Photo by Luka & Shio Gogichaishvili

Berlin 2024

About

Teona Gogichaishvili is a native Georgian and has lived in Germany for 27 years. Following her studies in German language and literature she studied photography in Cologne and at the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld and graduated with a Master of Arts in photography and design. Teona Gogichaishvili has been a photographer and lecturer at various universities and institutions since 2006.

Since 2011, Teona Gogichaishvili has been the co-organizer of the international photo festival KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO in Tbilisi, Georgia, which is now widely recognized in Europe.

 

She has curated various exhibitions and projects for KOLGA including "Black Panther Party" by American photographer Stephen Shames, "Our Town, a Closer look at the United States today" by Swiss photographer Michael von Graffenried, "Undaunted - Four Women in Kabul - their Struggles and Dreams” by Afghan photographer and multimedia journalist Lela Ahmadzai.

 

In 2018, Teona Gogichaishvili, together with Antonia Loick/V8 and Inga Schneider/Photoscene Cologne, founded PURPUR COLLECTIVE. The collective has declared as its goal to highlight women in photography. In this context, the film "How to be/see a Woman", with works by the 12 international female artist recently produced. Among the artists are represented international greats such as Pixy Liao (China/USA), Lebohang Kganye (ZA), Anna Ehrenstein (Albania/Germany). The film has already been shown in several photo festivals in Europe and discussed in accompanying talks.

 

Teona Gogichaishvili is also a portfolio reviewer, involved in various photo festivals, including Houston Fotofest, Hamburg Portfolio, Visa pour l'image/Perpignan.

 

Teona Gogichaishvili researches on the topics: Origin, Identity, Biographical Work and Women in Art and Photography. For this she uses, among other things, the medium of video, with which she tells visual narratives. 

 

In her latest artistic works, Teona Gogichaishvili deals with narrative videos that she creates with the help of AI by editing and expanding her own texts and images with AI tools. 

These narrative videos operate at the interface of photography, literature, sound and animation.

 

Since October 2024, Ms. Gogichaishvili has been a member of the executive board of the renowned Deutsche Gesellschaft der Photographie/DGPh. 


Podcastepisode 36 – Teona Gogichaisvili


Something personal about me

° What do I like to deal with: reading, daydreaming, endless research... 

° What interests me besides photography, art, film, music and literature: astronomy

° What else would I have liked to become: astronaut

° How to move: I have been practicing Ashtanga Yoga for eight years 

° What I always miss: The eternal summer at my grandparents' house in Guria, in western Georgia 

° What am I doing secretly: writing

° Guilty pleasure: Some musical sins of the '80s and '90s and "Mon chéri"

° The love of my life: Luka and Shio

° What else matters: Friends who know how I am and still love me 

Anything else

° I love to communicate with people, to develop ideas together, to connect different cultures

° In my workshops, seminars and portfolio reviews I prefer to pick people up where they stand and support each individual to go their own way

° I'm especially interested in artistic and documentary photography. The topics of origin, emigration, young positions and women in photography and art are especially in my focus

° My artistic works are mostly conceptual, partly autobiographical, at the moment a mixture of text and image. I like to work with analogue technology and experiment with the alternative process

Photo by Luka Gogichaishvili, Berlin 2024