Elene Pichkhadze (Georgia)

Living through several immigration experiences, Elene’s works are united with ideas of longing and belonging – a very vulnerable attachment to spaces and memories as autonomous, self-sufficient characters. Working in different mediums, like painting, sculpture, and video art, her pieces reflect a feeling of alienation shared between places, objects, and people. Elene’s approach, influenced by both her design and art practices, often leads the artist to physically recreate and imitate places from her personal experiences and memories in new, detached environments.

‘MOMA Surami’ is a utopia-project, proposing the opening of a museum of modern art in the little Georgian village of Surami. It is discussing the role of art, museums, and institutions, objectified and placed in domestic and non-domestic spaces. Real photographic evidence of village life overlaps a completely fictive narration about the museum, creating one meta-event. Under these externally forced circumstances, the fragility of our boundaries and privacy becomes even more evident. With the project, the artist further explores the intrusive power of spaces, raising questions of territory, borders, and limitations.