Georgian Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale
THE MUSEUM OF FUNDAMENTAL ARCHEOLOGY
Tamara K.E. and Thea Gvetadze
Commissioner: Dr. Renata Wiehager
Curator: Irena Popiashvili
Ateneo Veneto – Sala Tomaseo
Campo San Fantin 1897
San Marco 30124 Venice
We are pleased to announce that the Georgian Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale will be represented by Tamara K. E. and Thea Gvetadze. These two young artists graduated from Dusseldorf Academy of Art and currently live and work in Germany.
Their installation, The Museum of Fundamental Archeology, is a bizarre composition of objects creating a system unto itself a galaxy. The installation consists of vertical rows of neon tubing enclosing the world inside. Through the terrorizing neon light, one sees exuberantly colored aluminum tile grid floor. In the center stand two pedestals, which resemble memorial architectural columns. One of the pedestals holds a white plaster figure of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Here extinct history is fossilized as a toy, erected as a monument, and full of irony and sadness. On the other pedestal there is a fragile, plain tomato-bush in a plastic container and it is the only living substance in this systematically created environment. On the shiny, reflective aluminum squares there are double portrait paintings of MTVs pop culture icon Tom Greene. Tom Greene is notorious for destroying common sense myths and rules of society. Within this highly geometric and structured environment, these expressive portraits break the matrix and highlight the contradiction within this created order. The shiny surface of aluminium tiling reflects the faces of the visitors as they look at the portraits, placing their images next to the nervous paintings at hand.
The title “Museum of Fundamental Archeology” gives the entire installation its legitimacy. The system is always-already within the museum and thus, the project (past) plunges into completion; Archeology is a systematic study of past human life and culture by the recovery and examination of remaining material evidence (Tyrannosaurus Rex) and fundamental is something that serves as an essential component of a system or structure. Each word that the artists selected for the title emphasizes the structure and scholarly schema of the piece. Paradoxically, seeing the juxtaposition of the floor paintings of Tom Greene by Tamara K. E. and Antonio Zanchis Last Judgement (1674) on the ceiling in Sala Tomaseo at Ateneo Veneto, which is one of the oldest cultural and scientific institutions holding the history of Venetian art and culture, adds to the context of the installation.
It is the third time that Georgia is present in the Venice Biennale as an independent country. In 1997 Gia Edzgveradzes much praised installation inaugurated the entry. Six years later it is Gia Edgveradzes former students – Tamara K. E. and Thea Gvetadze, presenting their project. Tamara K. E. had a recent solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Göppingen and Thea Gvetadze within the last two years has shown at Museum Ostwall, Dortmund and Kunstverein in Ahlen, Germany.
For any further information please contact Irena Popiashvili at Tel. +212 274-9166 , Fax +212 274-9829 or via e- mail: info@SUITE106.com