The Time I Could Still Go Out Without Sunglasses and Body Guards

http://webtv.am/haxordasharer/art-modern/hasmik-sevoyan/

Fame is a tough thing. Although I already had a small career behind me with my appearances in the background of the final scene of the French movie Bienvenue Chez les Chti’s, what I encountered in Armenia was a totally new thing to me. There, as the often only Armenian speaking foreigner around, journalists were flying to me like bees rush to a blooming meadow. I've been interviewed at the zoo, on the street after having been thrown into different fountains of the city at the Vardavar celebration, at a wine festival, at a school... And my narcissic side usually took over at this point, accepting the interview with no consideration to my readiness, to my knowledge of the topic, or to my physical state. That's how I ended up declaring proudly and in Armenian to a journalist with a voice that sounded like I had just been smoking 5 packs of cigarettes, that I loved how abstract the paintings were and that, by the way, I was escorted by the police. Self control is a thing I might still have to learn, especially in the face of such major public appearances. But luckily, most of the embarassing scenes were cut off during the editting (not without some pressure from my side).

I wasn't able to track down all the records and I had to try and guess what a person was referring to when she or he (several times it was doctors at the hospital) told me that they'd seen me on TV. However, thinking about how funny my grandkids would find it to see their wrinkly grandma as a young Armenian celebrity, I looked for some of them and got lucky.

Here is the interview I gave at an art exhibition to which I went only because I was spontaneously invited by one of the chiefs of the police (who was my friend since my driver's license adventure) and thought it would be fun to go although I was dead tired (you can hear my voice, I wasn't in top shape at that time...). I remember driving there in the police boss' four wheel drive without seatbelts and after a few shots of cognac. And walking around there feeling like a zombie out of his dark and safe hiding place. They coerced me into saying that I had come there with the police during the interview, but afraid of the consequences that the exposure of this secret relationship would have I had to pressure the journalist to cut out this sensitive information from the film. Fortunately they did, and you can't hear much more, if you understand Armenian, than my comments about the colours and abstraction of these paintings. I had NO CLUE what to say, but the point is that I said something! You can see me on 3:30.

http://webtv.am/haxordasharer/art-modern/hasmik-sevoyan/