Gio Sumbadze - St. Air Case

Moving Gallery, Orbeliani Square, Tbilisi, Georgia

Moving Gallery by Artbeat with Caravan x Educo present video installation of Gio Sumbadze ‘St. Air Case’, which was exhibited in Arnem in the framework of 'Sonsbeek 9' in 2001.

‘St. Air Case’ is a video art in the context of architecture, which unites two locations – a shopping mall in Kronenberg and Eusebius church. For this work Gio Sumbadze attempts to represent the two locations with contrary elements, a profane space i.e daily environment is juxtaposed in a sacral space. We see in sacral space - Eusebius church a video depiction of profane (commercial) geographical point of Koninberg's shopping mall, which certainly refers to dichotomy of these two spatial-temporal elements.

‘Indeed-the original image is derived from the Eusebius tower, while the final visual result is being displayed in Kronenburg. The idea is that I walk up and down spiral staircase rights next to that big lift shaft in the Eusabius tower recording the spiraling movement on video. The video images are then edited so that they can be played back on the three different monitors and these monitors will be pilled up on top of each other, creating of a sort of mobius effect, as a reference to the Eusebius tower itself, but also as a sort of reflection of the apartment blocks rising up around the Kronenburg shopping centre.

So you get a sort of spatial discontinuity, a break in the spatial experience of a particular spot. Furthermore, I want my work to create a bit of breathing space in the bustle of Kronenburg - I very consciously sought out a spot where the visitors could escape for a moment from the merry-go round of this totally commercialized space. By stepping into another merry-go round’ - Gio Sumbadze.

Gio Sumbadze is a multimedia artist. He works in photography and has video works/installations. In addition, he makes graphic design. His artworks focus on architecture and structure of the nature as well as on the architectural planning which sometimes repeats shades of the nature and even confronts them. As he says his “artworks are typological documentations of space and time”. The artist takes feedback from who/what gets into his lens. This is the main source of inspiration for him.
Gio Sumbadze has been participating in the art projects in Georgia and out of the country since 1990s. He cooperates with Georgian and foreign curators and artists. In 2013 Gio Sumbadze represented Georgia at the 55th Venice Art Biennale. Architectural project “Kamikadze Loggia” was inspired by informal architecture in Tbilisi.
Gio Sumbadze is a member of an artistic group GOSLAB in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Working Hours: 17-18 October, 17:00-22:00