“Behind the Curtain” in Georgia

Alisa Berger’s Georgian show is called “Behind the Curtain” and is part of the "OXYGEN-Tbilisi No fair" exhibition. It represents the future possibilities of Georgia’s liberal society, free from the Soviet past. She insists on the liberation movements and impulses to freedom that exist in all countries and capitals of the Post-Soviet sphere.

The “Iron Curtain” not only represents the separation between two parts of the world during the Cold War, it is also a more global term to refer to the impenetrability between two things. In Alisa Berger’s exhibition, the curtain describes the war that exists in Georgia between the past and the future. The Soviet past and the strong influence of the Orthodox Church being in conflict with the homosexual community, the use of soft drugs and the clubbing culture, that became political simply because of its existence.

“A unironed curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Tbilisi, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Post-Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Post-Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing new measure of liberation from a decentered force of movement, heat and the freedom of flashing lights.” (pataragallery.com, based on a speech by Winston Churchill)

Alisa Berger is an artist who was born in the Republic of Dagestan and raised in Ukraine and Germany. She works within film, video art, mixed media installations and performances. She currently lives and works in Tokyo and Cologne. She studied film and fine arts at the Academy of Media Art Cologne (KHM) and Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. Berger is part of the curating team of the FAR OFF art fair and also part of the performance duo "bergernissen." Her artistic works have been presented at a variety of venues, festivals and museums worldwide, among them the BACC - Bangkok Art & Culture Center, MOMA Moscow, Anthology Film Archives and European Media Art Festival EMAF.

In her art, recurring themes are psychological processes and structures, the human relationship to value systems, the human body, ritual actions, and the play with stylistic elements from the horror genre. Throughout her works, the autonomy of the individual and his/her body is illuminated as an insecure area.

The exhibition is accompanied by the music of Georgian Techno-artist Michail Todua.

Michel Todua is 33 years old. He was a promoter of DJs and parties before being arrested in the street for drug testing and condemned to nine years in prison without legal or financial help. He is now releasing music from within his prison cell. Thousands of others have been locked up in the same circumstances.

Date: 16-20 May

Venue: Hotel STAMBA D block, Tbilisi

For more information: http://pataragallery.com/en/exhibition/alisa-berger-behind-the-curtain/

By Gabrielle Colchen