“Tvalsazrisi” and the Photographic Avant-Garde of the 80’s

For the last 40 years, Yuri Mechitov he has been considered as one of the most important artists of the history of Georgian Photography. He was also one of the leading members of “Tvalsazrisi” (point of view /viewpoint in Georgian) - a new photographic movement that has appeared in the reality of the Georgian art scene stamped by long period of stagnation in 1985, during a difficult and challenging period of “Perestroika”, while art was used as a tool of political propaganda by Soviet regime. “We want to put photography on the forefront of the modern fine art” – was its motto.
Every exhibition of the collective was a step against Soviet censorship, as well as self-censorship and existing dogmas, each revealing the absurdities of Soviet reality. The main goal of “Tvalsazrisi” was to develop a new, contemporary photographic language and a different vision of reality. Through a series of exhibitions and happenings, the group manifested itself as being revolutionary at the artistic scene of late 80ies and has predetermined the New Wave in Georgian photography in post-soviet period.