A Fight Against Forgetting: Varsy Buchmann on the Voices of Artsakh

In a recent, poignant interview with ReOpen Media, Swiss-Armenian director Varsy Buchmann shared the deeply personal and urgent story behind her documentary installation, “They Say We Have to Leave.” The project gives a powerful voice to the 120 women who, along with over 120,000 others, were forcibly displaced from Artsakh in 2023. This is not just a documentation of events, as one reporter in the video notes, “it is a call to preserve memory.”

The catalyst for the project was a moment of profound personal impact. Buchmann recalls the day of the fuel depot explosion in Artsakh, stating, “After seeing everything that day, I called Andreas Weber and told him that a project had to be created about this.” From that moment, she knew the format had to be an installation. “It was very clear to me that this had to be an installation format, where we would have maximum freedom to combine different content,” she explains. The primary goal of this project, she states, is “the fight against forgetting.” In a powerful closing statement, Buchmann says, “They do everything for us to forget. Don’t forget.”

The installation itself is an immersive journey through the trauma of displacement, structured in three parts. The first is a long, dark corridor, symbolizing the Lachin Corridor. Here, visitors encounter the silent video portraits of 120 women, their stories told through text excerpts from their interviews. The haunting atmosphere is amplified by a score from contemporary composer Arsen Babajanyan. Ruzan Balasanyan, a project participant, describes the emotional weight of this section: “After the displacement, when we were coming to Armenia, we didn’t know where we were going, what we were going to do… That journey, which for my family and I lasted 36 hours, was very similar to this black labyrinth.”

The second section presents a stark political commentary, with imagery of flowing oil juxtaposed against the names of the 263 churches and monasteries left behind in Artsakh. This highlights what Buchmann refers to as “global indifference” and the “injustice” that silences the call for justice. The final part of the installation is a deeply personal and moving collection of family archives—photos and videos of weddings, birthdays, and everyday life, showing the vibrant world that was lost.

The decision to focus on women was a conscious one. As Buchmann explains, “Through women, through their memories and feelings, I have found a path to the feelings and memories of men as well, because they talk about their brothers, their fathers, their husbands’ emotions.”

The project also features the perspectives of those who worked on it and those who have experienced it. Andreas Weber, the executive director of the “Point de vue” company, which supported the project, notes, “There are many fates in the world, and this is one of them that does not get enough attention, so it was important for me to do something on this topic.” Writer Anna Mekunts, who attended the exhibition, powerfully summarizes its importance: “This is a very important story that the whole world should hear… Not one of the 120,000 people would have thought that a day would come when we would leave our home.”

“They Say We Have to Leave” is more than an exhibition; it is an act of bearing witness and a fight for collective memory. It is a testament to the resilience of the Artsakh people and a demand that their story be heard