Ana Mikadze (b*2002), Georgian designer, artist and art researcher of Armenian descent (Kars). Their work mainly addresses the material and infrastructural legacies of imperialism and colonialism in the Caucasus, tracing them to the contemporary conditions of extractivism, labor, and the processes of borderization. With a background in industrial design, their practice emerges from their profound interest in the entanglements of design, history, and geopolitics. Ana’s work moves across installations, investigations, text and material inquiry.
site under construction
© Ana Mikadze 2025
open to collaborations
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.
Located in south Caucasus and only populated with 3,8 million, Georgia became the second largest cryptocurrency mining country in a short time span. 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.
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.
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.
Located in south Caucasus and only populated with 3,8 million, Georgia became the second largest cryptocurrency mining country in a short time span. 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.
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.
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.