The Way Things Work

July 3 - 30, 2021

Representation of labor has a long tradition in Georgian culture, especially in cinema. Dating back to 1929 My Grandmother – a film by Kote Mikaberidze, labor, critique of bureaucracy and siding with workers’ rights has often been present. It is especially for the reason of the precarious labor conditions of the post-Soviet Georgia, that representation and reflection upon these conditions has been poor during the times. Today, we are experiencing a brilliant come-back of the new ways to talk about labor and the conditions we live in, in art and cinema of Georgia’s post-post-Soviet moment.

The exhibition gathers works by contemporary art and cinema practitioners: Tekla Aslanishvili, Andro Eradze, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Alexandre Koberidze. These otherwise distinct practices are gathered by depicting invisible labor and invisible life belonging to a human and a non-human at the same time. Starting with a 3-minute-long video work by Andro Eradze, followed by a 24 min. work by Gagoshidze, 57 min. film by Aslanishvili and culminating in a 3h 36 min. film by Alexandre Koberidze, the exhibition shows the overlap between cinema and the lens-based contemporary art practice.

It is needless to say that the exhibition is dedicated and dictated by the recent Rioni Valley Movement and especially the public speech given by Marita Museliani in Tbilisi, May 23d, 2021.

Please press here to download the press release.