May 17, The Modern Mythology
Mariam Natroshvili and Detu Jincharadze
still from documentary video, digital
2015
Photo: from Artisterium N8, Catalog, What's On Your Mind, 2015
According to the popular legend “While God was giving away lands, Georgians had a party, so they were drinking until late at night for God’s long life. God gave them the land that he kept for himself. That land is Georgia, a land of myths and legends about invincible kings, miracle victories and dignified defeats, blood-rivers, selfless heroes and “Georgian genes.” In the 90s of the last century, while living in power blackouts, cold and wars, the population was expected to forget the mix of the Soviet and national mythology along with the Soviet past. However, the farewell to the idea of iconic leaders turned out to be not so easy. The wise and strong leaders on white horses who are also in friendly relations with the Supreme Being continually replace each other. The Church amended and strengthened the rigged walls of the Soviet mythology, gilding its domes and substituting already ruined idols. It built a golden altar for the sacrifice of liberty and free will. Wealth, real estate, gifts and immunity from the law is the homage paid by society and the state to these new fetishes. Modern Georgian mythology is frightening and merciless. The marriage of the state and the church’s supreme deities based on hate, fear, and greed creates ferocious and endless theatre, endless absurd reality, sometimes boring and sometimes comic.