ArtReview sent a questionnaire to artists and curators exhibiting in and curating the various national pavilions of the 2022 Venice Biennale, the responses to which will be published daily in the leadup to and during the Venice Biennale, which runs from 23 April to 27 November.
Mariam Natroshvili and Detu Jincharadze are representing Georgia. The Pavilion is located at Spazio Punch, Fondamenta S. Biagio, 800/o.
ArtReview What can you tell us about your exhibition plans for Venice?
Mariam Natroshvili and Detu Jincharadze I Pity the Garden is about the signs and a premonition of the end. When we started thinking about the work, there was peace, today there is war and those signs have already become news. In times of ecological catastrophes, wars and pandemics, our aim is to ask the question: where are we, and is a new beginning possible?
I Pity the Garden consists of two parts – a VR experience and an auto-generating video. The exposition is designed by Luka Murovec from Raumlabor Berlin. At the opening, philosopher Federico Campagna will talk about different aspects of the end.
ArtReview Why is the Venice Biennale still important?
MN & DJ Georgia was not able to participate in the Biennale independently during the 70 years of the Soviet Union. That’s why participation in the biennale is even more important for us.
Especially today, when Russia is not only dreaming but also trying to restore the USSR through the destruction of statehoods of the neighbouring free countries, it becomes more important for us to emphasise our independence by presenting the National Pavilion of Georgia in Venice.
AR What is misunderstood or forgotten about your country’s art history or artistic traditions?
MN & DJ Due to its history, Georgia has passed a different way to develop its culture and art. During 70 years of the last century, the forceful and unnatural method of art practice named Socialist Realism was the main working tool everybody should have obeyed. However, before the Sovietisation of Georgia in the 1920s, Tbilisi had a well-developed artistic environment, responding to the avant-garde, modernist and cubo-futuristic tendencies of the time. Therefore, the contemporary art created in Georgia today needs a different approach and special reading. Art is universal. However, art in countries like Georgia should be evaluated by their own criteria that are not the ones imposed from the outside.
AR Which other artists from your country have influenced or inspired you?
MN & DJ We always look for and find inspiration in poetry. Among Georgian artists, our inspiration is a modernist painter Dimitri Shevardnadze (1885–1937), also a public figure and a founder of the Georgian National Gallery.
AR How does having a pavilion in Venice make a difference to the art scene in your country?
MN & DJ The First World museums, curators and biennials – or the system that makes the contemporary artworld work – are mostly oblivious towards third-world artists except in times of war, oppression, violence, etc. Thus the Venice Biennale is a good opportunity for small and forgotten countries to show their art scenes.
AR If you’ve been to the biennale before, what’s your earliest or best memory from Venice?
MN & DJ We try to forget everything. No memories.
AR What else are you looking forward to seeing?
MN & DJ The art of countries where we almost never travel. The works of artists whose exhibitions are rarely held in museums around the world. Artists whose works are rarely found in art magazines. We think The Milk of Dreams will be the best place for it.
