One of the core themes running through the europalia georgia programme is remembrance. How does Georgia, as a society, deal with its past, including memories of the Soviet era or recent and ongoing conflicts? How do individuals look at this? Europalia georgia brings artists into dialogue to discuss these questions, including the practice of commemoration.
During Rit’uali რიტუალი: Songs for Our Deceased Loved Ones, the Georgian Adilei choir, soprano Lore Binon, singer Nino Nakeuri and Mezoblebi Ensemble, a local amateur choir, join the audience in a unique ritual of mourning and singing at cemeteries in Leuven and Ostend. With mourning songs from different cultures, europalia georgia places our way of mourning in dialogue with Georgian traditions.
Meggy Rustamova Adeishvili creates poetic essays that address contemporary social themes. Her film Deda Ena, presented in dialogue with the exhibition The Avant-garde in Georgia (1900-1936), focuses on the deportations of Georgian Assyrians and other ethnic minority groups during the Soviet regime, and explores the relationship between personal and collective memories across generations.
The theatre plays of Bojan Djordjev revolve around the legacy of left-wing political movements in Europe. With Politics of Colours- Chromopolitika, he starts from the architecture of Tbilisi, especially the large mosaics, and traditional Georgian carpets. With puppeteers, a DJ and a dancer as their guides, the audience unravels a colourful, multi-layered carpet.