MetLiveArts to host They Will Take My Island première

Atom Egoyan film finally premières - ten months after planned date

by Anne-Katrin Titze

Atom Egoyan's They Will Take My Island collaboration with Mary Kouyoumdjian to have a digital première.
Atom Egoyan's They Will Take My Island collaboration with Mary Kouyoumdjian to have a digital première. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The MetLiveArts will host the world première of Atom Egoyan (director of Ararat, Guest Of Honour, Remember, The Captive, Devil’s Knot, Chloe, Adoration, Where The Truth Lies, Felicia's Journey, and the Oscar-nominated The Sweet Hereafter) and composer Mary Kouyoumdjian’s film They Will Take My Island on Armenian American abstract painter Arshile Gorky on Tuesday, January 26 at 7:00pm (EST).

Kouyoumdjian’s score is performed by the JACK Quartet and the Silvana Quartet with interviews of Saskia Spender, President of the Arshile Gorky Foundation and granddaughter of Arshile Gorky, Parker Field, Managing Director of the Arshile Gorky Foundation, and Michael Taylor, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They Will Take My Island includes original short films by Egoyan and never before seen scenes from his films.

The event is supported by the Nazar and Artemis Nazarian, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Sandra Shahinian, and The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.

The world première of They Will Take My Island was originally scheduled for March 27, 2020 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art during the 150th anniversary of the museum. The Covid-19 pandemic that hit New York City hard in the middle of March led to the decision by New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo to close all cultural venues at that time.

Arshile Gorky’s Water of the Flowery Mill (1944) is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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