Zachęta Project Room

curator: Magda Kardasz
cooperation: Julia Harasimowicz

Lado Lomitashvili’s project, prepared for the Zachęta Project Room, refers in a metaphorical way to the memory of events and stories recorded in water and objects. Items taken out of their usual context, marked by practical use, and transferred into the gallery space, spin their stories. Lomitashvili’s artistic practice is inherently multidisciplinary. His education in the field of architecture makes him particularly sensitive to the nuances of the spaces in which he builds his abstract architectural/sculptural/painting installations with philosophical, social and ecological resonance. He holds working in a site specific context particularly dear. Preparing for the Warsaw project, we contacted the Habitat for Humanity Poland Foundation, which provides housing to people in need, those who are economically and socially excluded. Its activities are international in scope and are mainly based on charitable collections and volunteering. Much of the equipment Lado selected from ReStore Section of the Foundation storage and then artistically transformed became elements of the exhibition.

Another organization is the WWF Poland, specifically its department dealing with the protection of seas and oceans. It's a part of a global non-profit organisation dealing with ‘stopping the degradation of the Earth’s natural environment and creating a future in which people will live in harmony with nature’. In 2016, the organisation launched the MARELITT Baltic project to reduce the pollution of the Baltic Sea by residual fishing gear. So-called ghost nets — lost or abandoned by fishermen — drift in the sea, posing a serious threat to animals (fish and larger marine mammals), but also to divers and vessels. The operations consist in recovering this from the sea in cooperation with local fishermen. The recovered objects are stored in ports with the intention of future disposal. Lomitashvili’s creative use of the elements found at these stockpiles becomes a kind of artistic utilization of the Baltic waste, while in a poetic way, the exhibition draws attention to this problem, which is very important in the time of the growing threat of ecological disaster to our planet.

It is also worth noting Lado Lomitashvili’s ability to find beauty (shape, colour, texture) in rubbish material or degraded substances. The metaphor of water — as a medium of information, a liquid factor of eternal change, or finally a purifying element in the biblical sense of the word — is a binding element in the artist’s project. It could be said that the exhibition carries hope for a positive solution by restoring understanding and solidarity between people themselves, as well as between them and their natural environment.

Lado Lomitashvili (born 1994) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi. Architecture, its form and meaning, as well as the ability to think spatially, play a major role in his abstract art. He lives and works in Tbilisi. Honourable mentioned in the Zygmunt Waliszewski Award founded by the Polish Institute in Tbilisi.