REVIEW: BORDERLINES mural by Levan Mindiashvili (thelodgegallery.com)

(thelodgegallery.com) Making of the mural BORDERLINES
Levan Mindiashvili created site specific mural for his solo show in New York at The Lodge Gallery.

BORDERLINES, new work of Levan Mindiashvili
January 17 - February 4, 2014
The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie str. NYC

[link to Press Release]

Levan Mindiashvili has been making work about urban landscapes that inform our sense of identity and the intimate connections we make with the spaces we inhabit since 2012. In 2003 he graduated from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (Republic of Georgia) and the same year started intensively exhibiting his works in Europe. From 2008 – 2012 he lived and worked in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he received his MFA from the National University of Art of Buenos Aires

Mindiashvili’s new series, entitled Borderlines, is a study of his reflections on cities as both public and private meeting points. Originally conceived in Buenos Aires, this recent body of work explores the artist’s personal and collective experiences with the architecture and public structures of New York, where he is currently based. It is through his renderings of reflections amongst monumental objects, combined with a uniquely subjective reinterpretation of urban stimulation/inundation, that he reveals his complex and evolving personal relationship with the city.

Borderlines is an investigation into the sediment of his global experience, the invisible realities that have been burned into his subconscious country by country, city by city, block by block. “Generally, architecture most clearly defines and reveals the changes in our contemporary world, in our approaches and common visions,” says Mindiashvili.

His new work depicts distorted, almost abstract fragments of old architecture reflected on new, transparent surfaces or seen through them. “I perceive them as maps of consciousness of the contemporary world with its migrations, gentrification, identity and social issues,” the artist explains, “I want to trigger a dialogue about recent history.” The idea that a personal history is valuable and that the reflected perception of each individual dictates the overall substance and spirit of the larger urban landscape is deeply rooted in his intentions.

Website: levan-m.com

MUSIC: Saakashvili secretly captures Georgian violinist’s performance (Liza Batiashvili) in New York with his cell phone (georgianews.ge)

(georgianews.ge) Former President Mikheil Saakashvili posted a short smartphone video recording on his Facebook page of violinist Liza Batiashvili’s concert at the Lincoln Center in New York. The former president commented on the video by saying: “Recently probably the most famous conductor Daniel Barenboim told me the Georgians should be proud to have the world’s number one violinist - Liza Batiashvili. The phenomenal Liza performed at the United States’ greatest performing venue, the Lincoln Center, over a number of days, met by sold out audiences offering a standing ovation to her performance, while The New York Times published a delighted piece.

I attended the final performance, and even though recording is strictly prohibited at the Center, I did capture a moment of her triumph on my cell phone.

It is a great feeling when your compatriot enjoys so much appreciation. Especially with Liza, who always stresses her roots, this also helps her country, which should be the most important thing for us. I could not resist sharing this impression with you.”

Related Story:

Saakashvili at Chris Botti’s show in New York

FOOD & WINE: "Toque Verte", a high-end catering company established and run by the Georgia-bornn Tamar Makharadze in New York. (fusioncuisinenyc.com)

Dear Georgians and Lover of Georgia,

I am exceedingly happy to introduce "Toque Verte", a high-end catering company established and run by the Georgia-born, tremendously talented, and fiercely creative Tamar Makharadze. The New York City-based Chef Tamar is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and has extensive experience in various areas of the culinary industry, some of which, impressively, predate her formal culinary education.

Tamar's "Toque Verte" is a full-service catering company specializing in private cocktail events and private dinner parties, and provides services in the comfort and privacy of the clients' premises as well at the venues of their choice.

For more information, photos, and testimonials, please visit: www.fusioncuisinenyc.com

And please spread the word! :)

Contact: Toque Verte 

23 west 73rd street

New York, NY 10023

Tel: 1 347-688-0868

Tamar.Robinson@ToqueVerte.com

source: GeorgiaLovers@groups.facebook.com
This group is intended for efficient announcement of general news, upcoming events, and various notices related to Georgians living in the northeastern US, as well as of Georgian cultural happenings in the area. Hope this will serve as a great tool for the speedy and centralized dissemination of valuable information and will bring together many Georgians and Georgiaphiles in the virtual space. 

OPENING EXHIBITION: Group Show in New York with Azeri Photographer Rena Effendi in New York - Tomorrow, May 23rd (rauschenbergfoundation.org)

(rauschenbergfoundation.org) May 24–June 29, 2013
Rauschenberg Project Space
455 West 19th Street
11 am to 6 pm, Tuesday through Saturday

Free admission
Curated by Laurel Reuter, director of the North Dakota Museum of Art, the exhibition Songs for Spirit Lake will reflect the ongoing conversation between six artists who created artwork on or about the Spirit Lake Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

The artists are Rena Effendi, Bill Harbort, John Hitchcock, Terry Jelsing, Mary Lucier, and Tim Schouten. Under the aegis of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation's Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant Program, this first in-progress exhibition allows each artist to create work that responds to their continuing conversations with the inhabitants of Spirit Lake.

Exhibition Theme
In November 2012, these artists were introduced to the Spirit Lake community through an exhibition of their own work. Installed in the gymnasium at the Cankdeska Cikana Community College in the village of Fort Totten, it was the first contemporary art exhibition ever mounted on the reservation.
North Dakota Museum of Art's exhibition encompasses work that each artist made in response to their conversations with each other and their experiences with the people and landscape of the reservation. In Songs for Spirit Lake, the artists explore how people live within the landscape; who the people are; and their patterns of intermingling the past and present in contemporary life through photography, painting, installation, and video. Additionally, the exhibition includes a live performance by musicians from the reservation who, for the first time, will play traditional drum songs together.

Exhibited in the context of New York City's Rauschenberg Project Space, Songs for Spirit Lake invites a new, broad audience to engage with the voices and traditions of the Spirit Lake community as conveyed through the eyes of the artists. This endeavor parallels not only the North Dakota Museum of Art's mission to address global concerns—ideas as relevant to people living on the Northern Plains as they are to people from around the world—but also the legacy of Robert Rauschenberg, who sought to create social and cultural awareness through artistic collaboration and innovation.

About the North Dakota Museum of Art
The North Dakota Museum of Art, a private, nonprofit institution, is located on the campus of the University of North Dakota. Founded as a contemporary art museum, it serves by legislative act as the official art museum of the State of North Dakota.

Songs for Spirit Lake will run May 24 through June 29, 2013, at the Rauschenberg Project Space located at 455 West 19th Street, New York City. The Rauschenberg Project Space is open to the public from 11 am to 6 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, and admission is free.
 
Please Direct All Media and Press-Related Image Requests To:
Christa Carr
Media Relations
CCarr@RauschenbergFoundation.orgTelephone: 203.275.7565

CFP: 2013 Annual Soyuz Symposium "Authoritarianism and Beyond? Lessons from Postsocialist Societies?"

(Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York, March 22-23, 2013)

Theme: Authoritarianism has become the common denominator for political regimes of many contemporary postsocialist societies. Authoritarianism highlights strong presidential authority, lack of democratic succession of rule and insufficient public representation. Within this analytic, authoritarianism is the opposite of liberal democracy, deficient in terms of active civil society and critical public sphere, and plagued by state-led oppression and violence.

The 2013 SOYUZ symposium invites papers that would extend interpretive work on authoritarianism beyond this dualistic framework. We solicit field-research-based presentations that explore political and social processes in postsocialist societies in ways to complicate this top-down understanding of the state-society relationship. What kinds of alternative analytical frameworks are there to approach these processes? What kind of interpretation might the understanding of politics drawing, for example, on Foucault or Agamben offer to this conversation? Overall, we seek to extend the scope of this symposium beyond the concerns of postsocialist societies and to explore analytical limits and possibilities of the term authoritarianism itself.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- working through/making sense of authoritarian pasts
- specters of the state
- agencies of state: law, the military, borders, and taxation
- the role of media and cultural production
- conjuncture of capitalism and authoritarianism
- non-state authoritarianism
- neoliberalism as a type of authoritarianism

SOYUZ, the Research Network for Postsocialist Cultural Studies, is an interdisciplinary forum for exchanging work based on field research in postsocialist countries, ranging from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The Symposium has met annually since 1991 and offers an opportunity for scholars to interact in a more personal setting.

The deadline for abstracts is: December 15, 2012. Please send abstracts of 250 words by email to Zhanara Nauruzbayeva (zn2123@columbia.edu). Please include your full name, paper title, and academic affiliation, and write "SOYUZ 2013" in the subject line. Papers will be selected and notifications made by January 15, 2013.

SOLO EXHIBITION: In Art Gallery proudly in New York presents Oleg Timchenko’s “Auto Portrait” - opening June 6 (artefuse.com)

Janis Joplin

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Adolf Hitler

Marilyn Monroe

(artefuse.com) In Art Gallery (www.inartgallery.com) – New York’s premier art gallery representing the most sought after Georgian artists and their fine artwork – is proud to present “Auto Portrait,” a solo exhibition featuring new work by Georgian artist Oleg Timchenko. “Auto Portrait” will open on Wednesday, June 6 and will be on view at 25CPW Gallery, located at 25 Central Park West at 62nd Street in New York City (www.25cpw.org) through Tuesday, June 12.


“Auto Portrait” is comprised of over a dozen paintings inspired by prominent figures that have greatly influenced society within the last century. Strategically intended to open prior to Father’s Day, the series of paintings from “Auto Portrait” will feature notorious automobiles that were once driven by legendary leaders and celebrities. From Janis Joplin and John F. Kennedy (pictured above) to Adolf Hitler and Marilyn Monroe, the series of artwork will feature automobiles along with a citation from the celebrities that once drove in them. This will be the second exhibition presentation from Oleg Timchenko in New York City, following his “Come Together” exhibit from fall 2011.


“I have been thinking about this concept for a long time and I am very proud to be exhibiting these pieces in June,” explains Oleg Timchenko. “The paintings in this particular exhibit are portraits of famed individuals, only they are not present in the paintings. Like they say dogs resemble their masters, I believe that every car resembles the personality and image of its owner. Marilyn Monroe, for example, once drove a vehicle that emulated her femininity and sex appeal, while someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is known for his strength and sturdy build, has driven a Hummer. In my “Auto Portrait” exhibit you will see just that, automobile portraits resembling their celebrity counterpart accompanied by a quotation from them.”


“Georgian art is very eclectic, colorful and lively and unfortunately, the diverse style is not represented enough in the USA.”


“It is In Art Gallery’s mission to recognize and promote such unparalleled artists such as Oleg Timchenko and to realize the potential to attract a broad, culturally diverse audience,” adds Inna Elua and Teah Murvanidze, art curators and co-founders of In Art Gallery.


Oleg Timchenko’s paintings have been exhibited all across Europe. His works are in the permanent collections of prestigious museums such as Tsaritsino Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia, Tbilisi Museum of Contemporary Art and Ludwig Museum, Budapest in Hungary and remain in private collections coveted by personal collectors such as Wolfgang Flatz, President Saakashvili, and Badri Patarkachishvili – among others.

For over three decades, contemporary Georgian artist and co-founder of the 10th Floor Group, Oleg Timchenko has never ceased to amaze audiences and art collectors worldwide. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia (former Soviet Union) in 1957, Oleg discovered his passion for the arts at a young age. In pursuing this passion, he graduated from The Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts, one of the oldest and largest art academies in Caucasus, Georgia, where he now teaches as a professor. 


Oleg is notorious for his expressive, colorful paintings paired with meticulous attention to detail. In his artwork, he often recognizes symbolic, bizarre or dream-like objects, while his other paintings are of a more classical style.




“AUTO PORTRAIT”ART EXHIBIT, JUNE 6-12For further information on Oleg Timchanko’s exhibit and location information, or to view his artwork from previous exhibits, please visit www.inartgallery.com.

(212) 877-5551Press 

Contact: Eda Kalkay 

Eda@EdaKalkay.com

LOOKING FOR FUND: MARIA AND THE OCEANS by Natalie beridze/tba and Uta Bekaia

Leipzig, 2004: Wee invited Tusia Beridze and Nika Machaidze to Germany for playing their music and sounds during our festival OFF EUROPA (bfot.de). It was amazing! It was for me the first real contact with Tusia and Nikakoi. Later I followed their artwork. There was some concerts in Germany too ... together with Gudrun Guth (www.m-enterprise.de) for example... And some years ago I could meet the people for our small film for the German TV (MDR) in Tbilisi again. (VIDEO: youtube.com) 


Now I will support the new project by Natalie Beridze and Uta Bekaia. AND otherwise I recommend in facebook, twitter and in other virtual places all my friends and people to do the same for this good artists - to getting find funds!! Also a small FUND can help to realize the PROJECT: MARIA AND THE OCEANS by Natalie beridze/tba and Uta Bekaia - A Music project in New York, NY by Paata U. Bekaia 


ABOUT THIS PROJECT: 
 "Maria and the oceans" is a music album, of 13 songs, produced by electronic music producer, composer and singer Natalie Beridze/TBA and a multimedia artist and costume designer Uta Bekaia. 
This project is a long-distance collaboration between New York and Tbilisi, Georgia, which was basically created via internet. Natalie produced music and prepared the arrangement in her studio and later sent it to Uta, to NY. they worked on lyrics separately and combined them like a patchwork afterwords. in the end Uta recorded vocals and sent them back to Natalie in Tbilisi for mixing. 
"Maria and the oceans" is a multimedia project, consisting of music, music videos (director Nika Machaidze) and costumes (by Uta Bekaia), which are going to be created and used exclusively for videos, cover artwork and future live performances. 
The album is ready in terms of music. we need funds for shooting TWO VIDEOS, that will come along with the album. 
We've chosen a visionary Georgian director and musician Nika Machaidze (nikakoi), who we've worked with many times before. We're very much hoping to receive support.


Source: kickstarters.com

EXHIBITION: Oleg Timchenko’s Exhibition ~ Come Together ~ in New York (inartgallery.com)

October 25 - November 6, 2011
at Art Bazaar
175 7th Avenue, NY NY - corner of 20th street

more: inartgallery.com/artists/oleg-timchenko

ARTIST: Rena Effendi in Moving Walls #19 (instituteartistmanagement.com)

Open Society Documentary Photography Project Announces Moving Walls 19 Photographers inc. Rena Effendi

The exhibition will open to the public on December 1, 2011, in the Foundations’ New York City office and move to the Washington, D.C., office in fall 2012.

The exhibition recognizes the brave and difficult work that photographers undertake globally in their documentation of complex social and political issues. Their images provide the world with human rights evidence, put faces onto a conflict, document the struggles and defiance of marginalized people, reframe how issues are discussed publicly, and provide opportunities for reflection and discussion. Through Moving Walls, the Foundations honor this work while visually highlighting the mission of our foundation to staff and visitors.

Approximately 400 applications were received this year. Each portfolio was carefully reviewed by the Documentary Photography Project staff, with the final decision being made by a selection committee comprised of Open Society Foundations staff and the show’s curators, Susan Meiselas and Stuart Alexander.

GOETHE-INSTITUT TBILISI: Stephan Wackwitz geht von Amerika nach Georgien (mz-web.de)

Stephan Wackwitz:

"Ich gehe nächstes Jahr nach Tiflis in Georgien. Der Südkaukasus ist ein alter Traum von mir, den ich mir als letzte Station meines Arbeitslebens erfüllen möchte. Mich reizt das Arbeiten in Transformationsgesellschaften, in denen man etwas bewegen kann. Und die georgische Kultur - eine originelle und selbstbewußte Mischung aus römisch-osmanischer Mittelmeerwelt, persischen Einflüssen und russischen, polnischen, deutschen und französischen Anregungen - zusammen mit dem wunderbaren Wetter, der interessanten Geschichte, der herrlichen Landschaft, den freundlichen Menschen, der weltberühmten Küche und dem georgischen Wein - das ist schon etwas Einmaliges."

Das ganze Interview >>>

VIDEO: Georgian Bakery in Brooklyn, NY (youtube.com)

Badri makes Georgian (not in British, nor American sense) bread called "shotispuri", or "shoti", or just "khleb" ("bread" in Russian, but with a guttural "kh" - think Scottish "ch"). I think it's the best bread available to me. It's not organic or anything - just hot and delicious, and kicks ass, especially of those who profiteer by these treasonous pseudo-Uzbeki flatbreads that seem to be so ubiquitous these days. Badri also makes khachapuri, I thought you'd like to know. Google them, Wikipedia them, then come and have a taste ($5 khachapuri, $2 shoti/"khleb" as shown).

Shot with a PHOTOCAMERA impromptu, edited/processed/"upgraded" to HD in iMovie.
Soundtrack is a Georgian folk song "Kakhuri Mravalzhamieri" sung by Rustavi choir.

DANCE: A Radiant, Russian-Inflected Giselle Floats Again (nytimes.com)

"Giselle": Nina Ananiashvili in the title role of a Russian favorite at the Metropolitan Opera House. More Photos >

By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Published: June 9, 2009

On Monday the Georgian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili — looking just about the same as when I first saw her dance the ballet with the Bolshoi in 1986 but now halfway through her farewell season with Ballet Theater — showed both the best Russian virtues and the qualities that have made her singularly beloved worldwide. How easily she takes to the air; how beautifully energy flows down the ravishingly long limbs of her physique (and, apparently, beyond).
Ballet textbooks say that arabesque penchée — in which the dancer leans forward and downward while extending one leg up and behind — is the ultimate test of line. Ms. Ananiashvili took one of these on Friday and made it slowly stretch (I heard someone in the audience gasp) so that you thought about this standard position as if for the first time.

full artcile >>>

CONCERT: The Shin: Georgian Music with Guitars on Tour in North America (allaboutjazz.com)

At first listen, The Shin may sound like your average rocking band from Georgia. After all, they play the good ol' strings from way down South. And, of course, the funky drums from up North. But listen closely and you'll catch the crunchy consonant clusters of the Caucasus instead of a Southern drawl.

The Shin flies in the face of the purist revival ensembles that dominate in Georgia today, tweaking staid notions of what it means to be traditional. Born and raised in a country famous for its elaborate vocal polyphony, The Shin's members have burst out with their own brand of scat-inspired by a traditional approach to singing the consonant-heavy Georgian language-and with a passion for South Indian and flamenco styles. Their hope: to dust the cobwebs off the gems of Georgian and Caucasian music and launch them into the wider world of today.

The Shin will tour the United States in late May, showcasing their approach to new Georgian traditions in music and dance. Concert cities include New York City, Washington DC, and Philadelphia.

Georgian music has experienced a passionate revival since the country's independence in the early 1990s. Many around the world are now hearing Georgian music for the first time, and most are enamored. In the last ten years amateur Georgian music ensembles have begun popping up all over the globe

full text >>>

The Shin, 2009 North American Tour
05/29/2009, Fri: Washington, D.C., Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre
05/30/2009, Sat: New York City, NY, DROM
05/31/2009, Sun: Philadelphia, PA, Painted Bride Art Center

Visit website

The Shin - On Tiptoes.
Dranouter, Belgium, 05.08.2007

ART: Newman Popiashvili Gallery

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11-6
504 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
T. 212.274.9166 F. 212.274.3829
www.npgallery.com
For information, contact
Irena Popiashvili or Marisa Newman contact@npgallery.com


Irena Popiashvili is a curator and a leader of a Gallery in New York together with Marisa Newman. Both were last year with some works by Raúl de Nieves on the ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH (4.-7.12.2008).

Visit the Gallery >>>


PRESS:
Time Out New York Hans Broek
Old Faces, New Impressions November 29 - December 5, 2007
Biduon Basim Magdy
In the Grave of Intergalactic Utopia Winter, 2007
ARTFORUM Basim Magdy November, 2006
Art In America Jaye Moon at Newman Popiashvili Gallery, March, 2006
ARTFORUM Michael Auder(sex)tant et plus, November, 2005
Artnet.com From Dateline Brooklyn February 12, 2004 by Stephen Maine
The New York Times From Weekend Update October 22, 2002 by Walter Robinson
Artnet.com From Weekend Update October 22, 2002 by Walter Robinson
Artnet.com Life Is More Important Than Art – June 28, 2002 by Charlie Finch
NYTime.com Art Review Cinema à la Warhol, With Cowboys, Stillness and Glamour April 5, 2002 by Holland Cotter
Artnet.com From Weekend Update February 5, 2002 by Walter Robinson

EXHIBITION: AFTER THE FALL: Gia Chkhatarashvili's photos exhibit in NYC!

Abrons Arts Center
Samstag, 13. September 2008 um 18:00
Montag, 13. Oktober 2008 um 22:00

Carl Linich wrote me: One of my closest friends in Georgia, Gia Chkhatarashvili, is coming to NYC for an exhibition of his photographs. He's one of the finest photographers I know. You can check out some of his work here >>>

The exhibit also features three other photographers: Pierpaolo Mittica, who has done extensive work in the Balkans, and internationally renowned American photographer Paul Calhoun.The opening reception is Saturday, Sept. 13 from 6-8pm. With a bit of luck, there will be some Georgian singing!
The exhibit runs through November 7. Even if you can't make it to the reception, be sure to check it out!

Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday 9am-10pm
Abrons Arts Center / Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street
New York, NY

PHOTOGRAPHY: Georgian mass-meetings are held in front of UN builldings.

Foto am 13. August 2008 von Torquado

People with transparants wait for UN decision
From August 8, 2008 until now Georgian mass-meetings are held in front of UN builldings on 1st avenue and 42 street.
This photo report is about a rally held in August 11 at 10 AM. Puring rains was coming on that day and several dozen people stood there waiting UN's resoluton about stopping Russians.

STOP RUSSIA!!! Georgian protest demonstration in New-York City, USA (Album)

BLOG: Global Voices Online / New York Times South Ossetia Coverage

Onnik Krikorian sent me this one ... an interesting blog about the crisis!!!

Solana Larsen, Managing Editor of Global Voices Online, has just informed me that The New York Times has special blog coverage of the unfolding crisis in Georgia.

http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/south-ossetia

In arrangement with the newspaper, Global Voices Online’s coverage of the conflict between Georgia and Russia is now being included, one of those posts being my earlier update.

http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/from-global-voices-online-south-ossetia-update/

ART: Jörg Herold on the Armory Show

February 23. - 26. 02. 2007, Pier 94 in New York City

Galerie EIGEN + ART

Jörg Herold, The Caucasian.

Looking at the findings of Mr. Blumenbach
20.01. - 14.04. 2007 in Leipzig

For decades scientists from all over the world have been enthusiastic about the discoveries in the dusty plains and rocky depths of the Caucasus. In Georgia, not far from where the Pinesauri river flows into the Maschawera, lies the renowned village Patara Dmanisi. Near the village on a small plateau, palaeontologists found thousands of animal fossils dating back 2.5–1.4 million years.

And then, in 2001, there was a sensation – the discovery of a 1.8m-year-old human being, the oldest homo outside of the African continent. Yet this ancestral relict had an extremely small
skull and jawbones. Its brain was only half the size of that of a modern human being. “If you imagine what his body was like,” conjectured one of the palaeontologists, “then you have someone who was small, of slight build with a short nose and large, strong teeth.” Despite these disadvantageous physical features, the species developed marvellously – the small brain was suffi - cient for evolution and began to conquer Europe.

Over two hundred years ago, at home in Göttingen, a Professor could not have imagined any of this excitement. Herr Blumenbach collects skulls from every nation. He wants to create order,
clarify the varieties of the human race.
Over the course of years, with a keen eye for hundreds of boiled heads, he becomes excited by a recently deceased Georgian woman. His attention is directed entirely at her even proportions,
which delight him. Her form is gently rounded, her forehead even and her cheekbones do not protrude. Her dental cavity is quite round, the front teeth in both jaws are straight. He puts her in the fi rst category of his race system. Given the title “Miss Caucasia”, from now on a typology becomes known around the world, existing to this day in the wondrous term “Caucasian”, used in the census.
Naturally, from then on Herr Blumenbach declared the Caucasian race to be the original race and everything else to be a deviation from the norm. Of course the Professor was not aware of the consequences of his ideas. He was not able to see into the future, how people seized upon his ideal and mutilated it into a signal for their racial mania. But until this time there was a lot of research and travelling to be done. Many made their way into the promised land of the caucasians, to the place where the standard of beauty reigns.

In 2006, the documentary archaeologist Jörg Herold set off to view Dmansi and to travel through the legendary Caucasus. Perhaps also to fi nd Herr Blumenbach’s Georgian woman who, he hoped, still radiated beauty.

With him, he had writings, pictures and myths which shaped centuries of the European mind and history and are most closely linked with the Alpine mountain range between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
He visited the house in which father Stahl was born, with millions of skeletons in its cupboards, surrounded by steeply rising cliffs, the Daral ravine right down to the borderland leading to the idyllic Russian-Chechen region.

He documented and carried out an inventory of a bakery in Tifl is and the refugee apartment of Ms. M., a Georgian woman from Abkhazia driven out by war thirteen years previously. Of course he visited the excavation site of Dmanisi and was surprised by new fi ndings. He visited places inhabited by Swabian farmers who once fl ed starving Germany, hurrying towards paradise and almost meeting their salvation and the Saviour.
Flicking through “Heimweh” (“Homesickness”), Jörg Herold encountered Johann Heinrich Jung, known as Jung-Stilling, the author of the grey man, the harbinger of the thousand-year
kingdom of Christ on earth.
He peered through the spectacles of the delinquent hunter and skull enthusiast Lombroso, with a measuring look at the world of crime, so high in the peaks, and yet so low in the mind. Back at home, the memories of the Caucasus visit were put into shape whilst still fresh. Drawings, photos, fi lms and objects can be viewed in Leipzig as of the 20 January. Later exhibitions can be seen in New York in February and Brussels in March.

pdf-links:

The Caucasian. Looking at the findings of Mr. Blumenbach

Das Kaukasische. Eine Nachlese zu Empfindungen des Herrn Blumenbach