2025
Installation, material research
variable dimensions
Silkscreened concrete (Heidelberg Cement Georgia), steel, quarry waste ceramic high fire glazes
Kataula is a research-driven artistic project set in the limestone quarries of Kavtiskhevi, a village in Georgia profoundly shaped by the relentless extraction of its natural resources. At the heart of the work is a confrontation with Georgian legislation, which sanctions mining until total resource depletion, cementing a future of inevitable destruction. These extractive practices, rooted in colonial legacies of German industrial intervention in the region, strip the mountain of its organic essence, turning sedimentary rock into displaced fragments of its own ecosystem.
The project operates at the intersection of witnessing and intervention. Cement and quarry waste, the materials of industrial erasure, are reclaimed and reimagined. Photographic imprints of are embedded into cement tiles, creating a tactile archive of the village’s existence. Ceramic bodies and glazes crafted from quarry waste serve as vessels for what the mountain has lost, refusing commodification and resisting erasure.
variable dimensions
Silkscreened concrete (Heidelberg Cement Georgia), steel, quarry waste ceramic high fire glazes
Kataula is a research-driven artistic project set in the limestone quarries of Kavtiskhevi, a village in Georgia profoundly shaped by the relentless extraction of its natural resources. At the heart of the work is a confrontation with Georgian legislation, which sanctions mining until total resource depletion, cementing a future of inevitable destruction. These extractive practices, rooted in colonial legacies of German industrial intervention in the region, strip the mountain of its organic essence, turning sedimentary rock into displaced fragments of its own ecosystem.
The project operates at the intersection of witnessing and intervention. Cement and quarry waste, the materials of industrial erasure, are reclaimed and reimagined. Photographic imprints of are embedded into cement tiles, creating a tactile archive of the village’s existence. Ceramic bodies and glazes crafted from quarry waste serve as vessels for what the mountain has lost, refusing commodification and resisting erasure.
WIP
2025
‘Tatar man selling cocoons’, 1982, Caucasus , Tbilisi State Silk Museum Collection
artistic research in progress
If oil became the “black gold” of the Caucasus by the century’s end, silk was its “white gold” at the beginning. In 19th-century Georgia, Russian imperial officials and European industrialists—among them French entrepreneur Edouard Castellaz—mobilized silkworms and imprisoned women to build a silk empire that could rival France and Italy. This research traces how sericulture (which was usually practised by Caucasian women at home) was transformed into a colonial infrastructure of soft power, where labor was gendered, bureaucratized, and aestheticized. Drawing on archival and material analysis, it repositions silk as a weapon of imperial governance.
If oil became the “black gold” of the Caucasus by the century’s end, silk was its “white gold” at the beginning. In 19th-century Georgia, Russian imperial officials and European industrialists—among them French entrepreneur Edouard Castellaz—mobilized silkworms and imprisoned women to build a silk empire that could rival France and Italy. This research traces how sericulture (which was usually practised by Caucasian women at home) was transformed into a colonial infrastructure of soft power, where labor was gendered, bureaucratized, and aestheticized. Drawing on archival and material analysis, it repositions silk as a weapon of imperial governance.
We wish you a safe ride
2024
credits: WIENWOCHE/ Olesya Kleymenova
Artistic Intervention,
Vienna, Austria
In fact, food delivery riders, most of them migrants, have almost no labour protection. During WIENWOCHE, “state of matter” Verein (Ana Mikadze, Fabio Hofer) called for active solidarity in connecting the festival audience with the riders, whose work shifts were taken over by volunteers on a solidarity basis. In this way, the riders used their time off duty to learn about their rights and connect to colleagues, who they have been deliberately disconnected from through the working environments dictated by the platforms.
Vienna, Austria
In fact, food delivery riders, most of them migrants, have almost no labour protection. During WIENWOCHE, “state of matter” Verein (Ana Mikadze, Fabio Hofer) called for active solidarity in connecting the festival audience with the riders, whose work shifts were taken over by volunteers on a solidarity basis. In this way, the riders used their time off duty to learn about their rights and connect to colleagues, who they have been deliberately disconnected from through the working environments dictated by the platforms.
Installation
variable dimensions
mixed media
Project highlights the colonial legacies of technocratic experimentation in South Caucasus. The immersive time-based installation unites an API software and a research publication.
Project highlights ideological extremism of cryptocurrency mining, colonial legacies of experimentation in the developing world and transboundary mediums of war through telling a story of indigenous communities that financially support themselves with cryptomining.
Located in south Caucasus and only populated with 3,8 million, Georgia became the second largest cryptocurrency mining country in a short time span due to unregulated energy laws, geo-political unrest and social polarization. Grey areas in laws and cheap electricity have attracted more foreign investors to take ownership of the energy generated by Georgian hydro power plants. Consequently, Georgia has been buying most of its electricity from long-time invader Russia.
Through investigation of the Georgian energy sector, it is evident that energy suppliers have only been visually presented as national while sustaining interests and energy security of imperial powers And while cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have been falsely advertised to financially help ‘forgotten’ nations (as stated in report “Bitcoin for Governments.”), it has only tricked people into committing to short-term small scale oligarchy and giving away their resources and land to the neo-colonial expansion.
Damaged socio-economic infrastructures turned the region of south Caucasus into a capitalist playground, on which westerners and indigenous communities got entangled through value extraction. Understanding Georgian cryptocurrency users enables them to map the systems that sustain obscurity in the Caucasus region.
Research connected stories, values and dreams of 30 cryptocurrency miners all across Georgia, mapping these stories with factual information to investigate the myths that circulate in the energy sector.
The installation depicts a time span of 6 hours of an average Georgian cryptocurrency miner through their perspective. Installation consists of 7 elements (bitcoin mining rig (hydraulic machine), table, chair, computer, framed picture, water tub, plug) that have been taken out of the research participants room‘s and modified to simulate the alchemical processes that take place in their spaces.
variable dimensions
mixed media
Project highlights the colonial legacies of technocratic experimentation in South Caucasus. The immersive time-based installation unites an API software and a research publication.
Project highlights ideological extremism of cryptocurrency mining, colonial legacies of experimentation in the developing world and transboundary mediums of war through telling a story of indigenous communities that financially support themselves with cryptomining.
Located in south Caucasus and only populated with 3,8 million, Georgia became the second largest cryptocurrency mining country in a short time span due to unregulated energy laws, geo-political unrest and social polarization. Grey areas in laws and cheap electricity have attracted more foreign investors to take ownership of the energy generated by Georgian hydro power plants. Consequently, Georgia has been buying most of its electricity from long-time invader Russia.
Through investigation of the Georgian energy sector, it is evident that energy suppliers have only been visually presented as national while sustaining interests and energy security of imperial powers And while cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have been falsely advertised to financially help ‘forgotten’ nations (as stated in report “Bitcoin for Governments.”), it has only tricked people into committing to short-term small scale oligarchy and giving away their resources and land to the neo-colonial expansion.
Damaged socio-economic infrastructures turned the region of south Caucasus into a capitalist playground, on which westerners and indigenous communities got entangled through value extraction. Understanding Georgian cryptocurrency users enables them to map the systems that sustain obscurity in the Caucasus region.
Research connected stories, values and dreams of 30 cryptocurrency miners all across Georgia, mapping these stories with factual information to investigate the myths that circulate in the energy sector.
The installation depicts a time span of 6 hours of an average Georgian cryptocurrency miner through their perspective. Installation consists of 7 elements (bitcoin mining rig (hydraulic machine), table, chair, computer, framed picture, water tub, plug) that have been taken out of the research participants room‘s and modified to simulate the alchemical processes that take place in their spaces.