Tezi Gabunia’s solo show “Privacy”. The exhibition responds to the recent world events that have allowed us to rethink our personal spaces,

The current situation puts us in front of the strange and invisible processes. The events are taking a dramatic turn. In this series of changes, the role of the artist becomes critical. Primarily, this role concerns the reassessment of the existing order of things. Art has been able to give a contrasting meaning to objects since ancient times - like turning the tragedy into the beauty and vice versa. Under current circumstances, daily, practical contact with objects has increased. As a result, their aesthetic value has been called under the question.

In his works, Tezi Gabunia focuses on everyday objects. They become like museum artifacts. This underlines two circumstances: one is that they acquire the properties of a work of art, and the other is that objects reveal their own identity through the representation of a function. This process is preceded by the separation of a subject and it’s function as an act of impossible consumption and use. Should we accept this order of things? Or should we oppose their identity? In both cases, critical tension is created, which itself is the result of the existing changes.

Text: Dato Koroshinadze

Tezi Gabunia (1987) is Tbilisi-based Multimedia Artist, who is working independently from 2011 till now with local and international galleries and main- ly focuses on research of cultural issues and manipulation with various media of visual arts. In 2016 he was awarded with Tsinandali Prize

in Visual Arts (Georgia) for his project “Put Your Head Into Gallery”, which was presented in Krakow, Vienna, Batumi and Tbilisi. From 2020 till now the project is exhibited in Philadelphia, San Diego, Arizona and Austin.

Gabunia is a co-founder and a key member of “CopyPaste”, which was founded in 2015 and is the platform of young artists and architects. One of his latest project is “Breaking News: Flooding of the Louvre”, which was exhibited in Barcelona, New York, Berlin and Tbilisi.

Gallery: 4710

Photo: Ika Khargelia

Cover Design: Gvantsa Gabunia