Ninutsa Shatberashvili
Apr 09, 2019


Full name: Ninutsa Shatberashvili
Organisation: CCA Tbilisi, Obscura
Currently lives and works in: Tbilisi, Georgia
Practice: Photography, painting, installation, design
Areas of interest: Cooking, everything art-related, design, nature, ecology
I am someone who is interested in everything. Sometimes I think that I need to change my field of work and turn to the other side, but then I am reminded that art is what touches me the most. I love to experiment with different mediums. In my work, I’m usually very instinctive, as I like to listen to my feelings rather than my mind.

Favorite books: Since teenage years, I loved existentialists, so my all-time favourite book is Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
Favorite films: There are too many, I am a movie lover so I can’t just name one, but my favourite TV show is Twin Peaks by David Lynch that I watched this year again for the 3rd time.

Georgian artist Ninutsa Shatberashvili on residency at Openspace Innsbruck. Photo by Severina Venckute | Nanook.

MagiC Carpets project: ტყე”

I started thinking about this project while still in Tbilisi and came up with an idea of making an urban installation that would have been usable for people. I did the benches out of wood with the shapes of Georgian letters. Georgian alphabet, as well as language is really old and unique. It’s just us, Georgians who speak and write in this language. I thought of making an interaction, to put something completely foreign for everyone (for the locals and for the people with different backgrounds and origins).

Tbilisi and Innsbruck are partner cities and so I thought the letters would also serve as a symbolic sculpture for the friendship of these two cities. The idea behind it was to put everyone in the same position, where nobody understands anything. Sometimes it’s problems and misunderstandings that unite people and let them forget about their backgrounds. So they are on one side, they have to think and figure out this topic together.

The installation had a sound device inside those letters. When someone was getting closer or wanted to sit on the bench, they could hear the sound. How those 3 letters sounded separately. Together they formed one Georgian word “forest” (tkhe; ტყე-in Georgian). This word has really specific Georgian sounds in it, which is hard for others to pronounce. The colors that I chose for the installation were inspired by the surroundings of Innsbruck, the colors of the river, mountains, trees…

Ninutsa Shatberashvili

What inspires you as an artist?
Everyday life, just walking around the city, to see other people’s work that moves me is something that keeps me going. My work is always related to my feelings, so probably it’s the biggest inspiration.

What do you think is the purpose of art?
That is a question that I ask myself all the time, to me, personally, the answers always change. The most obvious answer from me would be this: to make people think, see and remember.

Why are you a part of MagiC Carpets?
Center of Contemporary Art-Tbilisi (CCA-T), where I finished the course of informal master degree program, suggested me to be a part of this project. So here I am.


Contact Ninutsa Shatberashvili

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: ninutsa.shatberashvili
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ninutsa.shatberashvili
Other Facebook: www.facebook.com/obscura.platform