Zauri Matikashvili

In my recent works I trace the relations between growing, becoming and passing away, that are often hidden beneath the surface. Therefore, I combine video installations with objects made of ceramics, porcelain, wax and metal as well as found objects from nature. Besides, I experimentally coat ceramics with earth, metals or dust instead of simply glazing them.

With films and performances I also ask how the everyday life of people who are strangers to me is connected with culture and politics. I want to know how societies function in detail – or fail to do so. I often focus on people who hardly receive any attention, even though they live and work in very prominent places. With a view to the art business, for example, I have dedicated films and performances to museum guards and cleaning staff.

Moreover, I am particularly interested in the question of how people appropriate or refuse national myths. When I’m filming, I use as little technology as possible and take over all tasks myself (conception, direction, camera, sound) in order to keep the distance to the filmed people as small as possible. It is important to me to vary and question my role as a performer and filmmaker. I am fascinated by the incalculable and surprising moments in my encounters with people, which I enhance with performative elements. Accordingly, my activity fluctuates between observing, witnessing, (medial) creation and deliberate provocation. In this way I aim to develop very personal dramaturgical models and to purposefully expand the boundaries of the medium film.