katsiaryna-sheliahovich.gleamstudio.xyz

ETHNO Tabatadze Residency

December 2023 - January 2024

Korbouli, GEO

From the first week of our arrival and the start of our research in the area, including interviews with locals, we noticed one obvious thing: people in this small town in the middle of Georgia are unable to dream big. One thing that caught my attention was the women — they were unable to dream even simple things for themselves. It was also clear how strong patriarchy is here. There is no room for radical feminism — it could put everyone in danger.

Another thing that drew my attention, again from the women, was their children. Growing up in a small town (more like a village, as there isn’t even a hospital here), it’s hard for them to see solutions in simple things. It challenged me to try and bring a sense of belief and magic into what surrounds them, and to encourage seeing things from a different angle. As someone coming from a culture made to feel “ashamed” by Russian propaganda and taught not to value what I had, I understood those children very well.

Even though the idea of the residency was more focused on material research, we wanted to play with the locals. One evening, we created a card game — to learn how to dream big and just have fun. The idea of the game was based on drawing random cards from four categories and combining the words into stories. The words we chose were from tech or desirable jobs, along with some local terms.

Later we have designed together with XaraXura publishing cards and prototyped it for final exhibitions.

I created two workshops — as something that personally involves people and has the potential to make a difference for the locals. One workshop was called Sisters of Korbouli (for women), and the other — Sounds of Korbouli — was for children.

From the locals, I learned about their methods of making money, with 90% of them involved in cheesemaking. However, the absence of a veterinarian and the new Georgian standards make it a rather precarious way to earn a living. “People should stop being slaves to cows,” one woman said.

One more insight was about Soviet times: soybeans were cultivated on Korbouli’s land.

My idea was - so, what if we split the cow work then? By cultivating soya we can catch to rabbits - one to feed the cows (as soybean increases milk production), and the other - what if we start selling tofu instead of cheese? Since 90% of vegan products in Georgia are imported from Russia, there is also a demand for local products.

The Sisters of Korbouli workshop was designed to allow women to experience entrepreneurship. Divided into three groups (logistics, identity, promotion), participants worked on the business idea of producing tofu from Korbouli. Witnessing the transformation of women’s expressions after the Sisters of Korbouli workshop brought joy - it was an experience that offered a taste of empowerment through natural curiosity and intuitive learning.

At the end of the workshop, I asked the women to write down wishes for themselves and for other women. I was happy to see a small shift. I was especially happy to see one that said, “I want a luxury life.”

The second workshop was for youth. I collected various discarded materials and objects so we could extract sounds from them. It wasn’t easy at first — until we recorded our first try, and then I transformed it in Ableton by applying one simple filter. That’s when I saw — the magic was happening. We ended up recording one final piece: the Symphony of Korbouli. It felt fun for all of us.

I used insights from both workshops to create an installation, Voices of Korbouli, for the Past Continuous group exhibition at the local school in Korbouli and at CCA in Tbilisi.