#mamuka japharidze

[thinkingimages]

Mamuka Japharidze. St. Sebastian. Performance, Tbilisi History Museum, Georgia, 1992

In December 1992, 10th Floor and Marjanishvilebi member Mamuka Japharidze (born 1962) performed at the Tbilisi History Museum as St. Sebastian. Covered in white chalk and tied with rope to a pillar, the artist presented himself to the public as a sculpture of the Roman saint. Although St. Sebastian is considered the patron saint of homosexuality, Mamuka used the religious figure to reference the chaos of the Georgian civil war. In religious iconography, St. Sebastian is depicted pierced by the arrows of a Roman legionnaire, rendering the viewer—who is in the position of an archer—the unconscious executioner.6 By inviting the audience to look at both him and each other, Japharidze addressed the interaction between victim and abuser. After a thirty-minute performance in a semi-derelict space on a freezing cold day, the artist walked to the old Roman Sulphur Baths to wash himself clean. With references to the torturous nature of war, he also played with words and their meaning: in Georgian, romelia translates as “who is” and “Roman.”

https://post.moma.org/an-underground-bridge-to-georgian-collectiveness-finding-a-tribe-through-collective-trauma/

#mamuka japharidze #tbilisi history museum #st. sebastian #performance #performance art #trauma #georgian civil war #georgia

[fenixmodule]

Eye Tree

So it turns out that one of the people we conversed with in the FENIX MODULE in 2015 was Mamuka Japharidze,  an artist from the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi. He is especially known for representing Georgia in the 48th Venice Biennale. Here we posted his video: Eye Tree

‘I am investigating the way that objects exist in a separate time/world beyond human´s utilitarian interpretation of time/object. The state of potential before objects/things are manifested is for me a real metaphysical state of existence. The idea of the object exists in ancient mythological dialogue and drama, which for me is still present.’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamuka_Japharidze