Winter which was not there

Vajiko Chachkhiani (b. 1985, Tblisi, Georgia; based in Berlin, Germany)
"Winter which was not there" 2017
HD Video, 12:30 min.
Courtesy the artist, Daniel Marzona, Berlin and SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo

In Vajiko Chachkhiani’s video Winter which was not there, a man watches a monumental concrete sculpture being hoisted out of the sea. The sculpture is reminiscent of a classic depiction of a hero, but in a strange and somewhat uncanny way, it looks stunningly like the man who is watching it rise out of the sea. After a long drive through a series of landscapes during which the sculpture is dragged behind his vehicle, the protagonist ends his journey with the monument fragmented and destroyed.

Chachkhiani weaves a discourse of liberation into a multilayered visual narrative that allows viewers to relate to the video, regardless of their origins. The artist employs a classical sculpture as a metaphorical weapon to decipher the intangible notion of human conscience. The video presents viewers with the critical dilemma of having to define what is private or public, and reflect on the interrelations between the public sphere and our sense of ethics. The artist’s prophetic vision seems to echo the current situation of decolonization that has led to the removal of many historical colonial monuments, increasingly since the 2020 resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

We are often stranded with remnants of historical experiences projected onto our present reality. Building a scaffolding of countless salient question, this work offers a compassionate, intellectual confrontation with the past as a way to consciously shape the present and future.

By Balimunsi Philip (based in Kampala, Uganda)