These 3 talented artists will spend a month creating, getting inspired, and making new discoveries at the Villa Empain, the iconic center of the Boghossian Foundation.
1
JOURNEY
3
RESIDENTS
1
MONTH
Meet the Residents
Biayna Mahari
Photographer
Biayna Mahari is a photographer and visual storyteller whose work has been published widely in local and international magazines, including Audubon, La República, Madame Figaro, and Libération. After a brief period in IT, she fully committed to photography, eventually focusing on documentary practice for its power to speak up and create change. Biayna has received multiple fellowships and awards, including an ICP Director Fellowship in New York, prizes at CPOY, an ECCA scholarship at DMJX School and much more.
During the residency, she will focus on developing the written narrative of her ongoing project on the 2020 war in Artsakh, shaping diary entries into a cohesive text that, together with the photographs, will form a book-length work.
Instagram: @biayna
Vardan Harutyunyan
Composer and Sound Artist
Vardan Harutyunyan is a composer working in sound art and electronics who currently focuses on resonance and frequency research. He has led and curated projects such as SoundLab Gyumri and the Contemporary Sound Orchestra Yerevan. His works have been performed at multiple art centers in Armenia and abroad. Vardan has collaborated with musicians and bands such as Bambir and Arto Tunçboyacıyan with Kamarama. Currently, Vardan performs as a classical pianist and studies music therapy.
At the Villa Empain, Vardan will work on his audiovisual installation, which combines natural soundscapes with musical recordings using his overtone technique. He will focus on exploring the interplay among home, nature, and the human body through sound and space.
Instagram: @vhsound_official
Toma Aydinyan
Performer and Choreographer
Toma Aydinyan is a performer and choreographer who develops her own movement language, shaped by over 20 years of training and inspiration from diverse teachers, and blends complex dance techniques with gestures drawn from everyday life. She has worked as a guest dancer, choreographer, and teacher across Italy, Germany, France, the UK, Greece, and Kuwait. Notably, she was a principal dancer with Compania Giardino Chiuso and Opus Ballet (Italy, 2019), a dancer-choreographer with ImpArt Dance Company (Germany–Greece), and a main dancer with Käfig Dance Company (France, 2023–2024). In 2022, she served as a jury member at the Festival of Arts and Dance (FAD) in Kuwait.
While in Brussels, Toma will develop a new solo dance piece exploring grief through strength, examining how people cope, grow, and hold on to their inner cracks.
Instagram: @tomaydinyan
