In 1997, the Georgian artist KokaRamishvili asked all the international representatives in Georgia for permission to make a film about embassies. He was asking to film only a single object from behind their closed walls. This was his response to the emergence of new territories in the capital of the newly independent republic. Embassies were one of the first signs of re-territorialization the landscape of our generation: after the collapse of the Soviet system, the independence movement, the civil war, the long-lasting isolation and against the background of ruins, uncertainties, and chaos; also in terms of our desire to be recognized, of our expectations and our hopes, with how through the establishment of embassies suddenly the desirable distant world became close to real. However, “opened” embassies soon became sites of “closure”, with long queues and frustration in front of heavily guarded doors, where all our previous dreams fell short.

Koka Ramishvili wanted to pass that frontier in order to question the homogeneity of their facades in their interior design. Inside, things (objects, furniture, and technology) were eclectic, as was expected, from different countries and manufacturers.”

from the article “Shoes for Departure” Keti Japharidze, art historian.

Text from the catalog: Artisterium N9, Kill the Buddha, 2016