Digital Wind Mantra
Mariam Shergelashvili
Author’s Statement
Digital Wind Mantra is a chaotic flow of thoughts that provides an emotional and metaphorical understanding of the work presented in the Georgian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale. A duo, Tbilisi based artists, Mariam Natroshvili and Detu Jincharadze, presented a self-generating video installation and an immersive VR work, “I Pity the Garden,” curated by platform IN BETWEEN CONDITIONS. Pity — as a kind of poetic criticism of anthropocentric dominance, natural landscapes destroyed by human intervention, the story of plants and an extinct garden is expressed in digital language (virtual reality medium). A self-generating digital wind shows the process of continuous destruction of the virtual reality environment, while each landscape in VR is “explored” as a step-by-step journey with a slow-motion.
The person who comes to the pavilion is the only observer and perceiver of this empty city, the abandoned work and living environment, presented in the work. This visitor is a person who begins to reflect on crisis of reality through virtuality. Different approaches of perception and understanding became so meaningful for me to create other links and connections to my personal experiences. While being in Venice and coordinating the space of the Georgian Pavilion in summer 2022, I had the opportunity to observe people, various individuals who had same instructions to see the work, however, all of them had their own journey in VR created by the artists. What is the perception of art in the era of new technologies? How does this new digital language as artistic medium effect a person? The crisis of the recent period, the uncertain future, the relationship between the beginning and the end and a person as thinker, observer, an individual in front of all these obstacles. Digital Wind Mantra is the comment of an ordinary observer. Using experimental methods of writing for me is an attempt to return back to the poetry, which is mostly banished from everyday life. Maybe the poetic perception of the world, is the basis of reconciliation with it? Questioning the environment to explore new horizons, new meanings and methods of co-existence.
Digital Wind Mantra
a cascade of arguments... fragmentary intermittent phrases... three words in the affirmative form: right, guarantee, security. the border has been crossed... reality — a new horizon... a hybrid of new and old. the fatality of excessive emotion... a return to rational thought... the choice made — the right direction of vaporetto. the way to home... to home... where... to the flow of water and vice versa.
late evening sun — the same and different... indifferent... surfaces washed in the smell of water. reflections, actions — there — here and far away near. a struggle — imagination vs reality. a city on water... motive weightlessness... barking alarm and total sadness growing into a howl.
everything started with movement... movement has no center and opposite sides. it is cyclic or spiral. the wisdom of silk and the white firmness covered in coils. self-projection — three aspects of environmental awareness.
anticipation — a simple chronological division. wind speed reported in hundredths of a second. returning to the body with an imaginary rhythmic oscillation... the body — the only tangible matter shared with immobility... the impulsive behavior of neurons in the brain... the principle of slow motion. take turns... clear instruction... bounded barriers... order and obedience... anxiety... joy... control... influence and inspiration. the loss went up three levels on the scale... added inconvenience... you know, it might be a storm tomorrow.
the primary defense instinct... the systemic reaction of the body... the chain link of the counter-reaction... excessive, overdosed and misunderstood feelings. shelter. The captivity of words... hints and warnings. Thinking is the prerogative of the human mind. falling from a steep cliff into a ravine. the limits of infinity. appears. questions and words. wild violence in the subtlety of power... unexpected visitation of hunger. untouched thoughts in the flow of muted ideas...
doge’s palace — from giudecca to the right... the relativity of burnt bodies at san marco... a row of towering minarets stagnant indignation... relaxation... here and now... a time capsule frozen in eclectic past glories, a foundation reinforced on wooden dams... veneto — motive mossy lands... beginning and ending... marble profiles: a glance of suffering, pleasure, knowing.
perpetual doubt... a dead end and endless skepticism. organized technological advances... slow response. the brain. attachment to being on the disobedience. the number of calendar days counted from the official declaration of war. vain generalization. the wilting of the abandoned flowers... the extinct forests and the gray landscape... touchable and untouchable. hand and eye... sensory motor... behavioral disorder and forgetfulness... dotted reality... relieving distance... necrophile... crime recognized in the unexpected danger... parasite meadow... buzz... I pity... 1,2,3 connection lost...
can you hear my voice?
What is the sound that we hear continuously? What is the sound of thinking? The deepest and darkest thoughts? The closest or farthest thoughts? Voice of feeling? Dreadful fear? Loneliness? Voice of unusual rhythms of life? Voice of clapping? Voice of disaster? Voice of muted silence? Voice of pain? Voice of wind blowing from the north? Voice of the seagulls living on the edge of an island? Sounds of Giudecca’s tall brick buildings? Voice of an industry? Sound of awaken lovers? Sound of loss? Voice of an alienation? Voice of the virtual trees — uprooted trees — fallen trees? Voice of uninhabited houses? Voice of frozen timeless sunbeam? Sound of love? Voice of disorientation in the narrow streets? Voice of empathy? Sound of lost peace? Monopoly goals? Voice of the collective celebration? Sounds of the city and barking dogs in the streets? Voices of the crushed flowers on the burnt field? What would you think? Voice of the empty rooms? Sound of breathing? An oxygen? Voice of land? death? Voice of the beginning? screaming? Sound of the passion? an atom? Voice of euphoria? heart? Sound of sorrow? A(e)nd?
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Text was created within the framework of regional workshop, 2020-2022: Crisis, Critical Resistance and Creative Resilience organized by Art Prospect Network and the State Silk Museum.
Mariam Shergelashvili, M.A in Art history and Theory, is an independent researcher and exhibition curator at the State Silk Museum (Tbilisi, Georgia). Her working interest is to research and analyze various practices of contemporary visual art. Mariam is actively working to develop non-formal educational platforms through researching curatorial and theoretical practices in collaboration with museums and other institutions. She has been involved in different artistic and experimental projects in the fields of contemporary visual art and performance.