Andro Wekua Livres

Die georgische Heimatstadt von Andro Wekua, Sochumi, einst Feriendestination sowjetischer Funktionäre, malerischer Küstenort mit Zitronenbäumen, ist heute Sperrzone und bleibt auch daher ein Reservoir der Erinnerung: das Haus der Grossmutter, das Schwarze Meer, der Pingpong-Tisch hinter dem Haus, das monumentale Frachtschiff am Quai, politische Wirren. Aus diesen Fragmenten konstituiert Wekua atmosphärische Bilder und synthetisiert biografische Fragmente. Auf einer Zeichnung steht in krakeliger Schrift «I see», weiter unten folgt der Zusatz «Black see». Im Blindflug durchstreifen wir eine geografische und biografische Fiktion, die dem Künstler selbst bisweilen sehr nahe kommt. Geschickt siedelt er seine gezeichneten, collagierten oder gemalten Bilder im No Man’s Land an – zwischen Westen und Osten, Ästhetik und Improvisation, Zuversicht und Trauer. Er konstituiert eigene, bildhafte Drehbücher, die mit seiner Vergangenheit spielen und diese gleichwohl zur Fiktion stilisieren. (Gianni Jetzer)

Das Künstlerbuch Workshop Report vereint Andro Wekuas neueste, am Computer entstandenen Collagen, in die er Fotografien des eigenen Arbeitsprozesses zu seinem Film „By the Window“ integrierte. Den Abbildungen der Serie ist ein Textauszug aus „Dream Replicants of the Cinema“ des Filmkritikers Georg Seesslen vorangestellt. Andro Wekuas Buch „Workshop Report“ erscheint anlässlich der Ausstellung Workshop Report im Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst Bozen/Bolzano und im Centre d'Art Contemporain Wiels, Brüssel.

Celebrated Russian philosopher Boris Groys and Georgian artist Andro Wekua were convened for this publication to compare and discuss their experiences of contemporary art: the Soviet era, the contemporary conditions of production and the concerns of a new generation of artists born in the 1970s. Wekua's two large installations "Wait to Wait" and "Get Out of my Room" serve as touchstones for these topics. As Groys and Wekua also explore their generational differences--Groys recalling the critical and social solidarity of Russian art circles in the 1970s, Wekua noting the nomadism and ubiquity of "scene" for his generation--broader themes of loneliness, doubles, repetitions and waiting emerge, which are punctuated in the book by images of the two installations and several collages by Wekua.

Presents delicate and fascinating collages and works on paper combining a sweet nostalgia for youth with an almost masochistic relish for history's decay. The author, also the artist, often bases his work on his childhood memories, piecing together fragments of images to create ambiguous and evocative compositions.

Designed by the artist, who grew up in war-torn Georgia, this volume presents new sculptures, paintings and collages that combine sweet nostalgia with a masochistic relish for history's decay. Doppelgängers of the artist as a child seem to be blinded or burned, pointed noses grow from models' heads and figures walk through foreboding landscapes.

This comprehensive publication on Berlin-based Georgian artist Andro Wekua delves into his captivating and unsettling work. Wekua navigates the ambiguous realms of memory, fantasy, and history, presenting dream-like relationships, fragmented narratives, part objects, and doubled figures that serve as meta-fictions of a self that resists autobiographical and historical specificity. The book features three essays by Kunsthalle Zurich director Daniel Baumann, Berlin-based writer and art critic Pablo Larios, and New York MoMA’s Assistant Curator Paulina Pobocha, each offering insights into his diverse practice, which encompasses painting, sculpture, film, photography, artist’s books, and collage. These varied perspectives are enhanced by a new interview with Wekua conducted by curator Ali Subotnick. Designed as an artist’s book, the first section collages Wekua’s current obsessions and visual universe, while the second provides an overview of his artistic output and exhibitions over the past decade. Born in 1977 in Sukhumi, Georgia, Wekua has been active in the international art scene since the mid-2000s, with recent solo exhibitions at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne. This publication coincides with his exhibition at Kunsthalle Zurich.