David Meskhi – Allow

With the exhibition Allow, David Meskhi (1979, Tbilisi) continues his observations of movement. For the first time, he combines images from several bodies of work and presents them in direct relation to one another, allowing his practice to be read in a new way.

Across approximately 24 photographs in the gallery spaces, young—mostly male—figures can be seen trampolining, skateboarding, bouldering, stretching, and expanding. Photographed in close-up and against backgrounds that are difficult to define, it is often impossible to determine whether the figures are lying, standing, or falling. Yet a palpable tension can be discerned in their bodies.

Aesthetic references to glossy, queer fashion photography and the saturated colors of the Technicolor film era trace back to Meskhi’s early childhood. Growing up in Georgia during the 1980s, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union, his access to such aesthetics was extremely limited. His father, however, was the coach of the national gymnastics team and traveled extensively—a rare privilege at the time. From international tournaments, he brought back brochures, magazines, and occasionally films that opened new visual worlds for Meskhi and offered him insight into alternative perspectives.

In one photograph, a reddish moon appears against a lapis-lazuli blue firmament—like a spontaneous glance upward, briefly catching sight of the moon in the night sky. Certain motifs carry mystical significance for artists, forming a connection between the present and the past. For Meskhi, this image recalls a childhood memory of his father encouraging him to jump on the trampoline, telling him that if he jumped high enough, he could touch the moon and feel free.

The West became a place of longing, and the athletic bodies of the “flying” figures became projection surfaces for an ideal. Since the beginning of his artistic practice, these elements have been present. Meskhi takes freedom and youthful lightheartedness literally, allowing his protagonists to float. As if in a dream, they appear to fly above gymnasiums, at peace with themselves.

This seemingly endless world of possibility—paired with an underlying sense of hopelessness—is also captured in the documentary When the Earth Seems to Be Light (2015), which Meskhi created together with Salome Machaidze and Tamuna Karumidze.

Meskhi exchanged the documentary gaze for the free, open perspective of the artist. It is no longer factual accuracy that represents reality, but rather an inner state—one he approaches more closely through photography than documentation ever could. His work explores fragility and identity, the longing to return to early feelings of lightness experienced especially during youth and adolescence. Questions of masculinity and femininity, escapism and idealism emerge in his observations: What is natural and what is mystical? What is earthly and what might be divine?

The works of David Meskhi leave behind a melancholic yet beautiful sense of longing—like certain nights spent gazing at the moon.

This exhibition is part of EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography in Berlin.

David Meskhi studied photography at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University in Tbilisi. Early in his career, he worked as a photographer for leading Georgian cultural magazines, and his works were included in the collection of the Georgian House of Photography. His photographs have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Paris Photo (2019), Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Braunsfelder Familiensammlung Cologne, Calvert22 Foundation London, Georgian National Museum Tbilisi, Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center Budapest, Kunstverein Freiburg, and the Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse. In 2024, he will open a solo exhibition at the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole (MAMC+), France. David Meskhi lives and works in Tbilisi and Berlin.