BOOKFAIR: At the Frankurter Buchmesse 2019, 16-20 October Georgia will present the project "FOLLOW THE JOURNEY OF GEORGIAN CHARACTERS"

Organized by the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association and supported by the Writers’ House of Georgia and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia. Within the framework of the project a five-day literary and publishing program will be held.

Discover Georgia in 3 halls of the Frankfurter Buchmesse:

* Georgian National Stand, Hall 5.0, B100
* Published and Unpublished Georgian Children’s Books Stand, Frankfurt Kids Foyer 5.1/6.1
* “Spend 4 Seasons in Georgia” Stand, Hall 3.1, K126

Georgian Literary and Publishing Program at Georgian National Stand Stage - GEORGIAN CHARACTERS, Hall 5.0, B100

Opening of the Georgian National Stand and Business Breakfast
16 October, 09:00-10:00
* Hall 5.0, B100

A professional event for Georgian publishers, who will have the opportunity to present the books of their Georgian authors to specially invited foreign publishers and offer them to translate and publish in different languages.
Participants:
1. Palitra L Publishing 
2. Sulakauri Publishing 
3. Intelekti Publishing 
4. Artanuji Publishing 
5. Nodar Dumbadze Publishing and Literary Agency

1. Focus on Georgian Prose

Georgia - A Literary Invitation/Presentation-Discussion
Publishers: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Intelekti Publishing
Speakers: Iva Pezuashvili, Manfred Ahriman Heinfeldner
Moderator: Gvantsa Jobava
18 October, 12:00-12:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

Europe and Georgia: the Love Feast Revisited/Presentation-Discussion
Publisher: Weidle Verlag
Speaker: Zurab Karumidze
Moderator: Barbara Lehnerer
18 October, 13:00-13:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

Everyone Dies in this Novel/Discussion
Publishers: Volland & Quist, Sulakauri Publishing
Speaker: Beqa Adamashvili
Moderator: Sebastian Wolter
18 October, 15:15-16:00
* Hall 5.0, B100

2. Focus on Georgian Poetry

Georgia’s Heart - 33 Poets from Georgia/Presentation-Discussion
Publisher: Größenwahn Verlag
Speakers: Giorgi Lobzhanidze, Zaza Bibilashvili
Moderator: Manana Tandashvili
16 October, 12:00-12:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

3. Focus on Georgian Classics

JAQO’S DISPOSSESSED by Mikheil Javakhishvili and SURAMI FORTRESS by Daniel Chonkadze/Presentation
Publisher: Arco Verlag
Speaker: Christoph Haacker
Moderator: Tilman Spreckelsen
17 October, 15:45-16:15
* Hall 5.0, B100

4. Focus on Georgian Nonfiction

Antonin Artaud’s Metaphysics by Merab Mamardashvili /Presentation
Publisher: Matthes & Seitz Berlin
Speaker: Zaal Andronikashvili
16 October, 14:00-14:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

33 objects telling the history of Georgia by Davit Lortkipanidze/Presentation-Discussion
Publisher: Mitteldeutscher Verlag
Speaker: Davit Lordkipanidze
Moderator: Roman Pliske
18 October, 14:00-14:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

5. Focus on Georgian Children’s Books and Illustrations

Challenges of contemporary Georgian children’s books. The collaboration of Georgian illustrators and Frankfurter Buchmesse/Presentation-Discussion 
Speakers: Hendrik Hellige, Eka Tabliashvili
Moderator: Gvantsa Jobava
17 October, 16:15-16:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

6. Focus on Georgian Art

Gabriadze – the Poet-Painter of Georgia/Book Presentation
Publisher: Sieveking Verlag
Speaker: Rosemarie Tietze
Moderator: Zaal Andronikashvili
16 October, 15:00-15:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

7. Focus on Georgian Literature in Translation

Georgian literature in Germany, evaluation and perspectives/Discussion
Speaker: Zaal Andronikashvili
Moderator: Tilman Spreckelsen
17 October, 15:00-15:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

8. Focus on Publishing and Politics

The Writing and the War Zones. Literature after the fall off an Empire/ Discussion
Publishers: Dagyeli Verlag, Intelekti Publishing
Speakers: Mario Pschera, Gvantsa Jobava
16 October, 13:00-13:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

9. Focus on Guest of Honors of Frankfurter Buchmesse 2018-2019 - Georgia VS Norway

Guests of Honor on Guests of Honor/Discussion
Publishers: Sulakauri Publishing, Cappelen Damm
Speakers: Archil Kikodze, Bernhard Mohr
Moderator: Zaal Andronikashvili
17 October, 12:00-12:45
* Hall 5.0, B100

Dagny Juel Coming to Frankfurt/Discussion
Publisher: Weidle Verlag
Speakers: Zurab Karumidze, Oliver Moystad
Moderator: Stefan Weidle
19 October, 12:30-13:15
* Hall 5.0, B100

10. Focus on Discovering Georgia

Spend 4 Seasons in Georgia /Discussion
Speakers: Mary Jobava, Mariam Gujabidze
19 October, 13:30-14:15
* Hall 5.0, B100

Reception at Georgian National Stand, Hall 5.0, B100
Frankfurter Buchmesse 2018 Guest of Honor follow-up presentation
followed by Georgian wine and snacks.
17 October, 17:00-18:00

Georgian Characters in the other Event Spaces of Frankfurter Buchmesse

Picture book TSIKARA based on Georgian folk fairytale/Presentation
Publisher: Sulakauri Publishing
Speakers: Tatia Nadareishvili, Eka Tabliashvili
Moderator: Imke Buhre
16 October, 14:00-15:00
* Frankfurt Kids Foyer, Hall 5.1/6.1

Matchmaking of Children’s books professionals. Unpublished picture books contest winners’ showcase/Happy Hour
Host: dPICTUS
Georgian Participants: Tatia Nadareishvili, Eka Tabliashvili
16 October, 17:00-18:30
* Frankfurt Kids Foyer, Hall 5.1/6.1

Meeting with publishers. Focus: Eastern Europe/Happy Hour
Host: dPICTUS
Georgian Participants: Tatia Nadareishvili, Eka Tabliashvili
17 October, 17:00-18:30
* Frankfurt Kids Foyer, Hall 5.1/6.1

Workshop for families. Topic: Picture book TSIKARA
Organizers: Frankfurt Kids, Mundo Azul
Workshop held by: Tatia Nadareishvili, Eka Tabliashvili
19 October, 14:00-15:00
* Frankfurt Kids Foyer, Hall 5.1/6.1

Blogger Meet and Greet/Discussion
Publisher: Volland & Quist
Georgian Participant: Beka Adamashvili
19 October, 12:30-13:30
* Hall 4.1, G23/25


EUPL/European Authors Take the Stage in Frankfurt/Discussion
Organizer: EU prize for Literature
Speakers: Beka Adamashvili, Nikos Chryssos, Haska Shyyan
18 October, 14:00-15:00
* Frankfurt Pavilion (Agora)

VIDEO: "Dagny, or a Love Feast" by Zurab Karumidze - Excerpt from the novel read by the author.

BUCH: Roman von Zurab Karumidze "Dagny oder Ein Fest der Liebe"

Das Buch: Zurab Karumidze: Dagny oder Ein Fest der Liebe. Roman. Aus dem Englischen von Stefan Weidle. Lizenzausgabe. CulturBooks Longplayer, Oktober 2017. 288 Seiten. 14,99 Euro. ISBN 978-3-95988-090-9

Das Buch
Fast wäre es leichter aufzuzählen, was in diesem Roman nicht vorkommt, denn Zurab Karumidze hat alles in sein großes postmodernes Spiel gepackt, dessen er nur irgend habhaft werden konnte. Immerhin aber hat er uns eine zentrale Figur geschenkt, Dagny Juel. Die gab es wirklich, sie wurde am 4. Juni 1901 in Tiflis von einem nicht erhörten Liebhaber erschossen. Sich selbst erschoss er dann auch. Am 8. Juni 1901, ihrem 34. Geburtstag, wurde Dagny in Tiflis beerdigt.

Dagny Juel war Norwegerin, sie lernte Edvard Munch kennen und wurde sein Modell (etwa für die berühmte »Madonna«). Später traf sie auf August Strindberg, der sie erst liebte und dann in einem Drama vernichtete. Schließlich aber heiratete sie den Bohemiensatanisten Stanisław Przybyszewski, mit dem sie in dem Berliner Künstlerkreis um die Kneipe »Das Schwarze Ferkel« unterwegs war. Przybyszewski überließ sie dann seinem Jünger Władysław Emeryk, der sie nach Tiflis mitnahm.

Wer tritt sonst noch auf in diesem Roman? Zunächst der georgische Mystiker Georges Gurdjieff und der Volksdichter Wascha-Pschawela. Weiter ein sprechender Rabe vom Saturn, der Maler Niko Pirosmani, ein tibetanischer Schamane, August Strindberg, Albert Schweitzer und viele andere. Sie alle sind beteiligt an einem »Fest der Liebe«, das dann gründlich schiefgeht, weil sich der junge Revolutionär Koba einmischt, der ein Auge auf Dagny geworfen hat. Er wird später als Josef Stalin in die Geschichte eingehen. Und natürlich spielt das georgische Nationalepos, Der Recke im Tigerfell von Schota Rustaweli, eine wichtige Rolle.

Warum es uns gefällt
Ein turbulenter Roman über das Ende der Belle Époque und den Beginn des Terrors.

Der Autor
Zurab Karumidze (geb. 1957) ist einer der bekanntesten Autoren Georgiens. Sein Werk umfaßt Romane, Kurzgeschichtensammlungen, Novellen sowie ein Buch über Jazz, das den wichtigen georgischen Literaturpreis SABA gewann. Darüber hinaus ist er Herausgeber und Mitherausgeber einiger Essaybände über die georgische Politik und Kultur. Zurab Karumidze lebt in Tiflis und ist als außenpolitischer Berater der georgischen Regierung tätig.

Sein Roman Dagny or A Love Feast wurde 2012 auf die Longlist des »Dublin International Literary Award« gewählt. Der Roman erschien zuerst 2011 in Tiflis. Er wurde in englischer Sprache geschrieben, eine Übertragung ins Georgische gibt es (noch) nicht. Bislang wurde er lediglich ins Türkische übersetzt.

book.gov.ge/en/author/karumidze zurab facebook.com/zurab.karumidze
Zurab Karumidze: Dagny oder Ein Fest der Liebe. Geschichte einer Femme fatale. Von Heinz Gorr [br.de]

BOOK REVIEW: Dagny or A Love Feast. By Zurab Karumidze (martinasblogs.blogspot.de)

(martinasblogs.blogspot.de) Dagny or A Love Feast (2011) is a dualistic compilation of fantasy and mythologized love, of the facts that are known entwined with conjecture and speculation: part history and part fiction.
 

A hundred and ten years ago in June 1901 after holidaying in Tbilisi for three weeks, a beautiful aristocratic Norwegian woman, Dagny Juel Przybyszewska, dies in her hotel room. It was just after lunch; she was fully clothed; a bullet entered the back of her head; she was 33 years old. That we know. We know little about the true events of that day, or indeed of Dagny herself. Her fellow Norwegian and artist, Edward Munch, who painted Scream, said of Dagny, “You had to experience her to be able to describe her.” Those that did describe her called her “the Queen of Berlin bohemia” in the 1890s.

Tbilisi, a hundred years ago, was in Russia (now Georgia), a cosmopolitan place – “a sort of small, modest Tower of Babel.” Dagny arrives by train from Berlin with her five-year-old son, Zenon (leaving her daughter behind), her ex-lover and French-Polish poet, Wincent Brzozowski, and her current companion, Wladyslaw Emeryk, a wealthy Polish businessman. Her husband Stanislaw (Stach), a talented Polish writer, whom she had left a year earlier, would join them in Tbilisi. Surely this combination of men in her life – son, ex-husband, ex-lover, and current lover, could not be a good omen.

The story of Dagny and what happened that fateful day is interspersed with another story, that of the Love Feast – the Agape, a half-religious, half-artistic event. Here the author “explores” literature, arts, and politics from a heady mixture of Shamanistic Art, Gnosticism, the linguistics of the Georgian language, Bach’s Art of the Fugue, magic, eroticism and culture – in an effort to determine the definition of love and death – “Love is as strong as Death.” Introducing real people of the day (such as a young Joseph Stalin who lives in Gori, near Tbilisi, and the Georgian poets Shota Rustaveli and Vazha-Pshavela) and fictitious characters, Karumidze shifts from themes to theories in his love feast, his “evolving involution of Love.”

The “novel” (for it is not a conventional novel) is sometimes colloquial – as if the author is sitting next to the reader explaining his thoughts and moods – and sometimes academic with footnotes on his sources and further readings. Readers may prefer one style over the other, although the average reader may be distracted and confused by the clash of narratives and stories. I would have preferred a more detailed investigation of Dagny in a fictional style, even with supposition and surmises, for a more fluid, suspenseful tale.

Also, the book cover I have (2011) is not as enticing as the 2014 edition in which a picture of Dagny appears in a painting by Konrad Krzyżanowski.

ESSAY: Georgia between the Aesthetics and the Politics of Democracy. By Zurab Karumidze (ifsdeurope.com)

(ifsdeurope.com - pdf) Art is based on the human ability of playing -- the free play of intellect and intuition (as Kant defined it in his “Ability of Judgment”); freedom is at the core of playing, and therefore art as free play is essentially democratic. Although throughout history art was used as a very strong tool to boost totalitarian and authoritarian structures -- religious or secular, to politicize arts and aestheticize politics (Walter Benjamin) -- freedom of imagination was disruptive for ideological clichés and stereotypes. Western European art, from its ancient Greek origins (Satirical Drama), had this liberalizing drive, which materialized in the culture of carnival, parody and laughter throughout the pre-modern, modern and post-modern ages. What I suggest calling “Democratic Aesthetics” -- the art of parody and laughter, the art which disrupted the established ideological values and moral norms, the carnavalesque travesty and grotesque, individualism and physiologizm, playful rereading and rewriting of established texts, critical questioning and creative freedom of thought paved the way for the making of the European mindset; it provided one of the earliest and most significant experiences of liberalism and democracy that the European mind has gone through. Authors like Rabelais, Cervantes, 18th century English novelists, Italian dramatists of Commedia dell’Arte, etc., were as instrumental in forging European liberalism, as the political thinkers and philosophers of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. Pre-modern European art provided the aesthetical background, and laid the aesthetical foundation for political Democracy of later periods.

Georgian art and literature emerged from the religious art and writings of the early Middle Ages (influenced by Byzantine art), developing into the secular art of the Golden Age (11th-13th cc.), then declining until the late 18th century, and from the early 19th century falling under European influence through the Russian conquest. Pre-Modern Georgian art and literature substantially lacked “democratic aesthetics.” To a great extent it was parochial and pious. Democracy, be it aesthetical or political, emerged in the free European cities, while the city culture in Georgia was rather underdeveloped. This is one of the reasons that Georgian literature developed mostly as poetry, while prose and fiction remained very poor until the end of the 19th century; classical Georgian prose is mostly made up of religious texts (lives of martyrs and saints), historiography (chronicles, biography of Kings, etc.), and some legal and medical texts.

However, we can talk about some episodes of “democratic aesthetics” in the artistic history of Georgia. Georgian visual art was mostly clerical: iconography and frescos. I’m not a historian of visual arts, but one could trace the tension between the established norms and the emergence of perspective and individualism. The most obvious sample of “democratic aesthetics” is Georgian folk music, which is based on collective improvisation. As for the literature: the major text of the pre-modern age, and not only of that, is the Georgian national epic – Shota Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther’s Skin (early 13th c.), a unique example of medieval Romance, a largely secular mixture of Platonism and Sufism, with superb versification. By the way, Sufism as one of the most “democratic” religious teachings was appreciated by the Georgian elite of that period. It took five centuries to beget David Guramishvili, a poet of rather wide scope, spanning religious mysticism and secularism, especially his humorous-erotic pastoral poem “The Shepard.” Next comes Romanticism (early 19th c.), in the poetry of Nikoloz Baratashvili: highly individualistic, self-searching, intimate, fanciful, passionate, agitated. The second half of the 19th century featured Ilia Chavchavadze, the leader of the new Georgian public intellectuals, who promoted nationalism. However, in order to do so he had to deconstruct obsolete traditionalist clichés and patterns, suggest following European models of social-political organization and educational reform, and promote the need for cultural, political and social criticism. Among his essays, poems, and long stories (which can be called “foundational” for the new Georgian nation), I would distinguish his almost Rabelaisian story -- “Is he a Man?!” – about a Georgian nobleman in decline. European type literary Realism in Georgian fiction was introduced by the novels of Alexandre Kazbegi. Another unique and remarkable manifestation of “democratic aesthetics” in the history of Georgian literature comes in the writings of Vazha-Pshavela, whose narrative poems focus on the conflict between individual freedom and traditional collective mores. Also I would compare his poetic philosophy with that of American Transcendentalists -- in terms of the intuitive openness to natural phenomena, as representing higher truth; “shamanic transcendentalism” – this could be another definition of Vazha-Pshavela’s poetic weltanschauung.

The richest episode in the history of Georgian art and literature, during which “democratic aesthetics” materialized and, moreover, coincided with political democracy, is the age of Georgian Modernism (1910s-late 1920s). It spanned three dramatic historical periods: the collapse of the Russian Empire (1914-17), the Georgian Democratic Republic (1918-21), and the Sovietization of Georgia (1921-late 1920s). As several political historians suggest (Stephen Jones, Roland Suny), the so-called “First Republic” (Georgian democratic Republic) proved to be a pretty successful experiment in social democracy. As for Georgian Modernism – this was a genuine explosion of artistic freedom, liberty, and diversity in Georgian visual arts, theatre and literature. Paintings by Niko Pirosmani, David Kakabadze, Lado Gudiashvili, Shalva Kikodze, Elene Akhvlediani, et al., the theatre productions by Kote Marjanishvili and Sandro Akhmeteli, the writings and literary disputes of the “Blue Horn” symbolists and Futurists -- they tried to come up with new forms of expression, a new idiom, creating vibrant examples of “democratic aesthetics;” they combined Georgian folklore and myth with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, French and Russian symbolism with the poetry of Vazha-Pshavela and Commedia dell’Arte; Edgar Allan Poe was the demon, the major persona haunting the Georgian poets (not as an American, though, but as the father of French symbolism). Though located on the periphery of European Modernism, Tbilisi or Tiflis of that time was called the “Fantastic City” (Tatyana Nikolskaya) to which the artist and writers from the collapsing Russian Empire were attracted, seeking creative and political freedom, good food and wine. Such energy of “democratic aesthetics” could have boosted the further development and establishment of political democracy in Georgia, but the Sovietization of the nation and the advent of Bolshevik rule killed the process: part of the creative elite was destroyed during the Bolshevik purges, some had to flee the country, and some had to keep a low profile, e.g. by restricting their intellectual explorations to the privacy of their homes.

With the advent of the “Khruschev Thaw” in the late 1950s there was a certain revival of “democratic aesthetics” in Georgia. This is when American culture and the arts penetrated the Soviet realm partly via official, but mostly unofficial (black-market) channels. American literature was permitted in the Soviet Union -- the writings of Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, et al. However, the true novelty was the coming of the works of Hemingway in the 1960s and William Faulkner in the 1970s: they captured the minds of some Georgian writers. Specifically, Hemingway became a sort of icon for many Georgians, together with JFK and other idols of American pop-culture, particularly, pop-music. America was perceived as the land of all kinds of freedoms, including sexual freedom, of unlimited possibilities and wealth. The strongest impression came from the jazz music. There were few Georgians who performed jazz, but many appreciated it, listening to smuggled records, to the Willies Connover Jazz Hour program on Voice of America, watching movies such as “Sun Valley Serenade,” which became a true fad at that time, or “The Magnificent Seven,” which fascinated Georgian “Machos” with the dynamics of cowboy shootouts and Wild West chivalry. People who appreciated jazz, American literature and the associated way of life turned into a cast of “aesthetic dissidents,” marginalizing themselves from the official Soviet aesthetics and ideology.

“Democratic aesthetics” in the 1960s and 70s in Georgia was mostly represented in the cinema and the theatre; due to mysterious reasons, some things were more permitted in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia than elsewhere in the Soviet Union. Movies by Otar Ioseliani, Gia Danelia, Eldar Shengelaia, as well as theatre productions by Mikhail Tumanishvili and Robert Sturua questioned and deconstructed not only Socialist ideological clichés, but also those of the Georgian traditionalists, and this was achieved by a vibrant carnivalesque and parodic artistic idiom. Though working under the Soviet-Communist regime, they were able to accomplish what can be called a “pluperfect Postmodernism.”

With the advent of Perestroika and subsequent Georgian independence, significant changes suggesting “democratic aesthetics” emerged in Georgian literature. Still in the minority, a group of young intellectuals promoted the idea of cultural criticism, of rethinking national history, rereading and rewriting the national classics, encouraging globalization processes in Georgian culture. Young authors modified Georgian fiction, introducing new language (e.g. city slang) and new topoi (modern urban realities, gender, minority, perversions), and delved into parodic intertextual play. Thus, beginning in the early 1990s, Postmodernism became a fad sweeping the minds of a new generation of Georgian artists and writers.

All the above mentioned episodes of the emergence of “democratic aesthetics” are just islands in the stream of Georgia’s history. None of this was ever enough to forge and temper the sensibility and the mindset needed to embrace political democracy, with the exception of one case – the Democratic Republic of 1918-21. To an extent, for a small nation like Georgia such an experience with “aesthetic democracy” should have been enough to translate it into political democracy and liberalism. However, Georgia had missed the formative centuries of “democratizm," which Europe had been through in the late Middle ages, featuring a "carnival culture" of free cities, and social and economic modernization. The elites, who created the artistic and political democracy of the Georgian Democratic Republic of 1918-21 were destroyed, banished or marginalized by the totalitarian rule and thus the succession was disrupted. The Soviet period left no space for political democratization, and as for the post-Soviet period, there are several explanations why Georgia failed to become a decent democracy: a) social, economic and territorial problems disenfranchised the broad majority of the nation, and people embraced religious nationalism instead as a solution; b) the power lust of the ruling elites, which impeded decentralization and self-governance, transparency and accountability, and jeopardized fledgling property- and human rights. In contrast to the sporadic liberalism of the Shevardnadze period, the post Rose Revolution years have shown a dramatic backslide of democracy: lack of checks and balances, politicized judiciary and police, violation of property rights, total control of national TV.

Due to historical and present-day hurdles, Georgians are stuck on the “aesthetic” level of Democracy. Democracy as an idea and a value is something amorphous and eclectic to the Georgian mindset – it is more like a metaphor, a symbol. Opinion polls show that democracy, alongside religious orthodoxy, has become a significant element of the Georgian national identity, thus suggesting a form of conflation of notions in the current national mentality. Democracy is subliminally perceived as an index of chosenness, Europeanness, and Christianity, all of which are important for a nation historically surrounded by Muslim states. On the other hand, Christianity is also perceived as an index of national identity, not as a purely religious value. The core of such an amorphous eclecticism is in the Georgian cultural mindset. For a concise and comprehensive description of such a mindset I’ll refer to Osip Mandelshtam, who wrote: “I would consider Georgian culture a type of ornamental culture. Tracing the outlines of the vast and fully developed territory of the foreign (culture), they [the Georgians] mainly absorb only its outer design, while at the same time fiercely resisting the internally hostile essence of the powerful neighboring territories.” Today, however, the picture of democracy is clearing up. Paradoxically, this is thanks to the backslide of the objective democracy we have had since the Rose Revolution: more people demand real democracy – checks and balances, independence of national TV and media, property rights, independent judiciary, decentralization, participation, accountability, a fair electoral environment, etc.

more here: ifsdeurope.com

ART: Ulysses. By Guram Tsibakhashvili - Author: Zurab Karumidze (caucasusartmag.com)

(caucasusartmag.com) “Ulysses” by Guram Tsibakhashvili tells us a story of two cities. Or rather translates one into another`s language. 

Dublin on the brink of the XX century – the capital of colonial Ireland, and Tbilisi of 90’s, to which the expectation of national independence has finally come true…

"Dear dirty Tbilisi” – as once Dublin was for James Joyce. . Anatomic shapes move, eat, laugh, sing and dance on the background of gloomy post-soviet landscapes, inhuman architecture (De Chirico would be envious), naked electro equipment, communication and canalization tubes... Vicious book “Ulysses” is - messing up a mind just as the chivalric novels did to Don Quixote. Guram once said: "After Ulysses my perception of the world has changed"… The perception is everything for the photographer: "The inevitable modality of the visible" – this flash of Aristotelian meaning in Stephen Dedalus’s consciousness, drives us to Guram’s modality of vision. It’s marginal; his world has neither hierarchical order nor the compounding axis of the whole system. Everything is equal facing everything. The detail exists as the whole and the marginal gets in the center of attention. The stream of consciousness flows as the spontaneous visual impressions. The photography is a static genre – it has intended to freeze the time in the present space. No shot from Tsibakhashvili’s photos follows this principle. I have no idea how, but in these pictures even most sustainable things are dynamic and keep on flowing. Thus Joyce’s “stream of consciousness” principle is being adapted by the “photo-stream of consciousness.”

Guram’s vision is that of some lizard – peripheral. Some photos look like they were seen with the inverted eye, an eye of a lizard sitting on the rock. This lizard lives at the cemetery. It seems like the whole photo series carries the spirit of Joycean “Hades” episode. Everything wears the mask of death in these pictures. In an urban environment death has the citizenship of its own: It is no more the resurrection phase as in hunter-gatherer cultures. Death in the city first of all is a natural and unique phenomenon which involves equally everyone in its macabre dance named Farandole. Exactly, a Photo-Farandole is being created by Guram… The stream of faces bespeaks the transitory nature of the faces; moreover -- these individual faces bespeak their own transitory nature.

I would label Guram’s vision as “photo-writing” – i.e. the compound term “photography” acquires its literal meaning in this case. From one side he illustrates urban textual environment: street paintings, agendas, achromatic posters, epitaphs... And from another every photo is followed by a quote from Ulysses - with the obvious mismatching: this is not the illustration of the novel by Joyce, but the merging, attaching, annexing of two texts -- a citation, or more precisely -- “de-citation” due to that very mismatching… Such is Guram’s photo-grammatology (if you can excuse this Derridaism of mine) punct 

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LITERATURE: Saba Literary Awards 2010 (messenger.com.ge)

On July 4 TBC Bank revealed the prizewinners the 2010 edition of the annual Saba Literary Awards. This eighth competition took place in June 2010 and revealed the best literary works and best authors of 2009.

All literary works published in 2009 were considered for the awards, including novels, prose collections, collections of poems and plays and Georgian translations of foreign works, literary criticism and documentary prose.

Awards were given in the following categories:

1. Best novel of the year - won by Naira Gelashvili

2. Best collection of poems of the year - Zviad Ratiani

3. Best prose work of the year - Kote Jandieri

4. Best translation of the year - Manana Garibashvili

5. Best play of the year - Tamar Bartaia

6. Best literary criticism, essay or documentary prose work of the year - Zurab Karumidze

7. Best debut of the year - Maka Ldokoneni

8. Special contribution to the development of Georgian literature - Guram Dochanashvili

Apart from special prizes, the winners received monetary awards. The total prize fund amounted to GEL 36,000. The winners were given their awards by TBC Bank.