EXHIBITION: Guram Tsibakhashvili’s photographic retrospective of 90s #Georgia to launch new #Tbilisi exhibition space. via @agenda_ge

Artists Lado Burduli and Irakli Charkviani photographed in Tbilisi in 1992, with the city bearing traces of damage from the civil war. Photo: Guram Tsibakhashvili

Guram Tsibakhashvili - "Winter is left behind"
Address: Barnovi Art House, Rustaveli Avenue N18, III floor
Exhibition April 24 - May 31
Opening: April 24, 19:00
working hours:
From Tuesday to Saturday - 12: 00-20:00
Sunday - 12:00-18:00

The fake country was collapsing.
Under Gorbachev, we already knew that it was inevitable.
Just like every other change, it was a painful and necessary change. Except that we were unaware of the pain that still laid ahead, so at first we just rejoiced.
Once, Mamuka Tsetskhladze came to me. He had a way of sugar-coating pills. He offered me to hold an exhibition, to see how many of us were around in fall, and then how many would still be here in March, when winter would be over. And the exhibition was titled conveniently: Wintering Over.

Guram Tsibakhashvili
Twenty-five years after this exhibition, Guram Tsibakhashvili is traveling through time to describe this momentous period in Georgian history, in which the newly established state is struggling to cope with war, starvation, and the cold, on one hand, while contemporary art is springing up to blossom in the country fresh out of the Soviet Union, on the other.

Wintering Over Is Over is a conventionality filling the author with hope that that trails and tribulations are dead and buried, and the art inspired by the then controversies is now part of history. Still, this exposition gives rise to occasional questions like what have we inherited from the 1990s? What has changed in these 25 years? Has anything changed at all, or is it just wintering over that is over?
 
----
 
[agenda.ge] A display of photographs illustrating a vital and tumultuous moment in Georgia’s history will become the opening event of the Barnovi House of Arts, a new exhibition space in downtown Tbilisi on Wednesday.

Photographer Guram Tsibakhashvili, referred to as “one of the most outstanding figures in Georgian contemporary artists” by propaganda.network, will bring a selection of his works reflecting the social and political events following the Georgian independence in the 1990s.


"[The photographs illustrate] a newly born state struggling against war, starvation and cold [...] while contemporary art begins to unexpectedly flourish in the wake of the country’s freeing itself from the Soviet Union,” a preview for the show says."

Tsibakhashvili has titled the exhibition Winter is Left Behind, as a reflection of an idea of leaving behind the troubles of the era but still having to face questions including “what has changed 25 years later?” and “what is the legacy of the 1990s?”




Film critic and journalist Giorgi Gvakharia and screenwriter Tamuna Melikishvili putting up posters

outside the Cinema House in Tbilisi in 1990. Photo: Guram Tsibakhashvili.

While the photographs take up the space of the newly launched exposition venue, the photographer will also unveil an illustrated book bringing together around 250 of his works.

The photos selected for the publication are found on its pages along with essays by author Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili, recipient of Saba and Iliauni literary prizes in Georgia and winner of the Goethe Institute Prize for her work in literature and translation.

Known for her works including novels Who Killed Chaika? and Berikaoba, Kordzaia-Samadashvili was also selected for the New York Public Library’s list of 365 Books by Women Authors in 2017.

On his part, Tsibakhashvili is known for his documentary photographs — exhibited in dozens of solo and group displays in Georgia and abroad, from the Writers' House of Georgia in Tbilisi to the Newman Popiashvili Gallery in New York.



Tsibakhashvili worked with author Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili on a book combining photographs with essays,

set to be presented at the exhibition’s opening. Photos: Guram Tsibakhashvili Georgian National Book Centre.

He also was co-founder of a number of pioneering photography institutions in the South Caucasus, including the Tbilisi Photographers’ Housing (2007) and the ‘Visual Bank’ (1985), and has led workshops at events including the Frankfurt Forum of Photography.

The Barnovi House of Arts is described as a space focused on developing contemporary art for “cultural convergence” in the region while “reinforcing historical narratives” and sparking “new creative impulses”.

Organisers of the venue aim to discover and present both local contemporary artists and creatives with contribution in historical legacies.

The display Winter is Left Behind will receive visitors between April 24-May 31 at 18, Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.

The Barnovi House of Arts is a modern oriented oriented space that will promote cultural approximation in the region, strengthening historical narratives and creating new creative impulses.

The Barnovi Arts Foundation will be oriented on the development of local contemporary art as well as the discovery and coverage of historians with historic value.



CULTURE: Rare photos of Georgia’s iconic figures captured in 1990s by Guram Tsibakhashvili (georgianjournal.ge)

Photographer: Guram Tsibakhashvili

(georgianjournal.ge) 1990s was one of the hardest and most memorable periods that marked the transition from the Soviet era to the new modern epoch in Georgia’s history. After Georgian parliament declared its secession from the Soviet Union in 1991 and the country gained independence, a new era started in Georgia’s cultural life. Guram Tsibakhashvili, a famous Georgian photographer who is one of the most important figures in Georgia’s contemporary photography, depicted the rebirth of Georgia’s world of arts and music through the emerging underground cultures. The photographer, also known by his nickname Tsibakha, captured some of the most famous Georgian public figures, musicians, artists and actors of 1990s, who were distinguished for their extravagancy, different views, unusual style and most importantly, the bravery in expressing themselves freely. The album includes the early photos of iconic Georgian singer Irakli Charkviani, outstanding Georgian painter Irakli Parjiani as well as photo of the First Lady of Georgia Maka Chichua.

Guram Tsibakhashvili was born 1960 in Tbilisi, Soviet Republic of Georgia. In 1982 he graduated from Tbilisi State University. In 1990-1994 he taught theory of photography at the Tbilisi State University. Since 1988 he has been working for Georgian newspapers and magazines as a photographer. Guram has taken part in many solo and international group exhibitions in different countries. His photos stand out for their peculiar style and technique, different vision and deep meaning. 

more photos are here: georgianjournal.ge

Irakli Charkviani and Lado Burduli, by Guram Tsibakhashvili

Irakli Charkvian, by Guram Tsibakhashvili

Levan Abashidze's last photo , actor, by Guram Tsibakhashvili

VIDEO: SEX. By Irakli Charkviani (youtube.com)

MUSIC: I want you. By Irakli Charkviani (youtube.com)

Irakli Charkviani (Georgian: ირაკლი ჩარკვიანი) (November 19, 1961 -- February 24, 2006) was a Georgian poet, prose writer, and musician, lately known under his pseudonym Mefe (მეფე, "The King"). Charkviani was known for his eccentric image and poetry, and for eclectic music, which spanned alternative rock, electronic music and hip hop.

Charkviani was born into an élite family in Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia. His father, the journalist and diplomat Gela Charkviani is Georgia's current ambassador to the United Kingdom, and grandfather Candide Charkviani was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian SSR Communist Party from 1938 to 1952. His greatgrandfather was a prominent Georgian artist Mose Toidze.

Charkviani graduated from the Department of Western European and American Literature, Tbilisi State University. His debut in 1976, with the indie rock project Arishi, passed unnoticed, but the later band Taxi had a greater success and recorded the homonymous album in 1988. In the 1980s, several of Charkviani's lyrics and short stories, noted for their rebellious character, were published in Georgian literary press. Early in the 1990s, Charkviani emerged as one of the leading artists on Georgia's alternative and electronic scene. Leading the projects Children's Medicine (1991-2), and Georgian Dance Empire (1993), he performed throughout Georgia as well as abroad, particularly in Moscow and Eastern Europe. Charkviani's debut solo-album Svan Song was recorded in Germany in 1993 and proved to be a significant influence on the Georgian alternative music of the 1990s. He composed music for the feature film "Orpheus's Death" in 1995 and went on to record his second album Ap'ren in 1997, followed by the single Sakartvelo in 1999 and the albums Amo and Savse in 2001 and 2004, respectively. Around the same period, he chose the pseudonym of Mefe, meaning in Georgian "the king". Charkviani also authored several poems, stories and a novel, but his music remained the principal source of his popularity.

He died, reportedly of "heart problems",[1] at his home on February 24, 2006, leaving several unpublished songs which were subsequently released as the album Dzirs Mefe ("Down with the King") in 2007.

DOCUMENTARY: Kotten Club. Film about Kote Kubaneishvili.

A documentary by Dato Kvachadze about a famous modern Georgian poet - Kote Kubaneishvili.

In this movie you will also meet with Kotes friend Irakli Charkviani, see interviews with Vaxushti Kotetishvili, Nita Tabidze, Rezo Gabriadze, Dato (Tolika) Tolordava, Bakur Burduli, Gogi Dzodzuashvili and Dato Evgenidze. See unique archive material of the famous Reactiuli Klubi (Jet Club). The film was made from 2002 to 2007. I dedicate my documentary in memory of Irakli Charkviani.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3