TBC Concept Gallery presents Natela Grigalashvili’s solo show “Whither Are You Flying, O Cloud? The Fereydani Trace: Four Centuries Later, from June 6 to September 15.
The title of this exhibition was born from a chance, yet deeply symbolic conversation. While traveling in Fereydani, one of the local residents shared their mother’s words with Natela Grigalashvili. It turns out that the woman would often look up at the clouds in the sky and ask whether they were flying toward her remote homeland. She had never seen Georgia herself, but she carried it in her heart her entire life.
This kind of sadness and melancholy haunts the entire history of the Fereydani Georgians. Their story began in the early 17th century with their forced deportation by Shah Abbas. Since then, for four centuries in the heart of Iran, in the Isfahan province, they managed to preserve the most important thing- their identity and their ancient Georgian speech, which acts as a kind of living linguistic museum.
The subject of Fereydani Georgians has been an important creative interest for Natela Grigalashvili for years. However, the project took its final shape when she discovered a book published a century ago. The conceptual framework of the exhibition was defined by the 1894 records of Lado Aghniashvili. He was the first Georgian who traveled to Iran more than a century ago in his attempt to find the ‘lost’ Georgians. Natela Grigalashvili’s journey turned out to be a walk following Aghniashvili’s footsteps- not by a direct physical route, but through the search for the emotional and cultural memory that the researcher once described.
The series presented in this exhibition is an attempt to observe an isolated cultural island, where daily life is deeply intertwined with a constant longing for the homeland. This intertwining of past and present ultimately becomes a dialogue across time and space- between the Fereydani described by Lado Aghniashvili a century ago, and the Fereydani seen today through the eyes of Natela Grigalashvili.
Natela Grigalashvili has dedicated more than thirty years to documentary photography. Her work mainly centers on the everyday life of regional Georgia, the socio-cultural identity of isolated communities, collective memory, and the impact of the modern world on these spaces. Creating mostly long-term projects, she spends months and even years living in the environments she captures. This direct and continuous connection with the local people allows her to gain their trust, giving her images a deeply personal and an intimate feel.
Curated by Myriam Grigalashvili
Exhibition Opening: June 6, 5:00 PM.
Address: TBC Concept Gallery Multifunctional Space, Marjanishvili St. 7.
