Shrouds of the Dust-Cloth: Olim – Ever by Gia Bugadze

The Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia, presents the exhibition of Gia Bugadze's artworks ‘Olim – Ever’ at the Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery from 6 March to 11 April 2018.

Olim (Latin) means ‘ever’ and represents two tenses - past and future. The exposition of Gia Bugadze's artworks ‘Olim – Ever’ is a megalography, consisting of 33 independent pieces concerted under the same idea.

Gia Bugadze maintains that Europeans, and not only Europeans, ‘have one household tradition or behaviour - when the apartment is to be temporarily empty, objects, furniture, mirrors or chandeliers are covered with white material (dust-cloths) – the shroud – to avoid damage until the residents return home.

‘Olim is a visual memory "theater" that is aimed at saving and retaining. That's why I used this method: I selected scenes from the Holy Scripture, namely from Gospels. I depicted the easily recognizable iconographic versions, then captured them on canvas and covered with white shroud - I obscured, saved and hid them until the time of revelation,’ says Bugadze.

The series ‘Olim – Ever’ conceals and unfolds contents, ‘until the various ideas, hidden and covered, will soon be revealed, opened and explained; this will come to life only when there is time to return home.’

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), 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).

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