Events you should not miss if Svaneti is your summer destination

A personal exhibition of the well-known late Georgian photographer Guram Tikanadze is one of the upcoming highlights of summer events at the Svaneti Museum in the mountainous town of Mestia in Georgia’s north-west.

Guram Tikanadze is remembered as the first photographer from Georgia who managed to present his creative work on an international stage at a young age during the Soviet era. He worked as photo reporter in Eastern European countries and was awarded the Bronze Medal at the 1959 Vienna World Festival of Students and Youth.

Guram Tikanadze. Photo from the archive of Georgia’s Literature Museum.

An avid mountain climber, Tikanadze died at the age of thirty while on descent from Svaneti’s peak Shkhara in 1963.

Some critics called him Georgia’s Henri Cartier-Bresson, saying if he had not lived in the isolated Soviet Republic of Georgia, then his works would have been known worldwide.

The exhibition is set to conclude a series of public talks, openings and expositions offered throughout July at the must-see Svaneti Museum.

Check the schedule of the Svaneti Museum here.

Polish fashion models in Tbilisi. Photo by Guram Tikanadze from the archive of Georgia’s Literature Museum.

The recent events included an open-air performance by the Shota Rustaveli Theatre. The prominent Georgian group performed The Guest and the Host by late 19th century Georgian poet and writer Vazha-Pshavela. 

For the first time, Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography has hosted performance "Stumar–Maspindzeli” (The Guest and the Host) by Shota Rustaveli Theatre. Photo by Georgian National Museum.

As this piece of literature is about the traditions of Georgia’s mountainous regions, it perfectly suited the setting of the Museum in an area of picturesque historic towers and castles, some of them recognised by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.