Interview with Elene Abashidze
by Ira Konyukhova
24th June 2019
Elene Abashidze is an independent curator and since 2011 a publisher of Danarti Magazine, together with Ana Chorgolashvili and Irine Jorjadze. Some of her recent curatorial works include Safe Words, with Cristine Brache and Penny Goring, an inaugural exhibition for E.A. Shared Space, ongoing; Twelve Women Gone Missing, a group exhibition with ten emigrant female artists of Georgian descent, in the frames of Tbilisi Art Fair public program 2018.
TransitoryWhite
Dear Elene, thank you for finding time for this talk. We know each other through your husband, Andro Eradze, who is an artist and photographer and whom we met during our stay in Tbilisi last year. This is how I was introduced to the magazine you’re curating, Danarti. Considering how many art and art-related journals existing right now in Georgia, what prompted you to create your own magazine?
Elene Abashidze
Hi Ira! Yes, its thanks to Andro that we met!🌟
Danarti is a series of research-based thematic issues. Ran by three art historians/curators it operates as a curatorial platform. It contributes to the contemporary art discourse, but itself it rarely publishes contemporary art itself. For instance, we have no exhibition reviews. On the contrary, it is a multi-disciplinary magazine, which focuses on a theme, a sensation, a historical moment at a time - which is essential for the contemporary art scene of Georgia of the moment and tries to unpack these subjects as generously and widely terms of humanitarian disciplines, as possible.
All of the issues differ from one another, thematically and structurally. They come out on an occasional basis. We are lucky to collaborate with the fantastic institution Kunsthalle Zurich, who support us financially and never put pressure on our production system.
We are bilingual, and yes we have some international audience, but first of all, we work for the development of the local culture. Culture production here is slow and detached from the crazy capitalistic ways of making. So, we are privileged to be slow too.
The lack of critical thought oriented magazines prompted us to create one of our own. Back then, it was cheap to produce a printed newspaper. We started with printed and Georgian only issue. From 2016 we are also online, where we upload and archive all content and distribute for free.
We save our limited number of printed issues for various institutional exhibitions, etc.
TransitoryWhite
Once in a conversation we had over Facebook, you mentioned that you’re not satisfied with the hip designation of Tbilisi as a new Berlin. Would you please explain why?
Elene Abashidze
Tbilisi as some new Berlin is a branding of the city I would not agree with for various reasons. Firstly, it is created for the Western Gaze. To be more precise, it is created by Western European media for the Western European tourism and understanding, it is the Western European-centric branding, which we have seen happening earlier to other non-Western cultures and it has never worked as a good sign. For this only reason, I as a local person, would withdraw and ask others too to oppose this tag.
Another reason is simple - it is not valid. New Berlin in terms of what? Culture - it is very different, Economy? Tbilisi is way poorer than the poor Berlin itself. Nightlife? But is that all there is to either Berlin or Tbilisi?
TransitoryWhite
Many Georgian artists who studied abroad have adopted a certain kind of aesthetics which appeals to the European collectors and visitors. Speaking about their work, we cannot understand it while putting it in a national or any other geographical or identitarian context. It appears to have a very international, cosmopolitan look. How do you see this development from your perspective as Tbilisi-based curator?
Elene Abashidze
Let’s not forget that Contemporary Art was coined in the Western part of the world. It followed up with post-Modernism. Today there is a debate, and for good, on what constitutes the term? Especially after the East/West divide no longer exists, or so it claims.
So there is no surprise some of the artists of Georgian decent adopt the former “Western” language of Contemporary Art and translate their non-Western background to the “universal”(Western) language.
But I see changes in the newer generation, which is one younger than me. I see a weak tendency of opposing this pressure of adapting to one particular style, and on the contrary, bring one's own language at play. This is a tide I noticed not only in the Caucasus but among other non-Western artists. With my most profound respect and admiration towards the Western European and American culture, I very much look forward to witnessing the tide become a strong wave.
TransitoryWhite
What does it mean for Georgia to restore its identity in the context of youth culture?
Which way are the artists of Georgia moving in? What are their prospects and ambitions?
Elene Abashidze
Identity politics is still an issue in Georgia. There is no official cultural policy available in the country which at one hand is still “fighting against” it’s Soviet heritage and opens it’s doors to the “Western” narratives, and on another hand is creating a history of its own.
With its unstable governments, it demolishes Soviet Architectural icons (Andropov's Ears, etc.) and takes down the Soviet symbols, but on the other hand, never changes the narrative in Stalin’s Museum in Gori. Lustration never happened here. It is an odd place - Georgia; you never know what to expect. So the youth is stuck in between blind admiration and blind opposition of its recent past. I guess this is the position to depart from.
This Interview is a part of the first TransitoryWhite publication, supported by Freie Universität Berlin, Ost-Europäische Institut.