The one who hears the mountains
In this project, the artist explores points of intersection of different cultures and how territorial and mental affiliation are defined.
She learned the cultural codes of Georgia, a country she had never been to through the guidance of her father.
The image of an unattainable house, an incomprehensible culture has matured into an installation of small unrecognizable «houses». Made of concrete, without windows or doors, they reproduce a sense of closure, isolation, and even loneliness.
Later, the artist started communication with her father through the method of graphic images without any verbal explanations. She sent him blank sheets of homemade paper, and they became a field to affix his memories to. These fragile materials encouraged her father to remember and find the most important moments of his life in memory. What was a narrative with symbols and letters for the father, was interpreted metaphorically by the daughter. Gradually, the artist developed enthusiasm for the language, its parts, in line with the reasoning that the person reads only what he/she saw, previously named.
The first trip to Georgia in 2021 was a kind of initiation and the beginning of a new phase of research. The goal was to combine everything she had heard, seen and imagined into a complete canvas. Before the trip, the father drew a map and identified all the relatives whose houses needed to be visited, and noted the rituals to be performed.
At the end of this two-week journey, the artist arrived at the historically important place of Shida Kartli (შიდა ქართლი) near the Mtkvara River (მტკვარი, which name can be translated as a «Good water»). Local landscape was quite different from the stereotypical «classic Georgian green mountains». These steppe mountains were dry.
The feature of this place prompted the artist to create the 41°52'27.0"N 44°32'57.1"E performance, which was the final part of the journey. After visiting relatives from different parts of the country, who became new conductors in an in-depth study of culture, the artist felt the need to record names that were finally patent and visible, like the earth itself.
During the performance, Eliza did a series of actions, memorizing the names, which were heard, seen, and written on the map. The white cloth has mapped her field for memories. Metal water tanks, as witnesses to the two cultures, transferred their sacred content into each other and washed everything around them.
To immerse, to deepen, to remember.
Eliza Mamardashvili
Eliza was born in 1987 in Zaporizhia, lives and works in Kharkiv. She is an interdisciplinary artist who works with performance, installation, graphics, painting, and vernacular photography, exploring such topics as land and culture, problems of memory, language and identity. Eliza focuses on the interrelations between humans and their environment.
