New Georgian Talents Revealed by Tsinandali Award 2017
More and more gifted youth and professionals are emerging in Georgia annually, and the Tsinandali Award has proven it over the recent years. It is a prestigious award that reveals talented Georgians, 18 to 30 years of age, with substantial achievements in different spheres. The jury selects winners in eight fields based on their projects carried out throughout the year in the following fields: theatrical art, cinema art, literary fiction (prose), literary fiction (poetry), music, visual arts, natural sciences and humanitarian sciences.
The Tsinandali Award was established in 1998 under the auspices of the late chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Zurab Zhvania, and the first award ceremony was held in 1999. Sadly, the competition was suspended for over a decade and was only restored in 2014 on the initiative of President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili. Currently the annual ceremony is carried out under the President’s patronage and Zurab Zhvania Foundation jointly.
This year’s Tsinandali Award ceremony and gala concert was hosted by the grand hall of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. The winners of the 2016 Tsinandali Award were invited to attend the ceremony and hand out the prizes to their successors. The ceremony was opened by President Margvelashvili, who emphasized the importance of such competitions in the development of the country.
The Literary Fiction Award for Prose was claimed by Tsotne Tskhvediani, a historian, for his novel The Mayakovsky Theater. Giorgi Kekelidze, the winner of the 2016 award and General Director of the National Library of Georgia, handed the prize to the winner.
The Literary Fiction Award for Poetry was given to Roin Abuselidze for his collection of rhymes ‘Chorokhi.’
In the nomination of Natural Sciences, the winner was announced as Eka Gurgenashvili, a young female astrophysicist, for her project North-south asymmetry in Rieger-type periodicity during solar cycles 19-23.
“This survey is very important for us as the sun has a significant influence on our planet. Since the sun is considered the closest star to the earth, we should know as many things as possible about it. I worked on this project for over a year and visited different countries together with my supervisors,” she told GEORGIA TODAY.
The event involved a gala concert of distinguished musicians and bands including the Georgian Sinfonietta, violinist Giorgi Zagareli , DJ Alexandre Kordzaia and Strings and Sophie Villy.
Conductor Kakhi Solomnishvili won the Music Award for performing Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich and Director Guram Matskhonashvili was granted the Theatrical Art Award for staging his signature performance Gatvla.
The Humanitarian Sciences Award was given to Shota Matitashvili.
“My work is about the history of the Georgian Church, in particular, the life of Georgian monks in the 4th-5th centuries. My project focuses on the early period of the monks’ life and its development, barely studied before now. I hope that my study will be fruitful and that more interesting details will be discovered in the near future. I have been working on this topic for 5 years now,” the historian told us.
Each winner received diplomas and GEL 4,000 as a prize. In addition, the winners were gifted a selection of wines from Badagoni. Aside from the eight nominations, the wine company revealed its favorite in the nomination of Visual Arts as Giorgi Vardiashvili, and gifted him GEL 2,000.
“We organized this increasingly important ceremony for the fourth time. Through this competition we discover bright talents who contribute to the development of different fields in Georgia. These people, who represent the world of art, have less interest in materialism, so they need our support and motivation,” Nino Kadagidze , the wife of late Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and one of the organizers of the event, told GEORGIA TODAY.
Young director Bakar Cherkezishvili was named winner of Cinema Art Award for his film Apollo Javakheti and the Visual Arts Award was claimed by artist Gvantsa Jishkariani for her installation Savanna Savage.
“This award and my victory mean a lot to me, since now I’m entering a new stage of my life. This prize was really timely since it will assist me greatly to fulfill my plans. I presented an installation that was set up in Batumi this year, made with printed images taken accidently with a damaged camera, imitating a constant flow of events,” the young artist said of her work.
Lika Chigladze