From Hermetic to Illuminated

Project curator Nino Gujabidze.

Discussions about the Venice Biennale imply conscious, targeted action in order to create demandable and developed cultural environment, where the development is shaped by its aims and goals, that should be implemented through adequate means, mechanisms and actions, which in turn is aimed at underscoring of our cultural policies. At the same time it is important to define specific cultural phenomenon of the international-democratic space that has sprung on the Georgian national base, its wide range of multhiethnic cultures, where the full spectrum of accumulated attitude reflects the important area of the local and imported tendencies. Therefore, the search for the concept of cultural policy determines the national interest of the country as well. Thus, defining such interests would support our national cultural strategy, which in turn is based on democratic and liberal values.

The Georgian artistic space which is integrated with the contemporary visual art requires areas where national cultural phenomenon would be adequately and precisely analysed. The Venice Biennale is exactly the space-indicator where own identity, nonordinary views will be based on this cultural event. Any given events of the most recent past require adequate reality.

By virtue of its communicational freedom, the concept of the project “From Hermetic To Illuminated”, offered by the artistic group (curators, artists) is viewed as a cultural process appropriate and adequate for the Venice Biennalle. It is here, where the concept’s important element, such as national and universal communicational unity, openness and sense of identification is revealed. And the City, as the artistic context – trajectory from hermetic-closed to illuminated-receptive.

The group of artists participating in the Venice Biennale (Gia Bugadze, Oleg Timchenko, Natalia Amirejibi de Piata) are united by an important dominant, such as Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts, which in represents the acuumulation of the knowledge, experience and tendencies accumulated in the field of fine and visual arts, as a sort of a transcultural bridge. The Academy of Arts itself is primarily an organic part of the synthesis of eastern-western cultural mentalities. Pedagogic activity of each project participant is based on vast  creative experience. As for their unity as citizens, it is associated with the main message of the project – a City as a manifesto of solid unity and vitality.

The Concept “From Hermetic to Illuminated” is characterized by the artistic spectrum and wide range of specific vision of the participating artists and defines the experimental nature of this idea. Each artist’s self-identification is reflected in their reference with the unity of the country, its past, its historic features. Therefore, “From Hermetic to Illuminated” is exactly the type of the general internal unity, when the search for identity implies the aspirations for perfection.

Declarations of artistic mentality viewed in the prism of cultural identity, is the artistic space created by each artist where the area of personal freedom, artistic capacity is manifested throu new experimental artistic images, which in turn defines personal attotudes and coexistence with the artistic space. This is a kind of auto-resarch within the borders of autorealims and it organically meregs with the basic format through various sub-cnocepts of artistic form, which are accumulate in the integrated ideological space, whereas the scope of the visual aspect allows for free action and interpretation. The City – as the area of search for cultural identity: the City as Illumination, The City as a philosophical and intellectual discourse, the City as the eternal circle, aspiration for full openness and freedom; the City as the structuralistic interpretations, the City as new communications, the City as the global symptom of information age: the City as the main medium for cultural formation and diffusion: the City as the hyperspace: the City as the duality of masculine and feminine; the City, as the language and the fundamental source of stereotypical and natural: the City as the recognition of the contemporary meta-language.

The infrastructure of the City is made of the concepts of the three participating artists. Despite the difference of the visions, the architecture of the project idea with its progressive impulses and the instinct of the seach of identity is organic and bears the idea of the City: the unity and the essense of the universe and within it of a conscious and open human being (Gia Bugadze), sensual and impulsive human being (Oleg Timchenko) and humane and passionate human being (Natali de Pita)

Part 3.Natali de Pita’s “The body of the City”

This piece of art in its essense is the artistic reflection in the course of the search for national identity. In the modernised world the search for identity is only possible through integration with the world cultural space, which in turn defines the contextuality of self-identity.

The modern cultural space is associated with the open city, where world’s cultural, intelectual and emotional investments are accumulated.

A city is the bearer of limitless stream of information. It becomes a living organism by that permanent process which gives birth to new forms and mutates. Space and changes, which

The installation “the body of the City” consists of 6 sculptures of equal size, which conditionally represent human forms. Each of them carries a concrete idea. Their structure is a bearer of symoblic meaning, which is defined by the design of texture and image. The upper parts of the symbolic torsos is made of transparent poliester and illuminated from within. Their transparency is the indicator of the readiness for the cultural dialogue.

The lower parts of the torsos is a general and solid form which is a plexiglass carcass, filled with a collage of slides of different sizes and illuminated with a light box. None of the slide images is repeated. It represents the continuous stream, which characterizes the main sign of our age – hyperspace saturated by information. The collection of slides represents Georgia, and together with the cultural symbols of global importance (historical buildings, masterpieces of art, persons) encompasses identification signs of our concrete space (heraldic images, famous slogans, etc.)

Showing the symbolic forms as a stream of information and constant change creates effective messages together with the symbolic lightning,  to which is added the characteristic feature of the largest cities – illusion, extasis and passion.