Berlin display explores queer experiences of post-Soviet South Caucasus
Untitled Gallery Tbilisi is collaborating with The Institute for Endotic Research, the venue hosting the exhibition, for the artistic reflection of experiences of queer communities in the context of the post-Soviet space. Photo via Untitled Gallery Tbilisi.
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Works by young queer artists from South Caucasus are being displayed at The Institute for Endotic Research in Berlin to explore experiences of the community throughout the tumultuous three decades since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Bringing together artwork from a selection of creatives residing across the region - from Tbilisi to Yerevan, Baku and Sokhumi - the exhibition, entitled Post-Post: Queer Caucasus, is seen as a retrospective reflection by the community still marginalised in societies in the Caucasus.
Set up in the "safe space" of the venue in the German capital through its collaboration with Untitled Gallery Tbilisi, it offers a look on both the challenges and artistic opportunities brought to the societies in question by the historical era, organisers have said.
Curated by Giorgi Rodionov, the Tbilisi-based artist and curator and Untitled Gallery Tbilisi founder, the display asks questions on impacts caused by collapse of empires, and resulting developments throwing previously certain "plans and utopias" into uncertainty, as has happened to the social structures and fabrics in the post-Soviet space.
Through the lens of the queer communities in the region, the trauma of failed attempts at constructing envisioned futures in these societies, along with civil strife, economic shocks and poverty are explored in the event.
Queer children of this [post-Soviet] mutation period were left marginalized by the system. To this day, they have to hide their real identities from the public. However, with the advent of informational progress, new realities and scenes became available for their self-expression
- summary for the display
The artists showcased in the exhibition include David Apakidze, co-creator of Fungus Project queer art platform, formed to make use of experimental forms in countering stigma and marginalisation in Georgia. A graduate of Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Apakidze now works as a visual artist, curator and art researcher.
Damascus-born Salina Abaza, currently residing in Sokhumi, is involved in artistic practice around "ersonal narratives and their relationship to larger socio-political frameworks", while the duo of Nailə Dadaş-zadə & Ani Paitjan is also represented in the show through their practice and background in visual art and media respectively.
Baku-based poet, musical artist and filmmaker Vusala Hajiyeva, director of the documentary Noise Symphony, is selected via her work on queer and social issues. Rounding off the roster of creatives, Giorgi Rodionov brings his interest in changing eras and "joint power" at the intersection of science, art and the public to the display.
Rodionov will moderate a live discussion with the artists, streamed online, on Friday, while the general exhibition has been open since February 12 and is set to run through February 26.
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