In 2007-2009 Natali de Pita has accomplished the project of mosaics encapsulating the entirety of Georgia’s complicated and colorful history. This mosaic was created for Georgia’s new Presidential Palace.
The largest element of the project are two shimmering “water mirrors” – 28m long and 1,6 m high (89,6 sq.m) in front of the complex main building called “Our background and our identity”(Another title is”Who we are and where we come from”).Natali de Pita personally conceptualized the idea and designed the project which was adapted to three large tile mosaic compositions in cooperation with Travisanutto Mosaici of Venice.
Conception:
“Water – is time…Time flows in our veins and makes our memories independent from their historical prototypes…Water writes history by transparent ink on pages of our souls. It singles out important facts like islands…Its strong flow puddles and blurs everything else…Time, like water, mixes colors with each other and conjoins tones. The stream of history turns into endless variegated borders, where sharp pictures are interchanged with abstract fragments. Despite the fact that it is hard to distinguish the silhouettes of these fragments, they represent indivisible parts of our memory”.
1.King Aeetes, Medea, the Argonauts, the Golden Fleece;
2.Prometheus – The symbol of freedom and devotion;
3.Parnavaz – The first King of the Kingdom of Kartli (Iberia), the unifier of Georgians, creator of the Georgian alphabet.
4.Saint Nino from Cappadocia – Preacher and spreader of Christianity in Georgia in the first quarter of IV century, King Mirian, Queen Nana;
5.King Vakhtang Gorgasali – King of Kartli in V century, the founder of Tbilisi.
6.Bagrat III – The first King of unified and feudal Georgia (975 – 1014).
7.The Battle of Didgori. With leadership of King David The Builder, united army of Georgia defeated the army of Seljuk Turks in 1121.
8.Next three images are consolidated in order to represent the Golden Age in Georgia – David IV The Builder (1089-1125) and Tamar (1184-1213) – The Rulers of unified Georgia, Shota Rustaveli – Great poet and mastermind of the XII century Georgia.
9.Saint King Demetre “Self-Sacrificer” and Giorgi V – Called “The Brilliant” by people;
10.Giorgi Saakadze – Great Georgian military commander, he is represented on the mosaic composition as a man fighting his own shadow;
11.Saint Ketevan “The Martyr” – The Queen which was tortured because of her Christian Orthodox beliefs;
12.The Battle of Krtsanisi. Fatal fight of Georgians under King Erekle II against the multitudinous army of Agha Makhmad Khan in 1795.
13.The composition “Tergdaleulebi.” Luarsab and Darejan – The symbol of sleeping Georgia. The awakening activities of “Tergdaleulebi,” are represented by Akaki Tsereteli’s Peom “Bells”;
14.Renaissance of the Georgian Culture in the XIX century. Galaktion – The king of poets, his immortal poem “The night and I”;
15.The second half of XX century, transitional period, civil war, chaos, tragedy of April 9th;
16.The Rose Revolution – Hope for the future;
17.”Street of the future” – Georgia is striving towards a better future
