"The Why Not Gallery" on Guardian of Georgian Art - Interview with Elene Kapanadze
The Why Not Gallery is a gallery located in Tbilisi, which makes a great contribution to the popularization of almost all fields of Georgian contemporary fine arts.
By following in the footsteps of the digital age, The Why Not Gallery has been able to create one of the most compelling and popular galleries on the Internet, helping young Georgian artists bring their creations to the public. homeis.ge offers an interview with the co-founder of The Why Not Gallery, Elene Kapanadze, in which she tells us about the most original space in Tbilisi.
Tell us about The Why Not Gallery, who are its founders, what was the idea that preceded the establishment of the gallery?
The gallery was founded by two friends, curator and artist, Elene Kapanadze and Gvantsa Jishkariani. The main goal was to create that space and show us the art that we lacked in the city. From the very beginning we had an unusal approach to gallery work and we chose one of the shop windows in the underground passage of Orbeliani Square as the first location. It turned out to be a very interesting experiment because we got caught up in people’s daily lives and got to a place where contemporary art was the least expected. Then we collaborated with different galleries and now we have our first permanent space that looks more like a traditional white cube gallery.
Elene Kapanadze and Gvantsa Jishkariani. Photo: Anna Boko
We have a gift shop together with the gallery, where we collaborate with Georgian artists on a limited number of products inspired by their art. These items are mostly home decorative items. The idea also came from the fact that we could not find such items in the local market and we decided to do it ourselves. All collaborations result in original, interesting and high quality items. A very interesting symbiosis came out - we created an additional source of income for the artists, at the same time their work became more accessible, and because we work mainly with young artists, it turned out that we also promote them.
How did you come up with the name for gallery - “Why Not?!''
This is how we approach everything, we never follow the rules and we always try to destroy the established frameworks, because why not ?! Every new idea is a challenge, and our philosophy is "Never give up on challenges" because they always bring news, knowledge and experience - everything we thought we would do - we did it, because why not?! - and so far we have nothing to regret.
As you told us, you originally planned to make a gallery in an underground passage, what was the reason for that?
Opening a gallery in the underground was Gvantsa’s idea and I think it turned out to be very right that she forced me to. At first I was categorically against it, again and again because of the framed thinking. But I think it was a very timely and correct decision. First of all, because the museums and the art field in general in Tbilisi are very closed and constricted. The same 200 people walk to all the exhibitions and face the problem of elitism, snobbery, alienation or information vacuum. Therefore, we decided that if the general public does not come to the gallery, we will go to a place that we can still catch the eye. Of course, there was an element of play and provocation in this.
The Why Not Gallery Exhibition "All Your Favorite Bitches And Witches"
There is another world in the underground of Tbilisi, but the underground passage where our gallery was located is especially crowded. There is no item that you can not buy in the underground. The work of the first exhibition, Lara Smithson's video "She Spoke Rain", was accompanied by music and gave a completely different, magical touch to the chaos that was happening around.
Besides, the neighborhood itself and specifically this underground passage are very important in the history of Georgian contemporary art; It was there that Oleg Timchenko and Niko Tsetskhladze had their famous performance, "Stand Against", in 1991. Sopho Tabatadze did a lot of research on the legendary building of Pirimze, as a result of which she created a film, an installation and a book. It was very important for us to be able to show these works at this location, but at the same time we held 5 exhibitions where 11 Georgian and foreign artists participated.
The Why Not Gallery Exhibition "What If You Were In My Garden"
How do you choose the artists you will present in the gallery?
We only present artists whose works are important to us and whose words and actions show sincerity. Basically these are young artists who experiment with different mediums and try to find interesting and non-standard visuals, expressions.
Tell us about The Why Not Gallery GIFT SHOP's collaboration with Georgian Fabric. What does this project mean to you and why do you consider it close to the idea of a gallery? Which is your favorite product from this collaboration?
We love all the new collaborations and we gladly agreed to participate in the Georgian fabric project. It was an unusual idea to revive the cultural heritage in this way and to popularize it to the general public for the treasures we have. All the products were very valuable - mirrors, tablecloths and pillows are what we often do in our shop. Making maras was very interesting because it was a new product for us and we took details from several different fabrics to create patterns. We are very satisfied with the result.
Items created in collaboration with "Georgian Fabric" and "The Why Not Gallery"
Tell us about your future plans.
We are now actively preparing for the 2021 exhibition calendar. The first exhibition will be a solo show by artist Keu Meparishvili. We are also preparing new products for Valentine's Day in the gift shop and I think we will present very nice items.
People interested in art can view the samples and collections presented in the gallery "Why Not" on their wesite. There is an online store on the website, where you can fully view and purchase the items for sale.