Lara protects me: A Georgian Story

As part of Georgia’s Guest of Honour programme at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the Museum Angewandte Kunst presents the exhibition Lara protects me: A Georgian Story. A mysterious message that the curator Mahret Kupka found on her travels in Georgia becomes the point of departure for a quest. Who could the mysterious Lara, the author of this letter, be? What can contemporary creative producers tell us about her? Georgian artists, designers, curators and authors offer possible answers and invite us to explore their country and its history.

With Situationist and the fashion designer Irakli Rusadze (*1991) the exhibition presents an internationally acclaimed fashion label known for its raw and unusual style. The exhibition focuses on the label’s close ties with the young art scene in Tbilisi with works by the artist Giorgi Geladze (*1996) or the Berlin-based photographer David Meskhi (*1979).

Tamra is the fashion label of the artist, fashion designer and documentary filmmaker Tamuna Karumidze (*1975). Her collection Dreamcatchers zooms in on the Georgian skateboard scene and the identity of Georgian youth culture. This topic is also the focus of her internationally acclaimed documentary film When the Earth Seems to be Light, a joint production by her, David Meskhi and Salome Machaidze.

In her series "My Place" the photographer Dina Oganova (*1987) makes portraits of young Georgians that have grown up in an independent Georgia. Every ten years the photographer wishes to return to her protagonists in order to photograph them in the privacy of their own bedroom. In Salome Jokhadze’s (*1997) colourful illustrations of the series "Contemporary Georgia" the new attitude towards life meets Georgian tradition: The drawings include comic-like portrayals of women and skateboarders in traditional Georgian costume. The artists Tamar Chaduneli (*1991) and Ana Chaduneli (*1990) have created a series of new drawings for Lara protects me.

The Patara Gallery was founded in 2017 by Gvantsa Jishkariani und Nata Kipiani as an experimental art space, which is located in a former kiosk of a pedestrian underpass in the center of Tbilisi. In the Frankfurt exhibition the small gallery will be reproduced in its original size and will simultaneously present the exhibitions on show in Tbilisi.

The sound artist and musician Irakli Kiziria (*1977) has developed a soundscape for the exhibition that wishes to reflect the atmosphere of the capital. These ambient tracks mixed with sound recordings are part of a new album that is available at the Museum as a limited LP. The album and sound installation was developed in collaboration with Zuska Babunashvili (*1994), a.k.a. Zesknel, a resident DJ of the club Bassiani in Tbilisi.

One of the most riveting publications from Georgia is represented with the bilingual magazine Danarti. The magazine was founded by Elene Abashidze, Ana Chorgolashvili and Natuta Bagrationi in 2011 and deals with different topics such as the architectural turn in Tbilisi or LGBTQ+. The fifth and latest issue "Surviving the 90s" will be presented in Frankfurt.

At the Museum Angewandte Kunst these different voices paint a many-layered portrait of Post-Soviet Georgia. They make the spirit of renewal and the zeitgeist of a new Georgian generation tangible—a generation, which has come of age in a time of great political upheaval and change, that was tainted by war and economic crisis. They look ahead with us with confidence in order to meet the new challenges of the 21st century with creative self-empowerment.

In collaboration with Creative Georgia and the Georgian National Book Center, on the occasion of Georgia’s appearance as the Guest of Honour at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair, with the generous support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia.

Director: Matthias Wagner K
Curator: Mahret Kupka
Press contact: Dorothee Maas, T +49 69 212 32828 / presse.angewandte-kunst@stadt-frankfurt.de