Ruzan Petrosyan-Red Apple
Ruzan Petrosyan- Red Apple
There is a tradition in Armenia called Red Apple. It symbolizes the virginity of a young girl. On the first night of marriage, if the girl is a virgin, the husband's parents send a red apple to the girl's parents. they entertain the neighbors in order to inform about the virginity and purity of their daughter. That tradition seems to be out of time, but it still exists in the villages today. Today's brave generation is fighting against that tradition. In 2008, a Swiss feminist artist filmed a group of activist girls from the Armenian Women's Resource Center, where the girls were handing out red apples to people.
As well as shouting the lines written on the sign: "we are not a doormat".
I used pieces of that video from the archive, edited, changed, as well as the part where I eat a red apple and pass by the bridal shop, and throw the apple on the ground near the bride's dress. my performance was a protest against the red apple tradition on the first night of the wedding, I approached it with sarcasm while eating the apple. it was a delicious fruit to me, not a symbol of a girl's virginity