Tamara Kvesitadze – The Passage

Born out of the darkness of quarantine and self-isolation, the new installation by the renowned Georgian artist Tamara Kvesitadze leads the viewer on an agonizing journey through change that is both suffocating and hopeful.

Hordes of black birds—eerie and haunting—roam in seeming chaos, yet are controlled by an invisible force that drives them like prey into the trap of a human head that swallows them. What are these birds—nightmares, soul-destroying doubts, erratic thoughts, suffering of love, bitterness of loss, or hallucinations? And who is the person—an artist, a lunatic, a poet, a politician, or anyone walking on planet Earth?

This is The Passage, a new work created by Tamara Kvesitadze as the world went into lockdown. Known for her kinetic sculptures combining art and engineering, Kvesitadze presents here an installation that does not move; instead, the story unfolds as the viewer navigates through it.

The immersion is almost immediate. The room—16 meters long and 2 meters wide—wraps around the viewer, intensified by light and shadow. The birds, sculpted, drawn, and reflected by shadow, seem to be everywhere. Squeezed by their aggressive packing, one can almost hear them howling. Yet this may not be aggression but fear. As the birds approach the human figure, the walls narrow, forcing the flock directly into the decoy.

Without the chance to escape, the birds fall victim to the workings of the human mind, which itself appears unable to control this co-dependent process. The human figure is fixed, resembling a mechanism whose sole purpose is to absorb and convert incoming force, without choice. The result, however, is uplifting. Having flown through The Passage, the dark mass—whatever it represents—loses its threatening energy and emerges transformed into a multitude of ephemeral, delicate nestlings. From a certain angle, the viewer even loses sight of the dark mass in front of the head, turning it into a fading memory.

The artist explains that the idea for this work came to her during the coronavirus quarantine:

“The Covid crisis ignited a kind of darkness, and I wanted to express what I had been going through in order to create a work of art that could be born out of this darkness. In an earlier version, the birds were supposed to fly against a blue background, but suddenly this gloom emerged. This heavy black-and-white palette is very real. I finished the project when the quarantine was lifted.”

The true meaning of the piece remains open to interpretation, yet its message is universal:

“We all fear something. Yet we all have to process our fears, take them in and burn them. I wish it were less painful, less frightening—so that in this work, when darkness comes in, light ultimately emerges.”

Tamara Kvesitadze (born 1968 in Tbilisi, Georgia) gained international recognition for her kinetic sculptures, making movement the essence of her artistic practice. Represented by Berlin-based Galerie Kornfeld, her work has been shown at numerous international art fairs, solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2011. Her works are held in major public and private collections in France, the USA, Germany, the UK, Vietnam, China, and Georgia. In 2018, she was among the few international artists to present a virtual exhibition on Google Arts & Culture. In 2019, she was featured on the BBC World Service programme In the Studio, documenting the creation of her sculpture Sigh for the Wuxi Resort in China.