Face to Face:
Georgian Photography
in Moscow

Pobeda Gallery recently presented the first exhibition of Georgian photography ever to take place in Moscow. The show included the work of six artists: Guia Chkhatarashvili, Beso Uznadze, David Meskhi, Guram Tsibakhashvili, Irina Abzhandadze and Yuri Mechitov.

Curator of the project Nestan Nizharadze was born and raised in Tbilisi. Educated as a journalist, Nestan curated numerous projects (including Michael Kenna’s exhibitions in Tbilis; a Georgian photography retrospectives in Kiev; and a contemporary Georgian photography exhibition in France), and founded Tbilisi Photography House. She is editor-in-chief and publisher of “PHOTO” magazine.

More than 60 works of photographers of different generations and schools attempted to recreate the many-sided face of the so-called “New Wave” of modern Georgian photography.

The show includes black-and-white documentary series “Ushguli” (1990-2000), made by Guia Chkhatarashvili in the highlands of Svaneti; conceptual and nostalgic “Notes” (1997-2001) by Guram Tsibakhashvili; portraits of
Sergei Parajanov, a famous movie director, by Yuri Mechitov (1978-1990); the documentary and conceptual “Victim” series (2000) by Irina Abzhandadze; and two series “Don’t Wake Me” (2010) and “When Earth Seems to be Light” (2006-2009) by young auteurs Beso Uznadze and David Meskhi.

Curator Nestan Nizharadze said, “The exhibition allowed the Moscow public to face contemporary Georgian photography and all the things that affected Georgian photographers in various times and spaces... And these things are life itself. Life, accompanied by pain and joy, meetings and partings, changes, loneliness and silence. And screams, which are inevitable sometimes.”