Illegal Kosmonavtika (Russian for Cosmonautics) is a quiet protest being made by young artists living and working in Georgia. Their outward target is the various state and corporate entities who currently own the exclusive rights to space research. Illegal Kosmonavtika re-appropriates discarded imagery of the Soviet cosmos with its socially relevant ideals of human purpose in order to pose a very legitimate modern question: what kinds of 'skills' should be cultivated in order to survive if the current systems should collapse? The exhibition, held in a decommissioned building of the Institute of Space Structures, features site-specific works, along with the documentation and outcomes of the workshops held in Tbilisi Geophysical Observatory. In a thematic gesture, the participating artists create logos, outfits, and other visual symbols related to Illegal Kosmonavtika.
Magda Guruli is a Tbilisi-based curator of contemporary art. Since 2008, she has organized Artisterium, an annual International Contemporary Art Exhibition in Tbilisi. Other exhibitions Guruli has curated include: Atmosphere 41 Degree, NCCA, Moscow (2006), Atmosphere 41 Degree, City, parallel exhibition of the 10th Istanbul Biennale, (2007), Journey to Tbilisi, Fine Art Museum of Nantes (2008), and Go East! Next Step, Bialystok, Poland (2010). She has participated in a number of conferences, workshops, and symposiums in Turkey, Ireland, South Korea, Poland, Mexico, Sweden, Italy, Greece, and Germany. She is interested in participatory art and transnational processes in post-totalitarian society.
Mariam Natroshvili is a Tbilisi-based artist and curator. Since 2012, Natroshvili has worked in collaboration with artist and architect Detu Jintcharadze. Working mainly in public and abandoned spaces in her artistic and curatorial projects, she brings art to unexpected places, questioning the possibility of a different future. She is interested in post-soviet mythology, disappearing knowledge, invisible people, forgotten places, and the recreation of vanished memories. In 2016, Natroshvili is curating Fest i Nova 2016: Future Memory in Garikula, Central Georgia. She is also a co-founder and editor of the art newspaper Revolver.
Mariam Natroshvili is a Tbilisi-based artist and curator. Since 2012, Natroshvili has worked in collaboration with artist and architect Detu Jintcharadze. Working mainly in public and abandoned spaces in her artistic and curatorial projects, she brings art to unexpected places, questioning the possibility of a different future. She is interested in post-soviet mythology, disappearing knowledge, invisible people, forgotten places, and the recreation of vanished memories. In 2016, Natroshvili is curating Fest i Nova 2016: Future Memory in Garikula, Central Georgia. She is also a co-founder and editor of the art newspaper Revolver.