Sarkis

(1938- )

   artist

   Of Armenian origin, Sarkis Zabunyan, or Sarkis, as he is known, was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and settled in Paris in 1964. He painted works close to the figurative narrative style, then, after discovering conceptual art and the works of German artist Joseph Beuys, created installations with solid materials (spools, felt) that are charged with energy. Sarkis has willingly adapted the military aesthetic (going as far as to paint water tanks with camouflage colors), archaeology (rearranging archaeological labels to contradictory places), the cinema, and music. His series Kriegshatz, begun in 1976, represents his synthesis of research done on the memory of locations.