Pop-Up: Textiles Exhibition Takes Place in Tbilisi

 

Taking place parallel to the shop’s work, the exhibition features works by Nino Kvrivishvili. Her recent series of paintings convey a story of fabric production, the country’s formerly active industry. The artist belongs to the generation who studied textile art while this industry was disappearing and the experience of practical training was becoming impossible. Abstract shapes of the series, in a way a meditation on industrial themes, repeat in this selection presented together with plaster additions inside the shop. Here we also see partially concealed bodies that remind us of images from fashion magazines, as well as hint at stories of many women who were involved in the industry, yet often remained unknown - a topic that Nino Kvrivishvili has been researching for several years now. The exhibition also includes an installation called “What would you pay for this silk?” - while discussing topics related to the textile industry, visitors can take a piece of textile from a bolt of industrial silk.

 

Artistic and research collaboration of Nino Kvrivishvili and Data Chigholashvili responds to the history of Georgia’s textile industry by interrelating topics of fabric production, changing places, time, and memory. Through the selected format, this exhibition concerns issues such as training and labor, changing places and functions, and speed of lifestyle and consumption. In the 20th century, many factories, plants, and shops used to work on textiles in Georgia. Following the economic crisis of the 1990s, similar to many other industries in the country, most of these establishments ceased to exist, forcing former employees to find new jobs or professions. Many textile production and commerce places were privatized and often their functions entirely changed. They constituted collective memory and today, with new purposes and sometimes visible histories, reflect many changes of the previous three decades. At the same time, they relate to the stories of people who were involved in the production or shopped for textiles.

 

The exhibition is curated by Data Chigholashvili and supported by TBC.