*blumen* - künstlerresidenz : Marika Asatiani

January - April 2008:

Photographer Marika Asatiani (born 1977) lives and works in Tiflis, Georgia. She has studied in Tiflis and London. In 2007 Asatiani was awarded the Camera-Austria-Preis for contemporary photography.

Marika Asatiani's works show a deep involvement with her homecountry Georgia. Her photographs reveal contemporary Georgian life affected by social and political restructuring. In Georgia, changes towards modernity often become apparent through visual ruptures in otherwise very traditional landscapes. A bus stop becomes an autonomous sculpture that spreads its wings in front of us. Bed sheets hung out to dry resemble abstract paintings. Asatiani's documentary approach doesn't stick with the mere represention of site-specific objects and incidents. At the same time it imbues the works with universal meaning. Asatiani finds aesthetic and poetic power in what otherwise looks meaningless. Her photographs undoubtedly show that eventually the reality depicted is always a construction bound in its time.

During Marika Asatiani's stay at the *blumen* residence, the photographer and sociologist is going to take a closer look on the Leipzig cityscape and its inhabitants. Using photography and video she is going to disclose the private and public sphere of everyday life in the city.

from the series 'Place as a Pause', 2007

from the series 'Achara Untitled', 2006

from the series 'trans-parent/love letter', 2007