Emerging Georgian Creatives | Crosscurrents

Shotiko Aptsiauri Salome Chigilashvili Max Machaidze / Anka Bochorishvili Situationist official / Giorgi Geladze Gigi Shukakidze. Curated by irena popiashvili and Marcus Fairs This exhibition is a result of an observation of Georgian cultural scene where artists, designers of all types, musicians, architects are all hanging out together, collaborating, partying, blurring the traditional boundaries between disciplines, doing a bit of everything, not worrying about labels or critics or anything much but just exploring, working, being. Collaboration of designer Max Machaidze's Soviet car hoods with artist Anka Bochorishvili's delicate drawings, fashion label Situationist Official’s Irakli Rusadze carefully constructs his clothing line and shoe designs that are later worked on by artist Giorgi Geladze's text paintings and doodles, Salome Chigilashvili’s embroidered parquet floor pieces, architect Gigi Shukakidze's sinking garage installation video and artist Shotiko Aptsiauri's make shift stone altar with symbolic clay icons and paintings in the Crosscurrents exhibition at the Window Project it an attempt to reflect the above described scene. The participants of the exhibition are in the process of self defining themselves conceptually in relation to the local cultural traditions as well as trying to place their work within the context of the planetary contemporary art, design and architecture scene. As Marcus Fairs noted, “they appeared to be making work with a distinct flavor that reflects Georgia today: beautiful, calm yet fiercely independent; confidently individualistic, a little weird, neither Europe nor Asia but something in between; with ancient roots, a yearning to be part of the global conversation and proud of the new-found attention of the wider world, which has belatedly discovered Georgia's extraordinary landscapes, cuisine and more; but also exhibiting a complex relationship with its Soviet past that is both nostalgic and playfully exploitative of its potential for creative salvage. It felt like punk without the anger or the nihilism. It felt like a movement, and a moment.”