2023: Year in review
Mostly good things happened
The article I had written for this week didn’t feel right in the context of the holidays. Therefore, this week’s From the archive is going to be a short year in review in chronological order.
I entered the year while visiting my family and friends in the United States. It was my first trip back since moving abroad in early 2022. If felt weird coming back; the food portions were huge, and the people were polite. It was nice seeing friends. I could speak “normal” English instead of the slow Euro-English that I’ve learned to speak in Georgia when people couldn’t understand me.
I went to Albania again. I drove to Batumi with a guy who promised to run our new film lab, only for him to decide that he didn’t want to run the lab after all.
I ended up flying back to the US a second time in March for family reasons. It was brutal, flying halfway across the world only for a week. I didn’t sleep much as I had an intern working at the gallery who required constant feedback. She would get into work at 3am US Central Time…
I went to Yerevan to participate in a group exhibition only to find that despite including an image of mine, they didn’t include my name in any documentation.
I curated a terrible open call art exhibition.
I moved the gallery from our street level location to the third floor of an office building in 40° C heat (around 104° F).
I went to Svaneti and hiked to the top of a glacier. I suffered from heat exhaustion in Zugdidi days later (I almost missed my train back to Tbilisi).
I was invited to check out Contemporary Istanbul in September. I met a lot of interesting people from around the world and gained a better understanding of the art business.
I made a lot of new friends during this period and lost many of them after October 7 (political ideology).
I sold our remaining film lab equipment.
I launched the filmclub.ge website which changed what I thought about myself and what I was capable of.
I turned the gallery into a Soviet apartment for an exhibition nobody could find the entrance to.
I decided to move to another country only to realize that I have momentum in Georgia, and I don’t want to give it up.
გილოცავთ ახალ წელს. Let’s see what happens in 2024.