The exhibition Utopia – On the Documentary in Caucasian Photography explores current trends in the photography of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
Various aspects of documentary photography are presented and discussed – from reportage and thematic explorations to fragmentation and staged photography that adopts the appearance of a historical record. However, due to the photographer’s subjective perspective – shaped by personal ethical, political, religious, and aesthetic convictions – every photograph inevitably represents an interpretation of reality.
The photographers featured in the exhibition not only belong to different generations but also come from different national backgrounds, each with its own (art) historical development. Despite the increasing internationalization of contemporary Eastern European art, there remains a strong connection to local art scenes – local, regional, and national – where diverse approaches, interpretations, and criteria continue to evolve.
What unites photography in the Caucasus region is a thematic engagement with questions of identity and a tendency toward nostalgia: a renewed interest in pre-Soviet values serves as a starting point for shaping the future. Despite political differences between the countries, despite armed conflicts in the last decade, and despite local and national distinctions, the Caucasian art scene has always maintained close ties. Joint exhibitions abroad have been organized, and the region has presented itself as a vibrant, diverse, yet cohesive artistic community.
For this reason, the selection of artists for the exhibition was not based on nationality, but rather on the individual artistic contribution to the exhibition’s theme.
During the Soviet era, photography was primarily used as a tool of propaganda, conforming to ideological standards and reinforcing Soviet clichés of reality. It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union that a formally and thematically independent photographic scene could emerge, shaped by a generation of artists now over 50 years old. Through their efforts, an independent scene developed in which photography has asserted itself both as an instrument of information and as an artistic medium.
Critical and unflinchingly honest photo-documentation provides insights into everyday life and exposes social issues. Precisely because reality had been manipulated for decades through so-called documentary photography, the documentary approach has gained renewed significance in recent years within Caucasian photography: photographers document or stage their personal views of reality, consciously using the documentary format to question truth and reality.
We would like to thank the Council of Europe Information Office, Tbilisi, for their generous support. Our thanks also go to Wato Tsereteli, Leyla Akhundzade, Eva Khachatryan, as well as the artists and authors for their excellent and fruitful collaboration. We would also like to thank the Cultural Department of the German Federal Foreign Office, whose support within the framework of Foreign Cultural Policy has enabled us to intensify intercultural dialogue.
Artists:
Irina Abzhandadze, Rashad Alekberov, Albert Babelyan, Rena Effendi, Natela Grigalashvili, Larissa Katasanova, Gela Kuprashvili, Mekhti Mamedov, Ruben Mangasaryan, Serj Navasardyan, Sevinj Pirizadeh-Aslanova, Nino Sekhniashvili