Virtual Exhibition zghapAR - Georian Artists Bring Mythological Characters to our Reality

zghapAR - "There was and there was not" - this is a virtual exhibition that brings together the works of 7 Georgian illustrators. The exhibition was hosted by the Center for Contemporary Art within "Tbilisi - World Book Capital" last month.

In addition to the virtual format, the exhibition is available in the format of the application and uses augmented reality to create a full effect. Each work combines one theme - Georgian mythology and fairy tales. Artists visually "revived" fairy tale or mythological characters. And then these characters, using technology, in particular, through augmented reality, AR, came into our reality.

"It is already the second year that my and Detu Jincharadze's artistic practice has been connected with technologies. We actively use VR and AR technologies in our works or exhibitions, as well as 3D Realtime technology "- says Mariam Natroshvili, artist and curator of AR exhibition at Marketer. 

AR technology is the future, and fairy tales and myths belong to memorable times. The merging of these two times is somewhat symbolic, because "mythological time" does not necessarily follow a chronological line. Besides, fairy tales are an augmented reality by their nature.

"It was interesting to see how the heroes of Georgian fairy tales found a place in reality, outside the pages. Through the application-exhibition, anyone can see these characters in their room, office or garden," Mariam explains.

Viewing the exhibition is quite simple. To do this, you need to download the application, select the desired environment and place the characters in this environment. This is the way to make fairy tales a reality, and fairy tale characters to be a part of our reality. Who knows, maybe this is how we will bring back magic  to our world… As the curator points out, if before people believed it and therefore even saw magical creatures, now it is possible to see them through technology.