OKAPI Gallery presents international exhibition project IDEAL BLACK

Artists Zura Arabidze, Shalva Khakhanashvili, Temuri Hvingija

This year, OKAPI Gallery will open its new season on March 28 with a photo exhibition *Ideal Black*

which is also part of the Tallinn Music Week and Tallinn Gallery Thursday art program.

The project "Ideal Black" brings together the works of three different Georgian artists, Zura Arabidze, Shalva Khakhanashvili and Temuri Hvingija. The common feature of the three artists in Georgia.

Their creative career has followed different paths, depending on the environment in which they are staying. Nevertheless, their work has visual and substantive similarities. "Ideal Black" describes the purity, depth, minimalism, and intensity of the project. The courage to experiment with different materials and mixing the media in their own creation.

In the works of artists, similarities can be found in the realization and ideas that have been one of the main arguments of this project. Searching for touching points in art and of course, their love for the black color, which is reflected and shared in their life and creation. One of the tasks of the project is to highlight the art of ethnic minorities living in Estonia. In addition, there is a desire to exhibit the works of artists of the same nationality and elsewhere. According to the data of Statistics Estonia, at least 180 representatives of different nationalities permanently reside in Estonia. 142 of these are small ethnic groups. However, without knowing exactly who the Gaguses are, we can find out that as many as 36 of them live in Estonia. You probably also never heard of the Taatlased, but according to statistics 75 of them live in Estonia. Where has their voice sounded and has it been heard? How have they been able to assimilate? There are many questions, and one can only say - on the whole, the situation is quite unclear and volatile. The number of minorities is likely to increase even more in the coming years. This has given rise to the widespread public interest in these people, their origins, and culture. However, the lives of families, that have lived here for decades, have not been of great interest and dialogue compared to the arrival of individual households fleeing from crisis areas to Estonia. This project can be viewed as long-term anthropological research.

The project presents photo and video works of artists who currently live in France, Georgia, and Estonia. The project's journey beyond Tallinn is Kutaisi and Paris. 

The initiator of the exhibition is the OKAPI Gallery.