Georgia National Exhibition

Georgia National Exhibition

Rare Memories of the Future

Dedicated to the memory of the outstanding stage designer Mirian Shvelidze(1947-2022).

The Georgian exhibition, dedicated to the memory of the outstanding Georgian scenographer  Mirian Shvelidze (1947-2022), is a virtual journey through the productions by the Georgian theatre classic Robert Sturua created in collaboration with Mirian Shvelidze, as  immersion into the salvific world of art in the era of pandemic and war.

Rare Memories of the Future is a lonely spectator’s space filled with premonitions, combining memories of the past with a prophetic foretaste of the future and a dramatic reality… The idea of immersion in a theatrical virtual reality is based on society’s desire to consume culture as an antidote, as art is the best way to overcome the traumatic syndrome brought on by pandemic and war.

The idea is inspired by the National Rustaveli Theatre’s production “ENDGAME” by Samuel Beckett (director Robert Sturua, stage and costume designer Miron Shvelidze) which was premiered in February 2020, just days before the Covid-19 outbreak in Georgia.

The content of the Pavilion is a virtual territory, where through a historical journey from the early productions to the contemporary premieres the viewer grasps the theatrical metaphors of the ‘political theatre ‘transformed into a metaphysical ‘philosophical theatre’ by Robert Sturua.

The project was presented at the 15th Prague Quadrennial in 2023 in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions section.

Curator: Nino Gunia-Kuznetsova

Georgian National Curator of PQ23

Mirian Shvelidze (1947-2022) – painter, stage designer, People’s Artist of Georgia, winner of the Shota Rustaveli State Prize.

Education: Tbilisi State Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Painting, specialty scenography.

Miron Shvelidze, scenographer and co-creator of iconic productions by Robert Sturua, the last conceptualist of the generation of the Sixtiers who created the phenomenon of Georgian theatre, Sturua’s collaborator and scenographer of Shakespeare’s tragedies staged at the Rustaveli National Theatre.

From 1975 he was a set designer and then chief set designer with the Rustaveli Theatre. Designed the following productions at the Rustaveli Theatre:

P. Kakabadze “Kvarkvare Tutaberi”, 1974.

W. Shakespeare “Richard III”, 1979.

W. Shakespeare “King Lear”, 1987.

W. Shakespeare “Macbeth”, 1995

G. Robakidze, “Lamara“, 1997.

I. Chavchavadze “Is a Man a Human”, 2000.

W. Shakespeare “Hamlet”, 2001.

S. Beckett “Waiting for Godot”, 2002.

S. Beckett “ENDGAME”, 2020.

and others.

He collaborated with other Georgian and foreign theatres.