TAVISSUPLEBA | FREEDOM

FREELENS Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

10–30 April 2026

In April 2026, I was part of the curatorial team of TAVISSUPLEBA | Freedom at the FREELENS Gallery in Hamburg, together with photographer Andreas Oetker-Kast.

The exhibition brought together works by 15 photographers documenting the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Georgia. Combining contemporary photographs with historical images from the 1980s and 1990s, the project highlighted Georgia’s long tradition of civic resistance and its continuing struggle for democracy, freedom, and a European future.

The exhibition accompanied the launch of Andreas Oetker-Kast’s photobook TAVISSUPLEBA | Freedom and was later presented at the KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO Festival 2026.

Exhibition photos: Finn Jahnke

Selected impressions from Lumigraphies: Rêver Cadaqués / Surreal Dreams of Cadaqués by Valmont Achalme — featuring photographs and video excerpts from the exhibition presented during KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO.

Curated by Teona Gogichaishvili in collaboration with Gallery Fotoatelier and AFA I Art Foundation Anagi, the project explored Achalme’s poetic Lumigraphy technique through dreamlike reflections on light, landscape, and memory inspired by Cadaqués. 

A heartfelt thank-you to all supporters, partners, artists, curators, and guests – the fifth edition of the f² Fotofestival 2025 was truly a highlight!

Over four days, from June 12–15, Dortmund became the stage for powerful, unexpected, and multifaceted explorations of this year’s theme: #CHAOS – a topic more relevant than ever.

Video by Maximilian Mann

From collages to installative and performative projects to sculptural works: the NEW DYNAMICS Transforming Diversity exhibition presents the work of 13 international artists who transcend the traditional boundaries of photography. They are dedicated to the tension between chaos and order in the context of migration and cultural identity.

Is chaos merely a destructive force or also a necessary process for change and renewal? How does our understanding of chaos influence the way we deal with migration and cultural diversity?

In a world characterized by increasing diversity, the exhibition explores questions about the definition of identity and explores the interplay of dichotomous concepts such as foreign and own, old and new, orderly and anarchic.

PHOTOGRAPHERS & ARTISTS

Giovanna Del Sarto

Serkan Goeren

Jerry Helle

Anja Lautermann and Frauke Berg

Vera Lossau

Andrews Siaw Nubuor

Safiya Seedmother

Byron Smith

Karen Stuke

Mikheil (Mishiko) Sulakauri and Saba Gorgodze

André Ramos-Woodard

CURATION

Teona Gogichaishvili

SCENOGRAPHY

Students of the MA Scenography at the FH Dortmund, supervised by Prof. Martin Middelhauve

Location: Kulturort Depot Mittelhalle | Immermannstraße 29, 44147 Dortmund

Period: 12.06.-06.07.2025

Opening: 12.06.2025, 19:00 h

More info: Depot Dortmund

The Photos by  Maximilan Mann

Testament ’22

by Byron Smith

Testament ’22 is the debut monograph by photographer Byron Smith, documenting his 10,000-mile journey through war-torn Ukraine during the first year of Russia’s invasion. Inspired by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, Smith’s powerful images and portraits capture both the devastation of war and the resilience of the Ukrainian people. The book includes an essay by Kyiv Independent journalist Igor Kossov and artwork by Victor Onyshshenko. It has received multiple awards and has been exhibited internationally. Smith’s work contributes to documenting the human cost of war and evidence of Russian war crimes.  

With this exhibition as part of our photo festival in Tbilisi, we wish to express our solidarity with Ukraine and strongly condemn Russia’s war of aggression.

Fleeting Narratives: Street Photos 80s–90s

by Charles Ford

Fleeting Narratives: Street Photos 80s–90s* by Charles Ford will be exhibited for the first time in Tbilisi as part of our photography festival. I met Charles at FotoFest in Houston last year and was struck by his ability to capture subtle, human moments of everyday life—at once humorous, reflective, and fleeting.

Born in Houston, Charles studied in Texas and California before working in fashion and portrait photography for magazines like Vogue, GQ, and Rolling Stone. Throughout the 80s and early 90s, he also documented life on the streets with his Leica—images he recently rediscovered and began to share after decades.

Shot entirely on film, this series offers a vivid glimpse into the spontaneity and emotion of street life in that era.

Georgian Week at the “Zum Scheuen Reh”

A cultural festival with a focus on: Photography, video, film and music with Andro Dadiani, Anushka Chkheidze, Lars Lindemann, KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO, Irakli Kiziria, Lizi Gogua, Zurab Tsertsvadze, Lizi Gozalishvili and Chaikhana Media.

 Curatorial Team: Mariam Mikadze, Teona Gogichaishvili and Philipp Treudt.

2024 / THE POLAR SILK ROAD by Gregor Sailer

In recent years, Gregor Sailer has focused on the area around the North Pole. Here, too, it is the extreme excesses of human activity that prompted Sailer to travel to the far north on several occasions to photograph what remains largely hidden.Five countries border the Arctic Ocean: Denmark (through Greenland), Canada, Norway, Russia, and the United States. Finland, Iceland and Sweden also have territorial areas. The region is populated by indigenous peoples, albeit very sparsely due to the severely adverse living conditions. Three maritime routes allow a crossing of the Arctic Ocean, depending on the season and the extent of the ice cover. But the melting of the sea ice is set to create a shorter trade route in the future, the so-called Polar Silk Road, providing access to new raw material deposits (natural gas and oil). Countries inside and outside the Arctic are already asserting their claims.During a long preparatory phase Gregor Sailer not only researched those locations that were particularly exciting thematically, geographically and visually, but he also took on the laborious and often tedious task of obtaining the necessary access authorisations. Armed with the requisite permits and at least 25 kg of photographic equipment, Gregor Sailer repeatedly set out on photographic expeditions of several days to military bases, research facilities, ports, and oil and gas production sites. In Sailer’s photographs, utopia and dystopia are never far apart. For all their sobriety, these calm and concentrated photographs are nonetheless highly charged with content, yet many of these places seem like launching ramps to nowhere. There are close ties between Arctic exploration and the early days of photography. When explorers set out to reconnoitre this unknown region of the world during the second half of the 19th century, photographers were always part of the expedition. Gregor Sailer is therefore following a long photographic tradition. Here, too, he uses a large-format analogue camera that is not reliant on cold-sensitive batteries. With The Polar Silk Road, Sailer has pulled off a major photographic achievement which, accompanied by essays by experts from various fields, gives us a deep insight into this region, one that is extremely important both economically and militarily as well as scientifically.

Excerpt from my laudatory speech at the opening of the exhibition of photographer Jennifer Zumbusch:

"In times like these, the meaning of the border takes on a different dimension. After years of striving for unification, at least in Europe, in recent years some countries and people have been looking for separation and demarcation, for a way to distance themselves from others, from their neighbors, from "the foreigners" in general. But man is not an island, and even a country as an island is not just an island. (...)

Jenny and her family have lived in this special compound for several years. She is part of the community and explores the neighborhood, the people and the places with her loving photographic eye. (...)

In addition to various portraits of the residents of the estate, Jenny captures everyday moments and combines them with impressions of the surroundings, which are wonderfully composed in terms of color and graphics and invite the viewer to immerse themselves in this special world. (...)

„No Fence“ is a visual ballad to successful neighborhoods, to the closeness of people from different cultures and backgrounds, encouraging us that peaceful coexistence is possible even in our turbulent times.

No fence was funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW

The exhibition runs until March 8 at the UN Campus Bonn. 

If you are interested to visit the exhibition, please contact Jenny: [email protected]

2023 / FOTOFEST REVIEWED - Group Exhibition

Curatorial Team: Manfred Zollner and Teona Gogichaishvili

Participating artists: Judy Haberl/USA, Meital Dor/Israel, Dongwook Lee/South Korea, Nuno Papp/Brasil,

Aimee McCrory/USA, Tom „TBow“ Bowden/USA, Xuan-Hui Ng/Singapore, Richard Sharum/USA, Rita Leistner/Canada, Jamey Stillings/USA 

Museum of Modern Art Tbilisi

More Info

2023 / BEING SYMPHONY - Three Czech Photographers in Dialogue

Gabriela Sauer Kolčavová, Jaroslav Pulicar  and Vojtěch V. Sláma

Curator: Teona Gogichaishvili

Gallery Fotoatelier Tbilisi

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2023 / NORMALITY - Group Exhibition of the FEMALE PHOTOCLUB NRW  PHOTOSZENE

Curator: Teona Gogichaishvili

Participating artists: Tabea Borchardt, Viola Epler, Kathrin Esser, Heike Fischer, Merle Forchmann, Alina Gross, Nora Hase, Juliane Herrmann, Pia Hertel, Ninette Niemeyer, Astrid Piethan, Silvia Steinbach, Mira Unkelbach, Jennifer Zumbusch 

KunstWerk Köln e.V. 

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An exhibition project within the framework of Ten by Ten: Ten Reviewers Select Ten Portfolios from the Meeting Place

2020–21 artists                                                                         

On view: September 26–November 12, 2022

The Silos at Sawyer Yards
1502 Sawyer St., Houston, TX 77007

Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s practice utilizes collaboration, process and media experimentation through video, photography, installation, sculpture and interdisciplinary performance. They explore their relationships to each other and society with an uncanny sensibility that merges the real and unreal, blurring boundaries between life and art and often includes their two children, Maddie and Emmett. 

Selected by: Teona Gogichaishvili
Kolga Tbilisi Photo, Tbilisi, Georgia

Aus Gerd Krauskopfs Fotoserie für die Ausstellung "Georgien mal anders".

Frauenchor "Qalau" in der Küche mit Lili auf der Panduri, einer dreisaitigen Zupfmuschel-Langhalslaute, und Frauen, die bei der Arbeit in der Küche zu alten georgischen Volksliedern tanzen.

Photos & Text by Gerd Krauskopf

Michael von Graffenried: Our Town, a closer look at the United States today 

Curatorial Team: Gregor Beltzig and Teona Gogichaishvili

Tbilisi History Museum/GE

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Stephen Shames: Black Panther Party

Curatorial Team: Teona Gogichaishvili and Gregor Beltzig 

Tbilisi History Museum/GE

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Lara Micheli: Extrasystoles

Curatorial Team: Teona Gogichaishvili and Gregor Beltzig 

ROOMS, Tbilisi

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How to be/see a Woman - Guided Screening                                                                                                                                        A video project by purpur collective: Teona Gogichaishvili, Antonia Loick and Inga Schneider                                                                                                            Tbilisi History Museum/GE

More Info                          

2021

About

• The video brings together positions of female photographers who in their current works deal with the topic ‘being a woman

and the representation of women in photography’ and who are involved in this topic in the frame of their artistic work.

• In this project we will show twelve internationally diverse statements regarding different aspects, such as:

traditional role models, family and mother-child-relationship, youth and gender, social and political effects.

• We founded the collective purpur in 2018 to promote the visibility of women in art photography

• Curatorial Team: Inga Schneider, Antonia Loick & Teona Gogichaishvili

• With: Ulla Deventer, Ghana/Germany, Anna Ehrenstein, Albania/Germany, Jennifer Greenburg, USA, Lebohang Kganye, South-Africa, Csilla Klenyánszki, Hungary, Pixy Liao, China/US, Francesca Magistro, Italy/Germany, Cecylia Malik, Poland, Hollie McNish, United Kingdom, Dina Oganova, Georgia, Mika Sperling, Germany,  Sandra Stein, Germany

purpur collective: Teona Gogichaishvili, Antonia Loick, Inga Schneider

Guided screening, Unser Ebertplatz, Cologne, September 2021

Photos by Sandra Stein

2020

Finbarr O'Reilly: DAKAR FASHION

Curator: Teona Gogichaishvili

Museum of Modern Art Tbilisi/GE

Exhibition View

2019

Jonas Bendiksen: THE LAST TESTAMENT

Curatorial Team: Teona Gogichaishvili & Nino-Ana Samkharadze

Museum of Modern Art Tbilisi/GE

2019

Bénédicte Kurzen: LAKE CHAD CHRONICLES

Curatorial Team: Teona Gogichaishvili & Gregor Beltzig

Tbilisi City Hall/GE

2018

Sarah Moon: LA PETIT CHAPERON NOIR

Curatorial Team: Gregor Beltzig & Teona Gogichaishvili

Art Palace, Tbilisi/GE

2018

Jan Grarup: And Then There was Silence

Curatorial Team: Teona Gogichaishvili & Gregor Beltzig

Tbilisi History Museum/GE

2018

THE FUTURE IS OURS - German and Georgian Positions on Youth Culture with: David Meskhi, Sera Dzneladze, Carmen Catuti, Isadora Tast, Sandra Stein, Nicola Wilke and Stephan Lucka, Fabian Weiß, Dina Oganova, Giorgi Nebieridze

Curatorial Team: Teona Gogichaishvili & Inga Schneider

Atelier Frankfurt/DE

2018

Guram Tikanadse - THE OTHER SOVIET MAN - Photographs 1950 - 1960

Curatorial Team: Beso Khaindrava & Teona Gogichaishvili

Ausstellungshalle Frankfurt/DE

2018

SELF REFLECTION - Wer bist Du!

As Part of the Photoszene Festival Cologne

With:Tamara Bokuchava, Gogita Bukhaidze, Dirk Gebhardt, Anka Gujabidze, Ketevan (alias Qeta) Gvinepadze, Marie Hudelot, Horst Kistner, Marc Lathuillière, David Magnusson, Albin Millot, Miki Nitadori, Dina Oganova, Richard Petit, Hans Petri, Selina Pfrüner, Miriam Ruisseau, Giorgi Tsagareli, Jürgen Wassmuth, Luca Zanier  

Curatorial Team: Janine Koppelmann/Kunstwerk Nippes & Teona Gogichaishvili

ARTRMX e.V. Cologne/DE

2019 

Georgian-German Culture Festival SUPRA

Curatorial Team: Olaf Scheller & Teona Gogichaishvili

Künstlerhaus Faktor, Hamburg/DE