Tamar Kalandadze Portfolio with exh view

They are five: Beso, Levan, Anzor, Jemal and Simon.

And some dogs : Keto the huge Caucasian Shepherd, and the others, the bastards, all named Sago.

And then there's a horse, Beso's beautiful white horse, without a name,

Which he rides every night or so to pick up the last lost animals.

They are five, lost in the middle of hundreds of hectares, with a few thousand animals to keep.

They live close to the Mount Dali, named after the Georgian goddess, patron of wild animals, in southeastern Georgia, near Azerbaijan.

Kartli is the name of the old Kingdom of Georgia, the cradle of the identity of modern Sakartvelo. It is also the name of a sanatorium in Tbilisi where Tamuna, a young Georgian girl, a refugee from the Abkhazian conflict (1992-93) settled 26 years ago with her family. Likewise, dozens of other Georgian families fled the shore of the Black Sea to find refuge, as if by the irony of fate, on the shore of Tbilisis Zgva, the "Sea of Tbilisi", the artificial lake facing the sanatorium.

Before the independence of Georgia, during the soviet time, sanatorium Kartli used to be a high-quality heart hospital but as it was almost empty during the Tbilisi Civil War,

Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Abkhazia who settled in schools, kindergartens, hospitals, hotels and anywhere they found enough space. 30 years after they are still here…

— // — CV — // —

Contact

Lives in Tbilisi and Paris // +995 599 351 085 // tamara.rohini@gmail.com

Education

• 2016-2019 | Master of Movie Directing
  Caucasus School of New Cinema 

• 2008-2012 | Bachelor of Film Studies
  Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University 

PROJECTS

• The Kingdom of Kartli (2018 - 2025, with Julien Pebrel)

  A feature-length documentary film about the life of a former sanatorium on the shore of “Tbilisi Sea” hosting refugees from the war in Abkhazia.
  Exhibited as a multimedia installation untitles From one sea to another.
  

• Ali (2023)
  A story of a 13 year old Kist boy, whose first and the foremost dream is having his own horse for becoming a professional horse racer. The work (consisting of text, photos, video, ceramic object) was created as a result of an art residency - Sounds of the Valley -implemented by Tbilisi Photo Festival, supported by Magic Carpet and hosted by Tbilisi Photo and Multimedia Museum.
  

• ΜΑΡΓΑΡΙΤΑ, ΜΑΡΓΑΡΙΤΑ (2022)
  As a result of the Abkhaz–Georgian art residency, a ceramic amphora was created (in collaboration with Azhar Gallery) as a simulated archaeological artifact depicting a virtual sisterhood ritual that Margarita (from the Abkhaz side) and I imagined together. The amphora is decorated with ornaments taken from the facades of medieval Georgian churches in Abkhazia.
  

• Dali (2019 - on going, with Julien Pebrel)
  A poetic chronicle of the life of of shepherds living in the south of Georgia neat to the Dali mount, named by a Georgian goddess.

ExhibitionS

• Ali - Collective exhibition “Sounds on the Valley”, Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum, Tbilisi, January 2023.

• ΜΑΡΓΑΡΙΤΑ, ΜΑΡΓΑΡΙΤΑ - Collective exhibition “Storm in our Seas”, Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum, Tbilisi, April 2022.

• From one sea to another (with Julien Pebrel). Post-Digital Dreams. In Between Conditions, Tbilisi, January 2020.

• From one sea to another (with Julien Pebrel). MYOP in Arles, Arles, July 2019.