The newest history of Georgia in Mediagraffiti

GIORGI TABATADZE

For countries with Soviet background mosaics in public spaces are not alien occurrences. However, Giorgi Tabatadze references his evolvement with the media back to the Christian roots, when the vital iconography was depicted through it. Rather than personifying the hymns to Communist workers, mosaics by Tabatadze revolve around the Georgian news programs. 

'Main object of my investigation was media, but my aim was not to “study Georgian media”, rather to look through this lens into the mechanics of socio-political or cultural reality of our society. Neither was my aim to analyse political discourse.'The selection of the images sharing the unusual titles are dispersed around the hometown of Tbilisi in a seemingly random locations.

CENTRE AND PERIPHERY

Center and Periphery is a mosaic depicting the very moment when an iconic sculpture of the King David was being moved from the centre of the city to the outskirts of Tbilisi, to be installed on the highway. The event was greatly protested by the intellectuals of the city, perceiving it as a great assault. Unfortunately, the monument remains in Dighomi. 

'Creation of the new by itself is already quite a violent act; it is an act of violence towards the already existing. The traces of this violence are quite visible in our public spaces, especially in the vital parts of the city.'

 IMPOSSIBLE TRAJECTORY

The theme of disrespecting the historical monuments is further portrayed in the mosaic called the Impossible Trajectory. The image is taken from the reportage of the Soviet monument (dedicated to the heroes of the Second World War) being blown up, causing the death of two people. 

'Visually it looked like a “take off” of the cosmic shuttle, but one with an impossible trajectory to achieve.The mosaic is called the Impossible Trajectory because our desire to shoot this monument away from our public space, erase it from our collective memory is an impossible task.'

The trend of forgetting, even erasing the Soviet past  in an attempt to move forward prevails the country. This anxiety was expressed most vividly in destroying monuments and buildings. However, precisely this historical amnesia does not allow the country to evolve.

E=MC2

The Blind Peoples Union annual congress making the headlines became worthy of Tabatadze's attention too. The meeting which turned into a violent fight among the blind people was to focus on a solution regarding the soviet heritage the union had inherited. The artist draws parallels between this event and the Rose Revolution.

'Interestingly, the event replicates the structure of the bigger event that had happened earlier, namely the Rose Revolution. It shows how bigger political event has caused ripple effect even is such marginal social group as blind people. After such a long period of a social and political stagnation suddenly in 2003 we saw the burst of energy released after the Rose Revolution. Almost all these materials are violent, but this violence comes from the place where this energy still doesn't know how to transform into positive solutions, how to find constructive ways of changing things and then it finds its release in violence.'

SUN

The mosaic depicts a detail of the Technical University of Batumi, a high-rise building with a  Ferris Wheel built into it- supposedly rotating restaurant. Tabatadze found the contradictory functions of the building quite peculiar, even if the news material was not significant at all. For the artist this illogical, confusing and contradicting hybrid personifies the time it was created in. 

SPLINE LINE

The Spline Line according to Tabatadze depicts the symbolic change in the ruling of the now previous government. 'It was a symbolic gesture representing and stating a new contract, new rhythm and clear break with the old perception of the ineffective governance towards very aggressive, very active and dynamic style of governance.'

The actual image is from the news about the operation dedicated to capturing the priest who was abusing the religious minorities. The police was breaking the church door by smashing a car into it-'a symbolic act that represented the character and tendency of the new post Rose-revolution political discourse in our country that would last for almost a decade.'

Working closely with the social reality of his surroundings, Tabatadze describes his practice as such:

'My artistic practice pretty much deals with difficult job of incorporating this sort of "ready made" contexts and materials into the interpretations and translations I make of them. I'm trying to incorporate their original context or historical actuality into my work and process of thinking. Right now information that is available for us is overwhelming making it almost impossible to digest, but at least trying to draw the map where exactly and which kind of cultural body we live in is possible I think.'


Visit the personal site of Giorgi Tabatadze: http://gtabatadze.com/index.html