Tolia Astakhishvili: Figure of the Child

Tolia Astakhishvili’s practice is attuned to the ways space is continuously shaped by those who inhabit it. In the months leading up to the exhibition opening, Tolia Astakhishvili developed the project on site and shared her process with the public through Tolia Curriculum, a format that reimagines the temporality of exhibition-making. Here, the artist intervenes in conventional museum logistics by inviting visitors into production and installation phases that are typically kept out of view. In doing so, she shifts attention toward moments of transition and extends the process of transformation beyond its usual temporal limits and structures of visibility. Audiences were—and continue to be—invited to encounter the work while it is still taking shape.

The format gradually folds into the exhibition Figure of the Child, where the “figure of the child” is continually incarnated anew throughout the installation, publication, and accompanying events. For the artist, this figure encompasses both the remarkable intellectual and creative autonomy of children and their profound dependency. Children enter the world fundamentally out of sync with their surroundings, compelled to observe, adapt, and often surrender to structures beyond their control. Throughout the exhibition, this condition emerges through shifting scales, precarious structures, and a sustained sense of perceptual uncertainty. Tolia Astakhishvili eschews the conventions of museum display in order to insist on the primacy of artistic experience. Grounded in bodily movement and haptic perception, the exhibition pushes sensation beyond preconceived meanings, striving toward a state of openness and immediacy that the artist describes as akin to a child’s “first encounter.” 

Tolia Astakhishvili’s approach to exhibition-making is distinguished by an acute sensitivity to the ways spaces are shaped by former uses and users, as well as by the traces and histories inscribed within them. Figure of the Child unfolds as an intimate constellation of works by the artist’s close collaborators alongside works from mumok’s own collection, which she weaves into a large-scale installation encompassing painting, drawing, sculpture, sound, video, and architecture. Art-historical antecedents interact with traces of past participants, as well as fragments that emerged during the process itself. 

The three publications produced in conjunction with the exhibition reflect this approach through stages of layering and accumulation. The first volume, published on the opening day, explores drawing and materiality at the heart of Tolia Astakhishvili’s practice, with contributions by Kirsty Bell, Fatima Hellberg, and Liesl Ujvary. Using the same printed sheets, two further volumes will emerge, with exhibition views overprinted onto their pages. 

Much as a child experiences everything for the first time at some point, this emphasis on process also reflects a commitment to curiosity. The decision to allow life—and therefore change—to become part of the cycle through which an exhibition comes into being, is experienced, and is ultimately remembered.  

With works by Zurab Astakhishvili, Aurel, Ştefan Bertalan, Kaucyila Brooke, Veronica Brovall, Günter Brus, Elene Chantladze, James Ensor, Nan Goldin, Yaryna Fedoriv, Irma Gubeladze, Ull Hohn, Paul Joostens, Louise Lawler, Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik, Dylan Peirce, Pablo Picasso, Charlotte Posenenske, James Richards, Irena Rosc, Medardo Rosso, Dieter Roth, Maka Sanadze, Heimo Zobernig, and others.

Curated by Fatima Hellberg and Manuela Ammer

Tolia Astakhishvili (b. 1974 in Tbilisi, Georgia) lives and works in Tbilisi and Berlin. In her interdisciplinary practice, Astakhishvili develops immersive installations that encompass elements of sculpture, drawing, painting, sound, and video. Her work approaches architecture as an open material shaped by the bodies, memories, and stories that inhabit it. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Venice (2025); SculptureCenter, New York (2024); Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2023); and Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2023). Recent group exhibitions include MoMA PS1, New York (2025); Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2025); and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Roma, Rome (2024). 

Tolia Astakhishvili, Figure of the Child is supported by:
Austrian Ludwig Foundation, Kvareli Foundation for Contemporary Art, Dorotheum and Robert de Corainville