ideal black tbilisi'21
The project, which started at Okapi Gallery, Estonia, loves black and conquers the worldUntil December 16, the gallery Gamrekeli Modern (GAMO) in Tbilisi, Georgia presents an international exhibition project "Ideal Black", which brings together artists from very different cultural backgrounds and combines their ideas and expressions. The project is organized within the framework of the Caravansaraï art exchange program (Tallinn-Paris-Tbilisi) and started with the first exhibition at Okapi Gallery, Estonia, in 2018, traveled to Paris, and the following year the project was presented at Art Fair Foto Tallinn.
Today, the project has grown larger, now involving several artists residing abroad, including in Estonia and France. After a long wait due to the limitations of the Covid pandemic, the time has come for an exhibition in Georgia, the home of the initiators of the Ideal Black project. After the exhibition in Tbilisi, the project will move on to Kutaisi, Georgia's second-largest city, and then develop into the annual “Caravan Art Forum”, which will attract new artists and connections on the basis of the international art exchange. The project has been supported by both the Georgian and Estonian Ministries of Culture.
This time, five names from Estonian authors are represented. Temuri Khvingija with Rait Siska and Risto Tali (M_M_M_M Project) focuses on urban space and modern objects in architectural street photography, looking for special elements and geometric patterns, combining different genres and materials, for example, aluminum, experimenting with new techniques and technologies each to create something unique and special. Birgit Pählapuu's installation deals with the themes of provocation and rebellion, which she illustrates with the annoying image of a fly waking up from a dream, asking the question of if we could coexist peacefully instead of destroying the fly? Regina Mareta Soonsein plays with figurative and organic motives in her large-format graphics, with its flexibility and resistance, universal codes, and optical illusion.
The other five participants are from Georgia and France. Zura Arabidze’s (GE) project is based on the phenomenon of refraction, where photographic architectural elements transform into fantastic forms, just as small pieces of glass create a new geometric reality in a kaleidoscope so that the original meaning of objects disappears - apartment or office buildings and historical monuments become particles in the author's vision in an aesthetic context. Shalva Khakhanashvili (GE-FR) plays with contrasts and geometry in creating a dialogue between Paris and Tbilisi, his photographs are like urban archeology, their sources are mixed and their decipherment is left to the work of the viewer.
Karim Borjas (FR) integrates body and territory in a way similar to today's fragmented world, with photographic cutouts suggesting different systems of timekeeping. Annette Turrillo (FR) focuses on the theme of being a woman and femininity, her installation mixes feelings, memories, and the current stagnation in the atmosphere of symbolic poetry of silence. Aliska Lahusen (PL-FR) uses lead sheets in her work, which, after processing, polishing, and painting with acids, become sensitive and vulnerable, despite their cold and dull appearance.
The authors are united primarily by their minimalist approach to form and the courage to experiment with different trends, concepts, and materials. Their connecting point lies in architectural details and transformations, the man-made objects in a distorted reality. Nor can one overlook the authors' love for black, which characterizes both their work and character as well as refers to a one-color view of the world. The idea of the exhibition raises the question of global issues such as national identity and cultural affiliation - can the common ground of the authors' work be explained by the sense of belonging of different nationalities, or are these kinds of general ideas circulating somewhere in the air? The title of the project "Ideal Black" in turn asks whether there is an ideal at all?
EXHIBITION OPENING AT GAMREKELI MODERN
