Mekhitar Garabedian

This book brings together a selection of photographs by artist Mekhitar Garabedian, documenting the warehouse of his late father’s company, Melantex, which exported second-hand clothing from Belgium to the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The images inspired a one-year sculptural intervention by Garabedian, commissioned by the Antwerp Public Art Collection.

Import—Export, Friperie tells a compelling personal and collective story of how displacement can be turned into economic livelihood while creating connections between old and new homes, languages, and textiles.

The photographs are accompanied by an in-depth conversation between Garabedian and curator Samuel Saelemakers about the relationship between photography and sculpture, public representation, and diasporic thinking.

The human eye is designed with a flaw that is common to all other vertebrates: we have a blind spot, the punctum caecum, a small patch on the inside of our boisterous orbs of vision with no photoreceptors. A blind spot can also be psychological or social. We tend to be biased towards situations or people we cannot fully ‘see through’. How can we enlighten our blind spots? What kind of artistic practices can inspire new readings of history, art, music, or even politics?

With contributions by Bent Vande Sompele, Pierre-Antoine Vettorello & Stella Nyanchama Okemwa, and Haseeb Ahmed.  Design by Ward Heirwegh. Chief Editor: Zeynep Kubat. Editorial Board: Mekhitar Garabedian, Caroline Dumalin, Saskia Van der Gucht, Paul Hendrikse.