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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
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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?
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[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?”
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Film critic and journalist Giorgi Gvakharia and screenwriter Tamuna Melikishvili putting up posters
outside the Cinema House in Tbilisi in 1990. Photo: Guram Tsibakhashvili.
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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.
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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.
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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 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.
