Temo Javakhi

Temo Javakhi (Temur Javakhishvili) is a Georgian contemporary artist born in 1951. He graduated from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 1976.https://avammag.com/25239/art-researches/temo-javakhi-georgia-artist/ Javakhi works in various mediums - video art, Installation art, painting, Performance art/performance art). Javakhi shows his individual approach of conceptual analysis by playing with Dada, using Postmodernism irony and expression.
== Career ==
From 1985 he has been a member of the Artists Union in Georgia. Since 2015 Temo Javakhi has been working as a visiting professor at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. From 1976 until now, he has participated in up to 80 exhibitions and international projects.https://daraba.art/en/artist/temo-javakhi/about
T. Javakhi is an artist of diverse and great abilities, who works in different mediums and creates with different non-traditional materials: experimental highly artistic objects of distinctive and sophisticated aesthetics. In addition to conceptual easel works, artistic word objects, photo art, and installations, the artist works in video art, which has played a large and important role in the introduction and development of modern Georgian video art.
The artist has been participating in exhibitions since 1976, both in Georgia and abroad, and in the 1990s, established his place in the field of contemporary Georgian art as an innovator and important artist. In 2010 he participated in the exhibition project Do Not Try to Understand Me, held at the Villa Arson Center for Contemporary Art in Paris (Curators: E. Mangion. and S. Pluot.). He also frequently participates in different French, German, and other foreign projects. His works are displayed next to famous artists like Marcel Duchamp, Kazimir Malevich, Nam June Paik, Le Corbusier, David Kakabadze, Niko Pirosmani, Sergei Parajanov, Richard Serra, Hans Scheib, Hans Hendrik Grimmling, Marina Abramović, and others.
In August 2016, the Tbilisi National Gallery hosted a large personal exhibition of the artist: Word Objects - MIRRORIMM.https://museum.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=105&info_id=14012 Around 150 of the artist's works were presented: art objects, visual documentation, 11 samples of video art, word objects, and installations, also the series The Knight in the Panther's Skin, which is preserved in the archives of the Georgian National Museum. T. Javakhi started his active work in the field of contemporary art in 1983, but before that, he had done some early interesting experimental videos and conceptual works.
Temo Javakhi's work includes numerous thematic projects:
=== From East to West ===
Social, economic, and political changes that happened in Georgia.
The conceptual pillar of the project is a sunflower, which is interpreted in different aspects:
# Sunflower – a plant that faces the sun. In the morning it turns its head to the east, and during the day follows the sun towards the west.
# Sunflower – edible produce. The oil derived from it and the food for animals.
# Roasted Sunflower seeds, which will never bear new life again.
The idea of the project is revealed in the intersection of the elevated and the existential aspects of the sunflower. The project explores thoughtful layers from different angles of the topic and presents the possibilities of opening them through visual means
=== Counterculture ===
On May 26, 2001, an exhibition called Counterculture was held at the presidential residence of president Eduard Shevardnadze, which caused a protest and irritated many in art circles. Javakhi accepted the challenge and the invitation of Mr. Shevardnadze. Javakhi presented a new project idea: video 'Polemic'.
Javakhi presented a piece (granite case) Heavy, with the engraved words: "The load is heavy?.. Let others carry!..", which weighed 50 kilos and the context completely contradicted the given situation. Even though this text and the piece were not created specifically for that project, the phrases turned out to be prophetic for President Shevardnadze, as very soon (after having received a guarantee of inviolability) he willingly hRose Revolution over his presidential seat and a cold cup of tea to the future of our country.
=== Pain!... Smoke, Friend!... (1995–2018) ===
This is a remake of the thematic artwork created by Temo Javakhi(shvili) 43 years ago, while he was studying at the Tbilisi State Academy of Art. Thread derived from the Cannabis plant was used to create the original artwork, as well as the current remake. These artworks are clear signs of irony towards marijuana users, who hide from reality in the fog they themselves have created.
=== A Sonnet for the Goldfish, 1974 ===
Shot on an 8mm home video camera. This is the only remaining visualization.
"In the seaside town of Altusha, on the coast of the Black Sea, dressed in a diver's outfit, I was playing a sonnet on a flute for the goldfish, while telling them about my wishes:
# I want a rich and beautiful wife!
# I want a big castle and homes at the sea, in the mountains, and beyond the borders!
# I want to be a modern, high-class 'swindler', to get my own way with every bastard!"
=== Homeland!.. Homeland!.. My beautiful!.. ===
The "land-artistic" installation created in 1991 was set up in the old basement exhibition space on the first floor of the Historical Museum. The installation consisted of a Georgian alphabet and wheat sown on a raised bed in the shape of a throne, which was destroyed by rats the same night. In return, they earned the co-authorship of the installation, for their contribution to creating a context for the work. The context that finds a metaphorical echo with the Georgian reality that prevailed in the 90s, with the unjust, undirected robbery. The land-art installation carries a conceptual essence that strongly relates to the modern problem.
=== Silk Man, 1994 ===
The artist performed the video art Silk Man in 1994, which features several minimalist videos and other art forms. Among them is his video art Path ("Mobile"). This is a two-minute piece, however, in the case of cyclic installation, the focus is almost on the "eternal". Inside the wheel the artist lays in fetal position, repeating the monotonous movement of tilting back and forth with the wheel. The shot is fragmented, the artist creates a static dynamism with his movement. The "ritual path" of a person performed in one rhythm, which goes nowhere, certainly embodies the path of a routine, existential problem, which reminds us of the myth of Sisyphus and wasted labor. A burden that is weighing down his whole existence. With this minimalist art form, poetic and philosophical search, the artist suggests a different and original genre, where a sharp feeling of crisis is embedded in the black-and-white aesthetics.
== List of Exhibitions and Projects (Selected) ==
* 2019 - "Invalid Memorabilia", G. Leonidze State Museum of Georgian Literature, Tbilisi, Georgia
* 2018 - International group exhibition - "State of Play", Aliyev Contemporary Art Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
* 2018 - International group exhibition, "State of Play", Contemporary Art Gallery, Karvasla, Tbilisi, Georgia
* 2016 - Solo exhibition MIRRORRIM, National Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
* 2015 - Project "The Knight in the Panther's Skin (Vepkhistkaosani ) - Artist's book", Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia
* 2015 - International exhibition "A letter finds the addressee" Paris, France; New York, USA
* 2014 - International project "Font", Tbilisi, Georgia; Bochum, Germany
* 2013 - International exhibition "Georgian Video Art", Aarhus, Denmark
* 2012 - Underground of 1980-90's, Tbilisi National Gallery, Georgia
* 2012 - International exhibition, gallery "Alte Schule Adlershof", Berlin, Germany
* 2011 - International project "TRANS", Contemporary Art Center, Paris, France
* 2010 - International project "Stop Trying to Understand Me", Nice, France
* 2009 - International exhibition "Tbilisi Underground",Nantes, France
* 2008 - International exhibition, Frankfurt, Marburg, Germany
* 2003 - International forum "Caucasus" (Photography, Video, Cinema) Strasbourg, Mulhouse, France
* 2002 - International project "Art-Agitation", Yekaterinburg, Russia
* 1999 - Solo project "From East to West", N - Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
* 1998 - Performance "Kart-Veli" (Georgian), Tbilisi, Georgia
* 1997 - Solo project "TRANS" and video "Silk Man", Old Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia
* 1994 - Solo exhibition "P.S." Tbilisi State Theatre of Marionettes, Georgia
* 1991 - Solo exhibition "Lettrism",Tbilisi History Museum Karvasla, Georgia
* 1976 - Exhibition "Young Artists", National Gallery,Tbilisi, Georgia
Category:Artists from Georgia (country)
Category:1951 births
Category:Tbilisi State Academy of Arts alumni