Curatorial Portfolio
The selection below includes exhibitions, public programs, and socially engaged projects I have curated (or co-curated) at various museums, galleries, non-conventional exhibition venues, and public spaces.
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Isabel Cordovil, Nika Erjavec, Shirel Horovitz, Norbert Kuki, Kaori Someya, and Oksana Zmiyevska
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
September 19-20, 26-27, 2026
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
The group exhibition “Something’s Glitching in the House” thematically moves between bodies, homes, and domestication – conceptual threads woven throughout the 2026 exhibitions at the RU House. Through this iteration, the artistic interventions and presentations brought together in the former residential house on the island, inquire into glitching, movement, liminal spaces and what could exist in-between. Glitching here is a metaphor for the unexpected surfacing within an established routine or system – revealing its imperfections and hinting at alternatives. The exhibition looks at the structures that define how different materials, forms, socio-cultural markers, and ideas come together. Furthermore, in the age of accelerated information and algorithms, amid growing solitude and confusion, the works explore how an interruption, a pause, an imagination, or that which does not fit the frame can redefine those very systems. The exhibition brings together works of various media – painting, drawing, video, sculpture, and installation – many of which challenge belonging to one form only through their execution and representation. Together they invite the visitors to ponder binaries, classification, frameworks, motions, different bodies and abodes, and explore what it means to be a part of a larger system – how to relate to different elements, yet resist unification, pay attention to subtleties, and notice what might not be directly there.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Domagoj Burilović, Krsto Gligorjadis, Petra Janda, Mariana Maia Rocha, and Martin Vuong
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
July 18-19, 25-26, 2026
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
Performance “Hungry Plants” by Petra Janda: July 19
Set in a former residential house, the “Home, Wound, Growing” exhibition continues reflections on the notions of house and home – a leading conceptual line of 2026 exhibitions at the RU House on Governors Island. This edition weaves threads between landscapes of personal and collective memories, as well as the relationship between bodies and abodes – their vulnerability, resistance, and possibilities of growing. Featured works reflect on care and subtleties surrounding humans, plants, and architecture. Together, they explore how different bodies can be complex vessels seeking to find or grow into sanctuaries, yet, at the same time, be fragile and susceptible to time and external forces. The exhibition exposes cracks and wounds – physical or hidden in plain sight – explores the layers and agency involved in addressing them, and invites visitors to ponder what could grow out of them.
More at the link
June 30, 2026
Czech Center New York, Bohemian National Hall, 321 E 73rd Street, New York, NY
This collaborative event brought together photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková and artist Petra Janda, both artists-in-residence at Residency Unlimited (RU), and artist Miatta Kawinzi (RU alum), through a shared interest in communities, care, and alternative ways of living together. Following Jarcovjáková’s conversation with Allen Frame in the cinema, Janda staged a solo performance in the ballroom with Krsto Gligorjadis, after which the evening eased into a rooftop screening of Kawinzi’s audiovisual poetic meditation, and an informal gathering with the featured artists and other RU artists.
More at the link (RU)
More at the link (CCNY)
Petra Janda’s performance Hungry Plants featured in the article by Taeho Choi in Korean Magazine Arts & Culture, South Korea, 2026, available at this link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Milena Ivić, Paula Subercaseaux, and Jana Zatvarnická
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
June 20-21, 27-28, 2026
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
“Enchanted House” is the fourth edition of “Living Room Portfolio” – an experimental exhibition format that reflects on residencies as experiences of exchange, and incorporates an open studio format. While showcasing artworks throughout the house, the artists and the curator will also be temporary “hosts” in the space, creating possibilities for engagement and discussion. “Living Room Portfolio: Enchanted House” continues meditations on interconnected topics of body and home, and brings together artworks with strong female perspectives. Creating a somewhat mysterious atmosphere in this former residential house, the works rethink the notion of home – as a physical structure, as a body, or on the move, transcending through different memories and emotions, as well as being a safe place or one devoid of the sense of security. The house on the island becomes enchanted with the exhibition that interplays with different connotations of this very word, suggesting that comfort and protection associated with home can also change when subjected to external forces. “Living Room Portfolio: Enchanted House” ponders how separate entities can belong together and how collectivity can become an obstacle or even unsafe. It also looks beyond anthropocentrism, thinking about variations of bodies and homes – vessels devoid of additional decorations, or those morphing with nonhuman forms. Together, the works remind us of our desires to belong, shelter, and become through different memories, bodies, and homes.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Erika Malzoni and Dániel Szalai
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
May 16, 17, 23, 24, 30
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
“Domesticated” features works of two RU resident artists, Erika Malzoni and Dániel Szalai. By bringing together their distinctive themes and approaches, the exhibition explores interconnections between domestication and classification, questioning anthropocentrism and how far it can stretch. Having roots in Latin domus (house, home, household), domestic and domesticate take another conceptual layer in the context of this show set in a former residential house on an island, which itself was once turned into a military base and then decommissioned into a public recreational space. Researching socio-political ecology surrounding domesticated animals, Dániel Szalai questions the boundaries of human control over other living beings around us. Its related taxonomy and classification are also central, though in a different way, to Erika Malzoni’s practice, which exposes invisible connections with human-made materials and objects. Together, these works invite visitors to explore our relational patterns towards animate and inanimate worlds, hence, think about human need – and the limits thereof – to classify, control, accumulate, and utilize. Also, in the spirit of the famous “chicken and egg” problem, the exhibition ponders the question of what came first: classification or domestication?
More at the link
Featured in the article – Governors Island Organizations in Residence 2026 – IMPULSE Magazine, 2026; available at this link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Slava George, Chris Glabb, Adi Oren, and Florence Vacher
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
March 24 – 26, 2026
Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY
Exploring layers of both materials and ideas, create the main line of thought in this group exhibition. Using paints, textiles, prints, or digital images is essential in the artists’ works as much as combining various symbols, memories, and narratives into them. It takes delicate work to make an assemblage, when each material, before the other, conditions the result, and in doing so, also interplays with respective concepts and stories. At the same time, as they amass, subtleties, edges, and fine lines emerge, allowing a careful viewer to discover the process of layering. The works in the exhibition explore this through color, shape, and material, while reflecting on personal narratives and collective remembrances. Therefore, they suggest unraveling the complexities of memory and [dis]embodiment, including moments when symbols blur in the overwhelming flow of information or the fast rhythm of life. Considering the above said, this exhibition invites spectators to take a moment, have a close look, and explore the edges of – material and symbolic – layers they encounter.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Sadrie Alves, Ira Eduardovna, Joan Horrach, Monika Jenowein, Ana Loureiro, and Adriel Visoto. The opening reception including “…the way you say it.” – a participatory project by Ana Loureiro
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
November 19 – 21, 2025
Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY
Fast passages
through cities and buildings,
symbols and stories,
not lots of strolling,
just like scrolling,
often doomscrolling,
fading memories and stories,
one after another.
A fragmentary remembrance or certain forgetfulness emerges with the current speedy rhythm of life, particularly so in a busy city like New York. It has a certain affinity with memories being like “insta-stories,” and scrolling through social media or one’s smartphone photo album. People often remark with surprise that time goes really fast during these past years, or how quickly the end of 2025 has already approached us. “Transitory Gestures”, this year’s first RU resident group show, took place in March. Reflecting on transit as a crucial part of residencies, it explored complexities between time, space, and body. It’s curious that a part of that text was written around daylight savings in spring, and this one – around when clocks are set back again. “Pass, Memory, Pause” also results from meditations on movement – as an essential aspect of residencies, as experienced in daily life, and as navigated through memories and symbols. Artworks in the exhibition present a selection of resident artists’ works – those created elsewhere before, continued and made into new works while in NYC, or created entirely during their residencies at RU. Together, they invite you to reflect on passing, pausing, remembering, forgetting, and how one goes about these.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Virginia Ariu, Aleksandar Ostojić in collaboration with Aleksandra Aranitović, Amela Rasi, and Gerta Xhaferaj
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
October 11-12, 18-19 & 25-26, 2025
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
Traces created by someone and those appearing by the passing of time, images and ideas that feel familiar yet eerie at the same time, reticulations emerging while searching for convenience, solution, or the way out – the artists in the exhibition approach some of these topics differently, while following various paths and cuts. The exhibition features works that deal with issues such as barriers and comfort, and visitors also encounter artworks that oscillate between personal and collective perspectives, critically engaging with specific locations, moments, and archives. In doing so, they all propose thinking about human agency, its traces, consequences, contradictions or the ways to address them. The artworks suggest reflecting on decisions that might be convenient for some but significantly affect the lives of others. Hence, they often glitch, could be short-run, create hurdles that don’t need to be there, and the cyclicality of finding solutions emerges. As each work juxtaposes unexpected fragments, stories, and/or forms of expression – in the context of this group exhibition – they also create a cut-up in a former residential house on an island, proposing new encounters and routes.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident and alumni artists: LuLu Meng, Tamar Nissim, Lin Qiqing, Asia Sztencel, Nia Imani Winslow, and Ibtisam Tasnim Zaman
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
August 9-10, 16-17, 23-24, 30-31, 2025
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
“Living Room Portfolio” is conceived as an experimental exhibition format that reflects on residencies and incorporates the open studio format. It takes place at the RU House on Governors Island, where artists have studios, as well as exhibitions and other events take place, creating possibilities for meetings, discovering the works of international artists, and learning about art scenes in different parts of the world. The living rooms of this previously residential house are now often used as exhibition spaces, while artists’ studios are in various other parts of the building. In this experimental format, ateliers extend through the exhibition spaces, and selected materials of RU resident and alumni artists are showcased in former living room areas. On selected days, some of the participating artists will also be the hosts in the space – while their works will be on display in the exhibition, visitors will have opportunities to view more works by the artists, their portfolios, which will unfold throughout the house and create possibilities for engagement and discussions.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Oskar Helcel, Thomas Moore, Igor Schiller, Rory Torstensson, and Oksana Zmiyevska
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
July 12-13, 19-20 & 26-27, 2025
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
An inherent relationship develops with the landscapes that we inhabit. As we transform our environments, they also merge with mindscapes, establishing an interconnected influence that continues in new contexts that one lives in or passes through. Artworks in this exhibition oscillate between personal and collective landscapes. Visitors encounter topics such as memories, areas, and terrains that affect the artists’ gaze, even if those from the distant past sometimes require reconciliation. Themes such as liminality, navigating urban settings, natural and mental scenes, spaces of industrial solitude, and future imaginaries also emerge in the selection of works presented in this former residential house, situated on Governors Island in New York Harbor. The exhibition explores the above through the interpretations of physical and emotional landscapes, those that stay with us, and those in the memories of which we reside.
More at the link
Still from Topping Out a Tree / dir. Oskar Helcel / 2022 / Czechia / Czech with English subtitles / 12 minutes
July 24, 2025
Czech Center New York, Bohemian National Hall Rooftop, 321 E 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021
A collaborative event of Residency Unlimited and Czech Center New York, a summer evening reception and screening of a selection of video works by Residency Unlimited resident and alumni artists exploring urban topics in Prague and New York City.
The Flow Building / dir. Oskar Helcel / 2020 /Czechia / Czech with English subtitles / 10:06 min
Topping Out a Tree / dir. Oskar Helcel / 2022 / Czechia / Czech with English subtitles / 12:36 min
The Ways We Are It / dir. Pierre Coric, Alice Brunnquell / 2025 / USA, Belgium, France / English / 11:55 min
RU resident artist Oskar Helcel critically examines the transformation of his hometown, Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, through two selected films: The Flow Building (2020) and Topping Out A Tree (2022). Combining physical and simulated footage of urban settings and interiors, juxtaposing traditional elements and imaginaries, he questions how new developments take over historical layers of the city and the ways of living in it.
During his residency at RU in 2023, Belgian artist Pierre Coric, in collaboration with Alice Brunnquell, created the film The Ways We Are It. They explore the busy urban context of NYC – mostly developed on various islands – and the relationship that exists between people, land, water, and buildings.
Selected to be screened together on the Bohemian National Hall rooftop, all three films touch upon the ideas of seeing urban landscapes from various perspectives, including that of being in a city.
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
More at the link (RU)
More at the link (CCNY)
A weekend of artistic interventions by RU resident artists: Milena Keller, Noah Reusser, and Daniela Ruocco
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
June 7-8, 2025
June 7, Performance “LA CASA BONITA” by CONSUELA DEL VALLE GRANDE
Performance production assistants: RU interns Danny Valera and Hortense Lévy
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
“Island Daydreaming” is the second edition of “Living Room Portfolio” – an experimental exhibition format, which reflects on residencies as experiences of exchange. Milena Keller, Noah Reusser, and Daniela Ruocco become temporary “hosts” over the weekend, and showcase works in the unique context of this exhibition venue – a former residential house on a multilayered island, parts of which are now used as exhibition spaces and artists’ studios. It might feel a bit dreamy when one leaves busy NYC on a ferry and, in a few minutes, walks on the island among former forts, houses where nobody lives anymore, rustling trees, breeze from the water, and noise and silence often rapidly replacing each other. The living rooms of the house, temporarily transformed by the artists, offer moments of island daydreaming.
+ CONSUELA DEL VALLE GRANDE performing “LA CASA BONITA”
Referencing Madonna’s hit from the 1980s, “La Isla Bonita” (“The Beautiful Island”), CONSUELA interprets it through the idea of longing while also questioning the stereotypical representation of Latinx culture. At the house on the island, she will have a DJ set, share spoken words, and sing. Experience “poesía perreadora” – where the works of Latinx poets are transformed into feminist reggaeton songs by CONSUELA. Surrounded by the images of searching for the fictional character, she addresses Latinx topics that the artist further explored in the context of NYC. CONSUELA offers autofiction and elements from drag culture for exploring gender binaries, and beyond.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Kemil Bekteši, Nikica Jurković, and Veronika Romhány
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
May 17 – 18 & 24 – 25, 2025
Grids are designed as organizing systems to support efficient movement and flow. At the same time, they create confinements and restrictions that need to be followed within their unifying orders. From a bird’s-eye view, separate blocks are observed as perfectly-shaped islands at the intersections of lines. However, a grid that is flat from above changes as one’s gaze descends and gradually gets lost in it. Think of looking at a city map on a smartphone and then going to a street view, moving one’s gaze a bit, then going back to the cursory view, and descending again into the surrounding imagery frozen in time – it can repeat as if it were on loop. However, these are just plans and images from a certain moment that don’t tell much about vast networks of social interactions and layers of lived experiences that exist in them, in the systems of straight lines that don’t always equally apply or fit. When thinking of an urban grid system, oftentimes, the first example that comes up is NYC, particularly Manhattan, one of the busiest and diverse islands.
The exhibition “Grids and Islands” takes place on Governors Island – a smaller one of the city that itself is mostly built on different islands – and explores these organizing networks from different perspectives. Featured works by RU resident artists question grids as structures of perfection, as layouts of data management or manipulation, and as networks of socio-cultural connections. In the exhibition, they seek out layers and links that emerge and exist, yet are not directly visible, with parallel and perpendicular lines, as well as the interconnected blocks and islands they create.
More at the link
Exhibition featuring RU resident duo Genuardi/Ruta
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
April 22-25, 2025
Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY
The works of Genuardi/Ruta often explore how form and color respond to the spaces they are exhibited in. The central piece reflects on the Kufic script, reinterpreted as Neo-Kufic writing, an ornamental expression of Islamic civilization. Its structure draws inspiration from nature, unfolding in space like plants do: rooting, adapting, and stretching according to the architectural characteristics of the environment that hosts it. A symbolic reference for Genuardi/Ruta is a budding flower about to bloom, a form in potential, ready to open. Central to the piece is the experimentation with materials, which continually transforms the way it is perceived, offering a dynamic sensory experience. New York is a city of strong visual and emotional intensity, marked by complex architectural interlocks and the coexistence of highly diverse elements. This urban diversity and complexity have been translated into an essential sculptural form, where each element coexists in harmony while maintaining its own identity. All of this is reflected in a work that lives in close relationship with the space around it, articulated through two postures, two attitudes in dialogue with one another, like two different ways of inhabiting.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Tsvetomira Borisova, Dana Nechmad, Dominik Stibernik, and Jana Zatvarnická; also including a collaborative notebook “Bodies in Transit” – a project in progress developed by Dana Nechmad with contributions by herself and fellow artists.
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
March 25 – 27, 2025
Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY
This text, at least a part of it, is written during an express trip on the day of daylight savings in this part of the world. Speed and rhythm of movement have an intricate effect on one’s perception. Transit is an essential aspect of residencies, especially in a vibrant and big city such as NY, where one is often on the go. “Transitory Gestures” explores a complex relationship between time, space, and body. Featured works were created by the artists mostly during their residencies in NYC, and through different approaches and mediums, they express diverse reflections on this theme. We find direct references to the city and one’s movement within, as well as bodily representations in different states and forms.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Daniela Ângelo, Lelia Byron, Beatriz Manteigas, Alejandro Monge Torres, and Kristė Stankevičiūtė
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited and Raffaella Matrone, curator-in-residence at RU
November 20-22, 2024
Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY
Imagine you are in a distant future, at a former place of worship, where several artifacts have been collected – cabinets of curiosity again, except after museums, and back. You are unsure when and where these pieces come from, but you have a possibility to explore them and make connections, but it’s up to you how you go about this process.
Reflecting on residencies as moments of confluences, collaborations, and exchanges, they are also moments of rupture. Artworks find new contexts to exist, we re-adapt our languages and symbols, go through translations and interpretations to facilitate understanding – we decode and recode who we are to fit, compare, or understand ourselves cross-contextually. Cultural background influences our perception, collectively we often seem to be going in circles, but there can be fractures in this determinism that the exhibition “Rupture / Circle” invites you to explore. How would you perceive this exhibition, and what would your interpretation be if you did not have prior knowledge about the artworks? In other words, what would your experience be if you saw them with only what you already know, and the concept that suggests cross-contextual perception of artworks?
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Hila Amram, Alexandra Jonscher, Paula Malinowska, Noa Renert-Domniz and Muhammad Toukhy
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, Curator of Residency Unlimited
Fridays through Sundays, September 13 – 22, 2024
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
“Living Room Portfolio” is conceived as an experimental exhibition, which reflects on residencies and incorporates the open studio format. It takes place as part of “The House of Confluence” at the RU house on Governors Island, where artists have studios, as well as exhibitions, open studios, and other events take place – creating possibilities of meetings and exchanges, discovering the works of international artists, and learning about art scenes in different parts of the world. The living rooms of this former house are now often used as exhibition spaces, while artists’ studios are in various parts of the building. In this experimental format, studios extend through the exhibition spaces, and selected materials of resident artists are presented in the “living room areas.” On Saturdays (Sept. 14 and 21), selected participating artists will be the hosts in the space – while their works will be on display in the exhibition, visitors will have additional possibilities to view the artists’ portfolios, which will unfold throughout the exhibition setting itself and create possibilities for engagement and discussions.
More at the link
Exhibition Poster by Gjorgji Despodov
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Cecilia Barreto, Shia Roan Conlon, Gjorgji Despodov, R.B van Heesch, and David Přílučík
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, RU Guest Curator
Fridays through Sundays, August 16 – 25
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
Bricolage is a loanword from French that relates to the exhibition not with its direct translation, but conceptually through its multifaceted understanding in arts, humanities, and social sciences. It connects with “The House of Confluence” by reflecting on international exchanges in the arts, and in this process, bringing residency group shows together to offer new insights. Moreover, bricolage here is seen as worldmaking (introduced by Nelson Goodman), more in a sense wherein culture and meanings are (re)considered in flux, as lived experiences – that critically build on existing symbols, knowledge, and imaginations to create new understandings and directions. Through different topics and approaches found in the artworks, the exhibition proposes a diversity in worldmaking. In this bricolage, we find revisiting symbols and charts, representing personal or imaginary worlds, addressing less-known stories, and exploring fragments of reliefs or landscapes – aspects that flow and differently emerge in the works, creating interconnections concerning the complexity of how we make the (sense of) world around us.
More at the link
Group exhibition of RU resident artists: Sanja Andjelković, Renea Begolli, Alina Grabovsky, Nate Hester, Zahra Jewanjee, and Jacob Ott
Curated by Data Chigholashvili, RU Guest Curator
Fridays through Sundays, July 12 – 28 | 11am – 5pm
RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island, NY
From far and near means coming together from different places as do the artists in the show. It reflects how practices and approaches from far and near – especially through international residencies and exchanges – can offer unique perspectives, influence each other, confluence, and further flow. “Far and Near” invites you to consider a perspective of seeing, approaching, and perceiving from different points, to examine cracks through which new meanings emerge, and to question the limits of reaching distant discoveries that once might have felt like a prophecy. The explorations of a complicated relationship between individual and collective also show up in “Far and Near.” What’s far can stay near, sometimes be a ghost, and sometimes dear. And what’s seemingly near – in time and space – might be further than what seems far but feels more near.
More at the link
Featured in the article: July in NY – In & Outdoors Around the City – Art Spiel, 2024; available at this link
October 28-29, 2022
Textile shop, Queen Tamar Ave. 17, Tbilisi, Georgia
Artist: Nino Kvrivishvili
Curator: Data Chigholashvili
This project was yet another result of artistic and research collaboration between Nino Kvrivishvili and Data Chigholashvili, which responds to the history of Georgia’s textile industry by interrelating topics of fabric production, changing places, time, and memory.
Pop-Up: Textiles is a site-specific exhibition in a textile shop. It is a rare private space with a preserved interior, still selling what the old sign says – TEXTILES. Taking place parallel to the shop’s work, the exhibition features works by Nino Kvrivishvili. Her recent series of paintings convey a story of fabric production, the country’s formerly active industry. The artist belongs to the generation who studied textile art while this industry was disappearing and the experience of practical training was becoming impossible. Abstract shapes of the series, in a way a meditation on industrial themes, repeat in this selection presented together with plaster additions inside the shop. Here we also see partially concealed bodies that remind us of images from fashion magazines, as well as hint at stories of many women who were involved in the industry, yet often remained unknown – a topic that Nino Kvrivishvili has been researching for several years now. The exhibition also includes an installation called “What would you pay for this silk?” – while discussing topics related to the textile industry, visitors can take a piece of textile from a bolt of industrial silk.
Exhibition documentation in the VR format by Stanislav Bogdevich
Media
Post-Pop-Up Talk / Nino Kvrivishvili and Data Chigholashvili, The State Silk Museum blog, 2023 link
[Post]Industrial Textiles by Data Chigholashvili, AT.ge, 2023, link
Interview with Data Chigholashvili, Tape Magazine with AT.ge, 2022, link
Without Museum Objects is a series of events that invite you to an unusual environment for the State Silk Museum. Its permanent exhibition cannot be seen during the transitional stage of rehabilitation. This moment is a unique opportunity to concentrate on the exhibition space itself and think about the museum’s specificity through different works and approaches. Imagining the musealia, feeling the space without objects, or partially filling in the empty spaces also show the significance of observing exhibitions and items in the real world.
Created and curated by Data Chigholashvili
Programs curated by Data Chigholashvili as part of Without Museum Objects:
Leafeaters
June 22 – July 1, 2021
The first exhibition in the framework of Without Museum Objects took place in the “Mulberry Room” and concerned the relationship between humans, nature, and silk. Inspired by the museum, Nino Eliashvili used watercolor layers in her paintings (2021). Resembling the transparency of silk, these surfaces connected various objects and faceless bodies. Furthermore, the site-specific display highlighted the former exhibition, or more specifically its traces in the room. Artist’s books by Nino Zirakashvili also dealt with the topics of exposition. Entomological Collection (2018) was inspired by one of the drawers in the museum’s butterfly collection. Labels gathered in this display box make us think about those museum objects that have not survived. In the artist’s book Herbarium (2020), she combined industrial textile samples with floral motifs by using minimal information about them. While the silk industry stopped functioning in Georgia towards the end of the 20th century, only fragmentary information remains about these textiles or their authors.
More at the link
Cocoon Room
October, 2021
Cocoon Room was an installation created by Carolanne Patterson during her residency at the State Silk Museum in autumn 2021. Conceived as an outdoor installation around a tree as a healing circle, a meditation room, it stood centrally in the main exhibition hall of the museum, among empty vitrines and walls, and boxes and lines of wrapped musealia, as the Silk Museum was going through a rehabilitation process. Visitors were able to see the work and meditate, as well as explore other interventions in the museum’s space.
More at the link
An online educational program of the State Silk Museum, March 2021
Curated by Data Chigholashvili and Mariam Shergelashvili
The workshop focused on personal stories regarding textiles, which also connect to collective memory in different ways. During four meetings, participants of different ages and professions attended lectures and were involved in working sessions organized by the museum.
In the framework of the workshop, participants presented their ideas, and following group discussions, they worked on their personal stories about fabrics. Textiles/stories that had been stored, or forgotten in everydayness, were becoming more meaningful step by step. These personal experiences showed various directions of collective memory as well. It is like those textiles that were carefully stored somewhere, some time ago for sewing something in the future, or for passing it on to generations. In the framework of the workshop, we referred to this as “the stories kept in a suitcase.”
More at the link
Curated in collaboration with the team of The State Silk Museum
During the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, the State Silk Museum organized a support residency and a research project with invited local artists and curators. Thematically, the project explored archives and collections, with emphasis on the material concerning industrial textiles of the country’s former silk industry.
The artists presented their working process from inside the museum, which was live-streamed for audiences who could not enter the building due to the restrictions. Additionally, two moderated live discussions took place online with invited artists and curators:
- Nino Kvrivishvili and Nini Palavandishvili, moderated by Data Chigholashvili
- Tamuna Chabashvili and George Spanderashvili, moderated by Mariam Shergelashvili
Several works were created and presented in various formats:
See more details in: Artistic Forms of Presenting Industrial Textiles by Mariam Shergelashvili, including general information about the project and descriptions of the following works: artist’s book Herbarium by Nino Zirakashvili; Vitrine by Sandro Sulaberidze in collaboration with Ninutsa Shatberashvili; Memory & Sensory Games About Textiles by Tamar Botchorishvili and Naili Vakhania; available at this link
“I Demand a Voice” by Tamuna Chabashvili; available at this link
Georgian Silk in the 1950s-90s, research project by Nino Kvrivishvili; available at this link
