A State in A State
October 8–November 27, 2022
Barcelona 08007
Spain
Tekla Aslanishvili
October 11–November 6, 2022
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Gillman Barracks
Singapore 108934
We are thrilled to announce that A State in a State, by Georgian artist Tekla Aslanishvili, will be presented at Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, from October 8 to November 27, 2022, and at NTU CCA Singapore, from October 11 to November 6, 2022.
A State in a State, is the result of Aslanishvili winning the Han Nekfens Foundation—Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant 2020, in collaboration with Jameel Art Centre, Dubai; the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Manila; NTU CCA Singapore and WIELS, Brussels.
A State in a State is an experimental documentary film that follows the construction, disruption, and fragmentation of railroads in the South Caucasus and Caspian regions.
It examines railways as the technical materialisation of the fragile political borders that have reemerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Revolving around the scenes of delay and waiting that constitute cargo mobility, the film reads the optimistic narratives about the New Silk Road against the grain. It observes how the iron foundation of connectivity can be used as a weapon of exclusion and geopolitical sabotage.
Dotting the same lines, other forms of sabotage are deployed by workers to disrupt the political violence. Looking at historic and current practices of resistance A State in a State explores the potential of railroads for building a different, infrastructural consciousness and the lasting, transnational, kinship among the people who live and work around them.
The film is developed in artistic-scientific collaboration with Dr. Evelina Gambino, Margaret Tyler Research Fellow in Geography at Girton College, University of Cambridge.
Research and script: Tekla Aslanishvili / Evelina Gambino
Music: Ani Zakareishvili / Nika Pasuri
Cinematography: Nikoloz Tabukashvili / Tekla Aslanishvili
Typography: Dato Simonia
Editing: Tekla Aslanishvili
Field recordings: Viktor Bone / Teona Rekhviashvili,
Sound mastering: Irakli Shonia
Color: Sally Shamas
Tekla Aslanishvili (b. Tbilisi, 1988) is an artist, filmmaker and essayist based between Berlin and Tbilisi. Her works emerge at the intersection of infrastructural design, history and geopolitics.
Tekla graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 2009 and she holds a MFA from the Berlin University of the Arts—the department of Experimental Film and New Media Art. Aslanishvili's films have been screened and exhibited internationally at PACT Zollverein, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Baltic Triennial, Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Kasseler Dokfest, Kunsthalle Münster, EMAF—European Media Art Festival, Videonale 18, Tbilisi Architecture Biennial. She is a 2018–2019 Digital Earth fellow, the nominee for Ars-Viva Art prize 2021 and the recipient of the Han Nefkens Foundation—Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Award 2020.
The Han Nefkens Foundation aims to promote video art and the artistic process, and in turn, connect people through art and collaborating with renowned international art institutions. It is as a platform for artists to advance in their careers, its main activity—always at the international level—is to commission video works through its production grants.
