PHOTOGRAPHY: Project 'I had left my home early in the morning'. Georgia - Armenia, 2015 - 2019. By Lilit Matevosyan

This project is documentary research of the past, realized through the prism of personal history. Based on memories from my childhood, I create an autobiographical visual journey to places that used to be my home.
The Immigration topic allowed me to go beyond my personal story — it is not only about the history of a particular family, but about entire generations of people living in the Caucasus after the collapse of the Soviet Union who was forced to flee their to seek a better life.

My goal is to try to reconnect, to find lost roots, to learn more about the present in the past. (Lilit Matevosyan)

Slideshow was produced in the frame of Multimedia Lab Production Grant Program for South Caucasus Female Photographers May-October 2019 mentored by Justyna Mielnikiewicz / MAPS. Multimedia Lab aims to support the professional strengthening of emerging women photographers of South Caucasus region that cover social issues in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and use the medium of photography as the powerful tool of storytelling. The project is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Copyright: Lilith Matevosyan

Music: Karina Kazaryan
soundcloud.com/karinakazaryan

More: Post-Soviet South Caucasus migration explored in Tbilisi display of photographer Lilith Matevosyan [agenda_ge]
Photographic works reflecting the plight of generations forced into migration throughout the South Caucasus following the dissolution of the Soviet Union will go on display at Tbilisi's Untitled Gallery later this week, celebrating the work of photographer Lilith Matevosyan.

Presenting an "autobiographical visual journey" throughout locations she called her home throughout the years, Matevosyan will exhibit photos that use personal history as a prism on the generational transformation created by the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s.

"[I]t is not only about the history of a particular family, but about entire generations of people living in the Caucasus after the collapse of the Soviet Union who was forced to flee their to seek a better life" - Lilith Matevosyan

The Sochi-based photographer said her goal with the work was to "reconnect, find the lost roots and learn about the present while searching for the clues in the past".

The selection of works is titled I had left my home early in the morning, with the photographs produced as part of the Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum's 2019 project for supporting women photographers of the region. Led by Justyna Mielnikiewicz, a Tbilisi-based, award-winning Polish photographer, the grant for women was held as part of the multi-year Photography Hub for Education and Innovation, a project of the TPMM supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation via the Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia.

In the TPMM grant Mielnikiewicz mentored Matevosyan [instagram], who told her social media followers in November she was "really happy" to have her long-term project published by the museum. Works produced as a result of the grant - by Matevosyan and six other women photographers from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - were also exhibited at the museum earlier this month to shed the light on social issues in their respective countries.

WEIN: Große Auswahl an Naturweinen und Spirituosen aus Georgien in Berlin

Liebe Georgien-Freunde,

Wir möchten euch herzlich einladen uns in der Markthalle Neun (Eisenbahn Str. 42/43 in Kreuzberg) am Samstag den 21. April zwischen 10 und 18 Uhr zu besuchen.

Dort könnt ihr unsere große Auswahl an Naturweinen und Spirituosen aus Georgien probieren, mit uns über die Herstellung der Produkte sprechen und eure Wahl einkaufen.

Wir sind unglaublich stolz euch diese neuen Geschmäcker näher bringen zu können.

Bitte leitet diesen Post an Freunde weiter, die auch an unseren Produkten Interesse haben könnten.

Bei Fragen stehen wir euch gerne zur Verfügung.

Gerne versenden wir unsere Produkte.

Wir freuen uns auf euch,

Euer Zoltan Kovacs Gokieli und Raphael Seitz

Kovacs Gokieli und Seitz GbR

Pfalzburger Str 33

10717 Berlin

Tel. 0177 / 646 13 31

Mail: info@chachaspirit.de

www.facebook.com/chachaspirit

www.instagram.com/chachaspirit

MUSIC: Moonlight Daughter - by Nino Arobelidze

Girl Named Nino is a band, artist and an album. It is the brainchild of Nino Arobelidze, Chicago-based singer, multi- instrumentalist from Tbilisi, Georgia. Nino's songwriting and multi-disciplinary pursuits have brought her into various collaborations in film, dance theater and television, including writing original songs for the documentary film; Our Blood is Wine (Music Box Films 2018).

more: www.girlnamednino.com

more links:
facebook.com/girlnamednino
twitter.com/girlnamednino
youtube.com/girlnamednino
instagram.com/girlnamednino 
plus.google.com/+GirlNamedNino
bandsintown.com

DOCUMENTARY: Men Between Mountains: Masculinity in Georgia. Photography by Ian McNaught Davis, @ianmc0davis

Ian McNaught Davis long-term photography project explores facets of masculinity in the post-Soviet republic of Georgia.

Wedged amongst the rugged and formidable Caucuses Mountains, Georgia lies at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Because of its explosive location, it has clashed with empires for centuries, including the Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Khazars, Arabs, Turks, Mongols and Russians.

He is interested in photographing moments that reflect manhood in a battle-hardened society that finds itself in a state of limbo – when warriors have no wars to fight – and the shift in gender roles that war can leave in its wake.

Georgia it finds itself in fascinating time of transition. Paradoxes and contradictions abound in this small country. Secular attitudes collide with the dogma of the Orthodox Christian Church, and city-dwellers must negotiate their paternalistic family loyalties and traditions rooted in the countryside and villages.

For him, its political and ideological landscapes seem apt locations to explore the murkiness and complexities of masculinity.

His work can be viewed at www.ianmcnaughtdavis.com

Facebook: facebook.com/ianmcnaughtd
Twitter: twitter.com/ianmc0davis
Vimeo: vimeo.com/ianmcnaughtdavis
Instagram: instagram.com/ianmc0davis

PHOTOGRAPHY: Chiatura, Georgia, 2014. By François Beaurain (fbeaurain.com)

(fbeaurain.com) Chiatura is located in western Georgia and is well known for its huge manganese deposit and its extensive cable car network transporting miners and ore up and down the valley. All the infrastucture was built during the soviet times and has been barely refurbished since. Chiatura seems trapped in time, like the workers who are also trapped to their machines, endlessly repeating the same gesture.

More Pictures, animations and stuff of this amazing Artist François Beaurain: fbeaurain.com/chiatura


François Beaurain : quand la photographie s'anime (reponsesphoto.fr)


Links:
francoisbeaurain.tumblr.com
instagram.com/francoisbeaurain


François Beaurain was born in Bordeaux, France in 1976. Francois is a self-taught and multifaceted artist working predominantly as a photographer, but he sometimes extends to drawing, collages and sculptures. .

François studied physics and holds a PhD in Biology. He’s currently working as a climate change specialist in parallel to his artistic activities. He lives and works in Paris.

Contact: fcbeaurain@gmail.com

PERSONAL EXHIBITION: Maka Batiashvili's solo exhibition at Fabrika courtyard

Project ArtBeat is pleased to invite you to the opening of Maka Batiashvili's solo exhibition tomorrow, 7-9 PM at Fabrika courtyard, 8 E. Ninoshvili str. The exhibition is on until April 30.

Visiting hours: 12-8 PM.

The project is supported by Fabrika and Tbilisi City Hall.
Project ArtBeat: Georgian Contemporary Art Gallery Founded By Natia Bukia, Natia Chkhartishvili & Salome Vakhania www.facebook.com/events/796490377165475

“The minimal touch of the tusche on paper lasts for only a few seconds and is inspired by calligraphy aesthetics. Simple lines on a white background represent a splatter of figures, they replace the words and create a face living in the repetition of mundane variations and the endless flow. A person who went out of the house is free from the past and the future. He acts in the present, where there is no current or trend“ - Maka Batiashvili.

Maka Batiashvili (Born in 1975, Georgia) lives and works in Tbilisi. 1992-97, the artist studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Tbilisi.

Selected solo and group exhibitions:

2015 - Playground, TBC Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia; Exhibition of Georgian Painters, Contemporary Art Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; 2013 - Arundel Contemporary, Arundel, UK; 2012 - Industrial Gallery, Ostrava, the Czech Republic; 2011 - Black and White, Tbilisi History Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2008 - OFF EUROPA Festival, Leipzig, Germany; National Museum, Atlanta, USA. Project ArtBeat presented Batiashvili's works at Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair (2014-16, Istanbul, Turkey); Kyiv Art Week (2016, Kiev, Ukraine); START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, (2015, London, UK).

www.facebook.com/maka batiashvili / exhibition of drawings
www.instagram.com/projectartbeat/
Maka Batiashvili's exuberant work depicts scenes from the everyday. Through the subject matter, Batiashvili poses questions around the existential issues of life and death. In her work the everyday life resembles a playground, where various scenes are being performed. Ostensibly unmediated figures and the intense color scheme in Batiashvili's work share stylistic tendencies with the early modernist painting traditions of Georgia and Europe. Batiashvili's practice is an interesting cross between the traditional and the contemporary painting.