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Contemporary Art Archive - Tbilisi

Archive of Academic Writings

2021 Edition of the Project is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia

Singing Rock

Installation

Mari Kalabegashvili

Swan-Shaped Climbing Holds mounted on the Lotkin Monument
2021
Lotkin Monument, Tbilisi

The unfinished memorial known as the Lotkin Monument was built to mark the 800th anniversary of Shota Rustaveli. Architect Nodar Jobadze and Alexander Bakradze were working on the project, but they only managed to build forty meters of the main wall from their whole plan. While working on the project, a resolu-tion was issued in the 1970s banning the construction of monuments, and the construction of the symbolic tomb of Shota Rustaveli was suspended. The area had not been registered for years until in 2017 the City Hall handed over the land to the United Federation of Georgian Mountaineers to build a public urban climbing wall. My objects mounted at this location replicate its updated function, and act as holds for climbing made from fragmented visual shapes of a swan.

The idea of the work and the related swan symbol - associated with equilibrium and poetry, have recently emerged through the interrelation of various personal stories and events. According to ancient myth, swans spend their lifetime silent and only sing when their death approaches. The metaphorical phrase swan song refers to the final gesture and the end of the story, although I associate the same symbolism, through the climbing holds, with a constantly updated process. While observing the climbing equipment, I noticed a sports company called Singing Rock, which adapted to the mood and circumstance of the work and became the common title of the work.

My functional climnging objects, which were mounted on the 40 meter concrete wall, were available for the free public use.