Armenia

Hrachya Aslanyan, Ruzanna Barseghyan, Tigran Boyakhchyan, Hovhannes Gasparyan, Arman Grigoryan, Hayk Daghunts, Hayk Tumanyan, Artur Manukyan, Davit Mnatsakanyan, Sara Simonyan, Raffi Stepanyann

"Azatutyun (Liberty) Avenue" (2022)

This competition entry deals with the transformations of the Azatutyun Avenue during Soviet and Post-Soviet times. The avenue structure has been in constant change: initially it was a narrow path, later it became a cobbled street, in the 1960s it was a paved road, with a double line, which was perfectly fine for the traffic in the Soviet times. In the 1980s, because of traffic growth, a third lane was added to the avenue. As a result, the sidewalks and grassy areas in the middle were narrowed. German soldiers, prisoners of World War II, worked on the construction of the avenue.

Life in the avenue was flourishing during the Soviet time due to several operating factories, such as the Yerevan automobile factory “Yeraz’’, the champagne wines factory, the Yerevan lamp factory, the button factory, the relay electrotechnical factory, “Zvartnots” cinema, several educational institutions, "Kanaz" cultural house, museums, etc.

In 1967, a monument dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution was built at the beginning of the Azatutyun Avenue. On December 3, 2008, next to the monument, a memorial was built dedicated to the repressed Armenians exiled by Stalin's decree in the 1940s.

The entry won the prize “Best Work” in the Armenian History Competition 2022.

Watch a detailed presentation of the entry on YouTube (with English subtitles)