JULY 2025
CAWCUS x ABASTAN comics residency
collab CAWCUS x ABASTAN
In summer 2025, Abastan collaborated with the Cawcus comics festival in Yerevan. In June, four Abastanians gave a presentation on the history of Abastan and the range of our creative projects.
Then, in July, four cartoonists gathered in a house in Tumanyan for a three-week residency to work on their individual comics projects. The residency offered an opportunity to get away to the tranquility of the Lori hills, to focus, to share and discuss.
Then, in July, four cartoonists gathered in a house in Tumanyan for a three-week residency to work on their individual comics projects. The residency offered an opportunity to get away to the tranquility of the Lori hills, to focus, to share and discuss.
From Anna-Maria Che’s story:
I stumbled into clowning completely by accident. I was working on my animated film at a shared studio in St. Petersburg when a nice girl came in. I asked about her job, and she said: “I'm a clown”. I was excited, because until that moment I was sure that “I make animated films” was the coolest possible answer to that question. She invited me to their clown show, and I was fully impressed by it, laughing and crying at the same time. And I felt so connected with everything that happened on stage and with every single person in the audience! In short, I fell in love:)
Then it turned out that a clown theatre was starting a clowning course. Of course I signed up! Though a few months later I had to leave St. Petersburg, and eventually Russia. But from that moment, wherever I landed, I was always looking for a way to keep studying clowning.
First I ended up in a course of Carlo Mo - contemporary spanish clown. Then I found myself in India, where I joined a workshop by Uruguayan clowns who blended together clowning and mystical South American masks.
I stumbled into clowning completely by accident. I was working on my animated film at a shared studio in St. Petersburg when a nice girl came in. I asked about her job, and she said: “I'm a clown”. I was excited, because until that moment I was sure that “I make animated films” was the coolest possible answer to that question. She invited me to their clown show, and I was fully impressed by it, laughing and crying at the same time. And I felt so connected with everything that happened on stage and with every single person in the audience! In short, I fell in love:)
Then it turned out that a clown theatre was starting a clowning course. Of course I signed up! Though a few months later I had to leave St. Petersburg, and eventually Russia. But from that moment, wherever I landed, I was always looking for a way to keep studying clowning.
First I ended up in a course of Carlo Mo - contemporary spanish clown. Then I found myself in India, where I joined a workshop by Uruguayan clowns who blended together clowning and mystical South American masks.
Back in Moscow, I spent six months visiting a children's hospital with a team of hospital clowns. This was a very different type of art - social clowning, very beautiful and meaningful at the same time.
When I ended up in Armenia, I went looking for clowns to keep going with. I found an Argentine clown-juggler and an Armenian singer-dancer, and the three of us actually formed a little trio to visit hospitals in Yerevan. But it turned out to be much harder there. Armenian hospitals are not familiar with the idea of “red noses” (hospital clown community) and they didn`t have enough trust to let us interact with children. So our group felt apart..
But I still hope to have more clowning in my life and to share it with people around. Cause I think that it`s one of the most beautiful arts - the one that helps people to connect, to feel more honest with themselves, and in the end - more happy.
