The work of Georgian artist Vajiko Chachkhiani presents itself as conundrum between nature and human presence, past and present.
With Vajiko Chachkhiani (GE/DE)
Curated by Luigi Fassi (IT)
Objects from the world of farming and traditional craft in his home country often play an important role in the works of Georgian artist Vajiko Chachkhiani. But when he transfers old fences and burnt branches or, as recently, at the Venice Biennale, an entire house into the art context, these things appear not as ready-mades, but as metaphors capable of communicating historical events, collective memory, and the ephemeral nature of human existence.
In Neuberg an der Mürz, Chachkhiani is now set to create a dialogue with the surroundings. A large hole with a small untouched piece of land in its centre appears in the village. On top of this unreachable "island" is a remnant of a wooden fence, most likely a solitary left over of a former housing. The artwork presents itself as a visual conundrum, an image connecting nature and human presence, past and present: an image bursting with what has been suppressed and left unspoken.
Commissioned by steirischer herbst
Vajiko Chachkhiani (GE/DE)
Vajiko Chachkhiani, born in Tbilisi/Georgia in 1985, is a Berlin-based visual artist. Chachkhiani initially studied mathematics and information science at the Technical University in Tbilisi before relocating to the audiovisual department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2008. The following year he had his first solo exhibition (“Trap”) and took up his studies at Berlin University of the Arts, graduating in 2013 with the piece “The Gift”. Since then he has presented his work in six more solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions. Chachkhiani, who designed the Georgian pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, is set to show one of his works for the first time in Austria as part of steirischer herbst.