Kolga Tbilisi Photo 12-18 May 2016: KONTAKTPHOTOS - 5 photographers

Five photographers from KONTAKTPHOTOS are exhibiting their works at Europe House in Tbilisi from 12-18 May 2016 as part of the Kolga Tbilisi Photo contest. The Kolga Tbilisi Photo exhibition is a week-long event for local and international photographers. It is the largest and most prestigious photo contest in Georgia.

KONTAKTPHOTOS is a Georgian agency of documental photography, founded in 2015. Its aim is to be a supporting platform for artists, depicting ‘modern ways of being’ – humans in the world of politics, society, ecology, and human rights. The five photographers represented by KONTAKTPHOTOS in this exhibition are: Natela Grigalashvili (founder and head of the agency), Andro Eradze, Vakho Khetaguri, Giorgi Shengelia, and Beso Uznadze.

Beso Uznadze’s works are inspired by nature and the poem of Adam Mickiewicz, The fragrant orchard of my mother:

‘And still there today can

Blooming poppies and cornflowers,

And more beautiful than them roses

The fragrant orchard of my mother.

Vakho Khetaguri’s exhibition, Invisible River, features photographs associated with the Vere River in Tbilisi. The river originates in eastern Georgia, passing through villages, before joining the Mtkvari River in Tbilisi at the tunnel constructed at Heroe’s Square. Khetaguri observed the Vere River over several months, witnessing the flooding of 13 June 2015 in which 20 people were killed when the river burst its banks near the Tbilisi Zoo.

Giorgi Shengelia’s exhibition, Catharsis, is a collection of photographic portraits. It is about the last shelter for the aged who are left alone in assisted housing in Tbilisi – people who have no money, no shelter, and no family. The assisted housing is called Catharsis, which itself has limited space and cannot offer shelter to all of those in need. The housing provides accommodation, food, a library, a chapel, and the means to interact and communicate with each other.

Andro Eradze is exhibiting four photographs: ‘In front of the lens I am at the same time: the one I think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art. In other words, a strange action: I do not stop imitating myself and because of this, each time I am (or let myself be) photographed, I invariably suffer from a sensation of inauthenticity, sometimes of impostor (comparable to certain nightmares).’

Natela Grigalashvili’s exhiition, Shaheeds – Heroes of Iran, was inspired by the interpretation of shahid, or shaheed, meaning ‘witness’ or ‘martyr.’ Her photographs, of soldiers who lost their lives, were taken in Tehran, Iran, in 2016, in the cemetery of one of the local mosques.

http://www.kolga.ge/en/#/exhibitions/

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).