready script. Within four hours the art work was done. then with the assistance of local artists and hotel personnel the 28 meter long strip (one meter longer than the previous one!) was hung in the hallway of the Berlin art Hotel. the comic contains a story about pumpkin â&#x20AC;&#x201C;human relationship described from the pumpkinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective. as in previous work it is a never-ending story with the end perfectly matching the beginning.

APBDA COMICS FESTIVAL YEREVAN

APRIL

2012 yielded a new jumbo, made during the third aPBDa BD Festival in Yerevan.

the topic of the strip was Useless For Ignorami. Sexteen panels has a humoristic content and represented different ways of usage of books - all except reading of them. the media was a 25 meter-long transparent celluloid. the authors wrapped it around the bus station of the tuMOâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;center for creative technologies where the festival was running. as usual, the story had no beginning and no end. the third aPBDa BD Festival in Yerevan was held in frame of Yerevan the World Book capital 2012 announced by uNEScO.

2012 YEREVAN BACK 2 BOOK FESTIVAL

FIRST

anniversary of execution of the gigantic strip was celebrated with the new strip. During the Back to the Book National Festival in October 2012 the informal angouleme Group consisting of Mkrtich Matevosyan, levon Gyulkhasyan, armen Patvakanyan and tigran araqelyan developed a story named It’s Tumanyan’s Fault! the story matches educational purposes of both Back to the Book Festival and khnko aper children’s library where the work was performed. It is about an animation artist, who at the end of his career suddenly came to a conclusion that the cause of his family failure is a classic of armenian literature Hovhannes tumanyan. 25 years ago when the hero was a young animator with ambition to shoot a cartoon it was tumanyan’s fairy-tale that triggered the meeting with his future wife… as usual, this is the never ending story, when the end of the story smoothly matches its beginning, forming a loop. the performance indicated some evolution of the Jumbo comics: while levon Gyulkhasyan and tigran araqelyan were the main artists, the lettering was delegated to Nare Hovhannisyan. In addition, the group of art school students colored the strip.

to turn it into a real public event, this time the angouleme

Group decided to move the actual drawing to the streets. the day before in the late evening the artists made most laborious and boring part to draw panel frames, leaving actual drawing of the story for next morning outdoors.

Some statistics: the strip has 16 panels located on the 27.2 meter long banner. It is hung in a central location of Yerevan, in the front of the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s library.

http://www.arteria.am/hy/1350078211

OUR OTHER ACTIVITIES INCLUDE: DRINK’N’DRAW a weekly group drawing sessions

BADABADA? a magazine of comics and thing like this revue de la bande dessinée et des autre choses

INTERVENTION a multidisciplinary art workshop translating from one medium to another

WEB SITE cultural & critical online magazine

www.arteria.am

...and also PUBLISHING art and culture related cool books & magazines

abstractio

menia nism in ar

an grigor khachatri gohar sanoyan an mkrtich matevosy gigor miqaelian vahan rumelian gagik babayan

/ kiki

...as well as contribution to the Back 2 Book Festival, running a www.arteria.am, holding Gyumri: Disaster as a Norm of life competition, and participation in all comics events in armenia

ACTUAL ART NGO's mission is to develop an open democratic space for expression through facilitating debates on contemporary art processes and strategies and organizing cultural events. We emphasize capacity building as a tool of communication without borders. We use contemporary art as a universal language of communication for different parties; to establish linkages between the art and the society; and to articulate issues of concern important for society. the NGO has cooperated effectively with art communities in neighboring Georgia, azerbaijan, as well as France, Denmark and other European artists and unions and are pursuing collaborations with other neighboring states.

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