On the occasion of the season opening 2011 we will hold a reception in our back yard during the opening.
---------------------------------------- THIS EXHIBITION RUNS UNTIL THE 22ND OF OCTOBER 2011 ----------------------------------------
We are pleased to announce Koka Ramishvili’s second solo show at Mitterrand+Sanz. Koka Ramishvili (*1956 in Tbilisi, Georgia, ex-URSS) lives and works in Geneva. He represented Georgia at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
Back to the Future is a new body of more than 50 oil paintings of which we selected five for this current exhibition. The paintings depict anonymous nature, abandoned airstrips, futuristic aerodromes, empty and lonely streets and signs of planned economy. They all lead us to the impression of memories of Socialist realist iconography often glorifying achievements and future-oriented developments of the Soviet economy. By occupying only a portion of the canvas and by slightly turning the painted surface within the frameBack to the Future is obviously a way for Ramishvili to deal with these memories and question their reality.
“…in fact all the creative work of the artist (Koka Ramishvili) is not only the work with an image, but also a consecutive and indefatigable research of the phenomenon of image.” (Viktor Misiano)
The artist continues to explore the essence of the identity of an image. Here the paintings seem to slide from their surface (canvas) – an allegory of fragmented memories.
In a very subtle way, rarely as a protest, Ramishvili’s works have mostly emerged from a reaction to the history of censorship and authoritarian iconography imposed by the Soviet regime. In fact Ramishvili is really like a film maker without camera. Whether it is a photo, gouache, drawing or painting – each work participates quasi as slide to the movie of his life as an artist in countries in which it has not always been easy to be an artist. Ion Grigorescu, another artist from our gallery – he represents Rumania at the 2011 Venice Biennale - is another good example for an artist with a solitary and introspective practice of art which can often manifest itself as a protest against the situation in countries which don’t offer freedom of act or speech. Whereas Ion Grigorescu’s work practice is more confrontational, Ramishvili, over the years, has built his own reaction in a nonviolent and discrete kind of introspection.
Certainly this new series participates fully to a body of work which has already been extensively exhibited throughout important institutions such as as Tate Modern in London, MAMCO in Geneva, Goethe Institut in Berlin, Russian National Gallery in Moscow, Fine Art Museum of Nantes, Museum Folkwang in Essen, M KHA Contemporary Art Museum in Antwerpen, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, the Cairo Biennale in Cairo, the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film in Leipzig and others) and galleries (Kulturmanagment Hausler in Munich, Guelman Gallery in Moscow, Newman Popiashvili Gallery in New York, Wallspace gallery in New Yorks, Attitudes in Geneva, Artra Gallery in Milano, etc.).
