Artbeat presents Nika Kutateladze’s solo show My Neighbour is a House.
The artist continues to search for a poetic and symbolic narrative on the example of a changing context. The spatial journey which he offers us resembles a well-structured, surreal, and dramatic scene. The artist unites two different realities in the same space. Georgian domestic environment is translated into an alternative reality and extended as a dreamlike world and mirage.
After the deterious spread of Cassidas bugs in the villages of Georgia, which have become an inseparable part of the surroundings of the local population, life has changed. Over time, the village gradually depopulated due to increased migration, resulting in significant alterations to the modes of exchange and trade of goods. The artist establishes a narrative scene, showing how the abandoned houses were utilized and loaded with new meanings. Artist’s observation on those events reveals an imaginary dialogue between emigrated and remaining people through space and subjects.
Upon entering the space, visitor becomes a traveler who is transported to an abandoned village house. The whole space is covered with evergreen laurel leaves. Human co-presence seems to be rejected here. The interaction of natural and artificial light creates dynamic and immersive environments, which incite the visitors to follow the trace left behind by human presence. A duality unfolds where a trace of the past is simultaneously manifested and withdrawn. Each element given in this space creates one big chain, where dialogue between being and not being, between past and presence, between departed and remaining people goes on.
Although enigmatic imagery flashes before us, grasping our attention with its fascinating power, behind this dreamy imagery hides a dramatic reality. Unrecognizable signs reveal fragments of traumatic memories, nostalgic sentiments, poverty, and a constantly changing environment, where everything lacks meaning. Observing the traces of these events, we recover the scene, where on the one hand, we see the spread of Cassidas bugs, families abandoning their living houses and going to the cities for a better life; on the other hand, we see strangers taking over those abandoned houses and putting them to new use. From this moment onwards, the collection of laurel leaves and their transformation into trading goods begins in those houses, the image of which seems to manifest the traumatic experiences and the unstable social-economic realities on a symbolic level.
Nika Kutateladze was born in 1989, in Tbilisi. He studied on the faculty of Architecture at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts between 2007 – 2011. In 2013 he graduated an informal master’s course at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi (CCA-T). The majority of the artworks comprise installations and sculptures, reflecting day-to-day consumerism and different environmental issues. His later artistic utterances challenge the transformative process of architectural spaces and urban environment, in general.
Selected solo and group exhibitions:
2019 – Metamorphosis, Art in Europe Now – The Fondation Cartier, Paris, France; 2018 – To Protect My House While I’m Away, Tbilisi Architectural Biennial, Tbilisi, Georgia; Watermill on Former Pavlov Street, Kunsthalle Tbilisi, Georgia; 2017 – Minibus and Playground in My Old Apartment at Mitskevich Street 20, Tbilisi, Georgia; Double Standards, Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan; 2016 – Wall, Coarse calico, Parquet, Tbilisi, Georgia; 2015 – AD HOC, LA STATION, Niece, France; 2014 – FEST I NOVA 2014 – OPUS MIXTUM, Art villa Garikula, Georgia; 2013 – Am I You – Gallery Container, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Imprint
| Artist | Nika Kutateladze |
| Exhibition | My Neighbour is a House |
| Place / venue | Artbeat Gallery, P. Ingorokva street 14, Tbilisi |
| Dates | 22 April - 28 May, 2023 |
| Website | www.galleryartbeat.com/en |
| Index | Artbeat Gallery Nika Kutateladze |