Nóstos: The Day We Will Return
Luka Khabelashvili
nóstos (νόστος), said the ancient Greeks and meant traveling and returning at the same time. With Homer, the theme of nóstos takes on the significance of storytelling (a song) about homecoming when Odysseus returns to his homeland after a 10-year journey following the Trojan War. An adventurous journey driven by a desire to return and longing for the homeland is nóstos. It can also be considered as a metaphor for an inner journey that is in reality a personal quest enriched by the accumulation of the quintessential human experiences that define one's identity.
"Nóstos: The Day We Will Return" brings together the works of 12 young Georgian photographers and visual artists. In reality, each work is the story of each author's journey into the geographical or metaphysical territories. In the context of modernity saturated with accelerated time, social crises and ecological disasters, wars, the influence and omnipresence of the cyber reality, and the collective violence it enables,
the artists translate their stories into visual codes and tell them as such - using either strictly documentary or conceptual forms. All is there: a chronicle of a painful personal quest, "portraits" of war traces, the dead mountain as a metaphor for the disappearing of identity-defining traditions; the longing for homeland, the search for an inherent connection between a man and nature to escape exhausting urban chaos, “hidden gardens”...
"Nóstos: The Day We Will Return" brings together the works of 12 young Georgian photographers and visual artists. In reality, each work is the story of each author's journey into the geographical or metaphysical territories. In the context of modernity saturated with accelerated time, social crises and ecological disasters, wars, the influence and omnipresence of the cyber reality, and the collective violence it enables,
the artists translate their stories into visual codes and tell them as such - using either strictly documentary or conceptual forms. All is there: a chronicle of a painful personal quest, "portraits" of war traces, the dead mountain as a metaphor for the disappearing of identity-defining traditions; the longing for homeland, the search for an inherent connection between a man and nature to escape exhausting urban chaos, “hidden gardens”...
These are, in fact, the stories of that great journey, nóstos. Desire to return transforms this journey into a marvelous experience, as the return is not only about returning home physically but also about affirming one’s identity upon arrival.
Featured photographers:
Tbel Abuseridze
Nino Alavidze
Mariam Andguladze
Shako Devdariani
Mariam Mzesu Giunashvili
Luka Khabelashvili
Masu Mtsariashvili
Data Patatishvili
Elene Shengelia
Nika Tabukashvili
Tatia Tsertsvadze
Giorgi Zatiashvili
Sound installation: Sani Basilaia
